Minimalism in Logo Design
“I need it to be in a minimalistic style”. I had never heard about this in a design context so I thought I will research it after conversing with one of my freelance clients. After completing negotiations with him I started my research on minimalism and completed his order. It was my first interaction with this approach and I found out that I’m quite liking it and many of my previous designs had a reflection of minimalism.
For readers who are new to this, minimalism is defined as “an artistic tendency whose ‘organizing principles’ were ‘the right angle, the square and the cube, rendered with a minimum of incident or compositional manoeuvring” (Colpitt, 1990). Here the author described the minimalism process in design by using the term “organizing design principles” with useful precise angles and elements. All these mentioned elements of design should be minimum in number and with very calculated movements so that their impact on the viewer’s eye is long-lasting. Because I observed that when you have rare objects in front of your eyes, you will have more concentration there is more chance of this condition that your mind will memorize it and it will be in your mind for a long period of time. In relation to the definition put forth by Colpitt, we have two very clear examples. One is Microsoft, which has used the most minimalistic design with perfectly angled squares having precise angles and simple elements. The other one is Louis Vuitton which uses the organizing principle of right angles with extremely calculated movement in the letters. Both the logos are shown below for reference.
These days there are many companies using this design approach and the most famous of them are Nike, Uber, Airbnb and Apple. As per the proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Contemporary Education, Social Sciences and Ecological Studies in 2019 it has been justified that modern design aesthetics are moving towards the minimalistic design style and the complicated design style is now becoming outdated (Fan, 2019). Apple used this approach in quite an effective way and we can say that “minimalism is the key to the success of Apple” as they provided the consumer a whole new concept of design with wide spaces, simplicity and fewer elements (Iancu, 2017). We can see apple’s minimalist journey in image 3 in which they traveled from a complex logo with a story to a simple one-color minimalist logo. This is how they built their brand identity and it reflects in all their products.
Another example is the logo design of Jiang’an District in Wuhan City also shown in image 4. It is just a minimalistic cultural symbol that they have used as their logo, giving a reference to their culture through their design to the world (Wei, 2021). This is the type of innovation that is required in the current times.
One of my favorite things about minimalist designs is that all you got to do is include and blend some basic shapes in restricted color palettes with the aim to generate something that’s very simple yet unforgettable. Usually, the minimalistic design technique uses a greater portion of the white area to lure more attention to essential design elements. All the fundamental elements of the design are lined-up in a display that’s enjoyable to the human eyes. Some examples are shown down below.
By looking at most of the minimalistic designs it reflects that you must consider using only limited colors that complement each other well together and help generate the sentiment you desire. To create attention-grabbing elements in your project the key is to focus on extreme contrast. The font must be clean, uncomplicated and comfortable for the audience to examine. If we talk about playing with content along with minimalistic design you definitely don’t want your design to become boring with too less content and for that, all you can do is simply play with font size, mix it with brush tool or just change the letter placing, this will definitely add visual attention without creating any mess as shown in image 5.
I support that minimalist designs should be adopted by more designers as they are ageless and can simply be rejuvenated when desired. Also other design types can be shaped into this approach very conveniently. This approach is becoming more popular in established brands. The reason I’m talking more in logo design context is because they represent a solid ground for enduring brand character, identity and recognition for the customers/audience. We all know that in this tech-driven time the attention span of all viewers has gotten shorter and become rapid. In this situation brands desire to stand out. For being ahead of others and to seize the spotlight, now is the right time to step down, simplify design and be specific.
To summarize, the minimalistic design technique is not only a design but a lifestyle. The points I highlighted were to just give you a flavor of what this design approach basically consists of and I tried to shed light in the simplest way in my logo design domain as Logos are recalled significant graphical variable that associates the end user to the brand and to the emotional perceptions (Park, 2012) Most of you would be familiar with the phrase “LESS IS MORE”, this rightly explains the minimalistic approach to design (Meyer, 2015). With just a few elements and specific colors, the meaning that needs to be portrayed is automatically enhanced. We need to not just see but feel the beauty of simplicity right through our eyes, perfectly crafted by a designer.
I just came to know about the minimalistic approach and became its admirer. From my experience in the domain I will advise all the practitioners out there to not just stick with one or two design approaches but to explore the wide variety of techniques and master a few of them to provide the best services to clients. As graphic designing is an art, there is not one definitive way of creating the right Artwork. So just be creative, do your best and the design world is yours to transform.
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