Mark Design
COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY
What is a Mark?:
 Marks are visual images used to identify a
company, organization, person or event.
 Mark designs typically fall into one of the
following categories:
- Word Marks
- Letter Marks
- Symbol Marks
- Logo Marks
Types of mark designs:
Word Mark
Primary element of the design is the name of
the business.
Conveys the name of the business through
the style of the font, colours or embellishments.
Fonts are chosen and stylized to suit the type
of business.
Examples of Word Marks:
Types of mark designs:
Letter Mark:
Letters form name in type
Used to quickly identify a company,
often to shorten name
Advantages: letterforms are readable;
short, recognizable name
Disadvantages: more costly to promote,
heavy visual competition (letters)
Examples of Letter Marks:
Types of mark designs:
Symbol Mark
Marks without type
Advantages: unique, simple, compact,
quick impact
Disadvantages: costly to explain and
promote, confusion with other symbols
Examples of Symbol Marks:
Types of mark designs:
 Logo Mark
 Symbol and words used together
 Advantages: unique, easy recognition
 Disadvantages: can be very complex, hard
to update, challenge when resizing
 The symbol reflects something about the
personality of the business.
 This type of mark design is most widely
used.
Examples of Logo Marks:
Examples of Logo Marks:
Elements of Logo Design
CAPTURE PERSONALITY
 Logo should clearly
express a company’s
identity.
 Should tell people
who they are, what
they do, how they
work and how they
want to be seen by
the rest of the world.
Elements of Logo Design
SIMPLICITY
 People are drawn to
clean, uncluttered
logos because they
can easily recognize
it at a glance.
 Busy, crowded logos
with intricate details
or elaborate pictures
are distracting.
Elements of Logo Design
PROPORTIONALITY
 A logo should function as
one complete unit.
 Width shouldn’t be much
greater than
the height.
 Logos that are too tall
are hard to read when
reduced or enlarged.
 The design should work
well on any sized media
– from business card to
billboard.
Elements of Logo Design
COLOUR PALETTE
 80% of the world’s most
recognizable logos use
either 1 or 2 colours.
 Use 1 to 3 colours to
keep things simple
 More than three colours
is distracting to the eye
and less memorable.
 Colour should express
personality of company.
 Look at your industry to
see trends
(i.e. blue is common for
tech. companies)
Elements of Logo Design
FONTS
 Choose a font that suits the
personality of your business.
 Sans Serif fonts
Clean and easy-to-read
Two-thirds of most logos
use sans serif fonts
Franklin
Tahoma
Century
Elements of Logo Design
FONTS
 Serif fonts
More serious looking fonts
Used more for a traditional or classic design
Times
Goudy
Georgia
Elements of Logo Design
ORIGINALITY
 Distinguish your company from
its competitors.
 Should be unique,
one-of-a-kind.
 Should be “ownable” – you want
to be able to trademark the logo
design.
Elements of Logo Design
PRACTICAL, USEABLE, ADAPTABLE
Too many colours will cost you a fortune
every time you need to print business
cards or letterhead.
Should be able to easily convert to black
and white.
Should be created in vector format so
you can resize when needed without loss
of image quality.
Elements of Logo Design
PRACTICAL, USEABLE, ADAPTABLE
 These “photo” logos will cause problems
when scaling to a larger size than the
original file.
 Will become pixelated and lose quality
when scaled larger.
Where to start?
Browse the Internet to find some
companies in the same industry.
Look at their logos and determine what
you like or don’t like about them.
Decide how the name will appear in the
design.
All capitals? e.g. ALICE’S Coffee Pot
Abbreviated? e.g. ACP
Unusual spelling? e.g. Alice’s Koffee Pot