It is needless to say that logos are of paramount importance to the brands. When it comes to design, logos stand to be one of the strongest showcases of the visual appearance of the brand. However, the design has been in a perpetual state of transformation ever since it started.
Brands spend a lot of time perfecting their logos. But today, keeping up with the changes, brands also spend a lot of time amending and changing the logos as per the trends, to be relevant.
Apart from certain characteristics of logos being clear, minimal, straightforward, meaningful, and striking; they should also fulfill the criteria of being relevant in the current scenario.
By relevant, we mean choosing designs that make sense in the pertaining market. One design shift that we have prominently noticed in the past few years is adopting flat logo designs for the brands.
What is Flat Logo Design?
In layman’s terms, flat design is nothing but a two-dimensional design style, which is devoid of anything extra such as the shadows, glows, textures, reflections, bevels, gradients, stuffed fonts, and other intricate details.
It follows the simple approach of minimalistic design. These flat logo designs are extremely flexible and adaptable as compared to the 3D logos, and can be easily placed on various spaces such as the storefront, letterheads, and more. The core message of your brand must be communicated by using the simplest of design inspirations.
Why are companies redesigning their logos to flat designs?
As per the business consulting agency, the current era is referred to as the dynamic era of logo designs. Many of the big bulldogs are changing their logos to flat logos from keeping up with 3 dimensions for a long time. Now, customer orientation towards simplicity might be one of the key factors to this; but there are also a lot of influences that are playing a huge role in this shift:
- It’s What the Market Wants
The first and foremost step in creating a brand identity is understanding the market from the point of view of your target audience. The brand will only grow when you cater to what your buyers want to see, hear, feel and understand.
Brands do not only have to keep the demand and supply of their product and services in mind. They also need to strategize the marketing accordingly. Visual identity stands to be the hero in appealing to your audience. People have an unbiased orientation towards flat logos today for a lot of reasons, and this seems to be an important change to notice in the market.
- Minimalist and less cluttered
If there’s one word that has gotten the most amount of traction before the coronavirus in the past few years, it has to be Minimalism. People are getting drawn towards this lifestyle like a moth to a flame. The same has been seen in the design industry too. As an audience, we wish to keep things more crisp, clean, brief, minimal, and classic. Because practicality and function always work over aesthetics.
Minimal flat logos are clutter-free. The technical reason for including them is to make them appear distinct, less flashy, and clear to the audience. The advertising and design industry always needs something more, something unique, and something that speaks loud. All the banners, the ads, the creatives need to leave a mark. But behind all that glitter, most times the crux of the matter is lost. This is why shifting to a simpler approach is easier with the help of flat logos.
- Fits any kind of screen
The world has gone digital, more so, the advertising world. If you are selling a product or a service. It is most likely showcased on a screen; be it phones, computers, laptops, tablets, and more. Flat logos look appealing and interesting on all kinds of the screen and are way simpler to understand and frame.
The best part about the flat logo is also that you don’t have to scale them to fit one kind of screen requirement. They can be scaled easily and effortlessly depending on any kind of screen, catering to your requirements.
- It’s Easier to Execute
Not only are the output of these flat logos appealing, but also the entire process of making and executing them is easier as compared to the intricate logos. Ask us, designers. We’re not saying they are easy to create. Basics are harder to achieve. But, from a technical standpoint, there are lesser tools that go into perfecting the flat logos.
Redefining an existing logo and changing it into a flat logo design is easier than making one from scratch. But it is still easier to execute, as the brand messaging and the approach towards the audience would already be pre-decided.
- Approved, accepted, and applauded by Millennials
We wish we could tell you that this era is about appreciating the efforts that go behind making the logos, be it flat or intricate. But truth be told, this generation decides what they like out of the 10 seconds of attention span that they can spare.
Call it sheer laziness or just being too busy in scrolling multiple options that they are bestowed with, but they are now attracted to simple straightforward logos that speak to them constantly.
Things need to make an impression on millennials right at the first glance or they won’t go back to it. This is why flat logos hold the ability to get imprinted pretty soon in their subconscious mind.
- Flat Logo designs are convenient and flexible
When we talk about brand identity, the logo is usually the figurehead of it. The placement of which goes to various storefronts, websites, social media, banners, and more. It leaves an overall impact on the brand. A flat logo design is easier to implement, flexible to put out, and is more convenient to change into various formats.
The brands need to realize that a flat design logo can be changed suiting to the requirements of its presentation on multiple devices and platforms. Your logo will look as stunning on billboards, as it will on a mobile screen.
- Following the trend, is all there is today.
Brands have more or less shifted to making flat logo designs because the market has been leaning towards that direction and companies naturally like to get updated. Keeping up with the changes is also vital to stay relevant in the ongoing dynamic scenario and creative logo design companies are helping out brands and businesses to keep up with the ongoing trends
The audience likes to see fresh content getting whipped up now and then. The shelf life of consuming any kind of content, especially design, is merely a few seconds. If you don’t like it, you scroll it. The key is to get the attention in the few moments of staring at the screen, and flat logos do just that.
Some of the popular brands that shifted to flat design logos
Here are some of the most prominent names in the industry who did not shy away from altering their logos into a flat design.
Nike
Nike is one of the very few brands who always played with a simple flat logo design since its inception. They did play with their fonts and colors from time to time, but their iconic swoosh, almost a tick mark remained the same throughout.
Guess the designers knew that creating a simple logo design would speak for itself without adding a lot of intricacies to it.
Let’s start with why Google doesn’t need a logo for making its presence count. Google barely even needs marketing to sustain itself in the industry, because it has reached an inevitable level.
But Google is one of those very few companies who nail it with their marketing techniques. Their logo appears simple, minimal, and beautiful on all kinds of devices. From desktop to mobile to billboards, you can spot the Google logo from a far off distance easily
We loved the old Instagram logo, with a vintage old camera and little rainbow stripes going on the side. It was iconic, to say the very least. But the company also decided to change its logo into a flat design to make it more relevant to the current market.
The approach that the brand took was to showcase how the whole application transformed over the years, the entire journey of being a photo editing application to a giant social media platform, that it is today!
Final Take
We like to believe that flat design logos, just like any other design trend, might not stay relevant for a long time, but it works as of now. Companies are saving a lot of time, energy, and money by simply using the flat logos, while they grab the maximum eyeballs too.
Not only are they relatively easy to create, but they also take a lot less printing material in a tangible form and still look flattering. Regardless of the design, your logo must represent the core of your company and create a timeless reputation for your brand.
So till a new wave of trends hits, make the most of what stands out today!
