Recently I stopped by a local music venue. Sipping my beer, I noticed a TV slideshow promoting upcoming events. A bold, black slide caught my eye. I am totally going to RON FEST!
Hopes dashed. It’s Iron Fest. And this illustrates why logos that replace a letter with a picture can be tricky.
Organizations know they need a distinctive trademark. More than once I’ve heard, “We were thinking about what our logo could be. We want something creative-looking. So we thought that since we do XYZ, we could replace one of the letters with an XYZ!”
This can seem like a really good idea, but it’s hard to do well. Just ask American Carg or Chris Church. Unless Chris is a cult leader or has generously funded the new sanctuary, we may have a communication problem.
Even if viewers can read a logo correctly, swapping symbols for letters can look clunky. Typographers design the shapes of letters to look visually balanced. Stroke weights and negative spaces are carefully calibrated to create a smooth flow. Inserting a picture into the beginning, middle, or end of a word interrupts that flow.
Placing a symbol between two words can work, since that’s where a natural break already exists. But be careful about sticking an image into a word. If you’re gonna go for it, here are a few suggestions.
The more whimsical the brand, the better your chance of success.
Embedding a symbol is a quirky approach, so make sure a playful logo will match the vibe of the company. If you’re a law firm or cyber security company, maybe don’t do it.
Put the symbol in the middle of the word, not at the beginning or end.
A picture will separate visually from the rest of the lettering, so it can make the first or last letter disappear. And then you’ve got a Chris Church or a Ron Fest on your hands. Put the symbol somewhere in the middle of the word, so it doesn’t trip up comprehension. If you do want a special first letter, try adding something to the letter instead of replacing it altogether. See the Chick-fil-A logo—preserving the entire C keeps it readable.
Make sure the symbol’s style matches the rest of the letters.
The smile in the nicely-proportioned Peach Clinic peach echoes the bottom curve of the “e” and “c.” Curious Pictures repeats its “c” backwards to form the question mark. Paris’s Eiffel tower makes a couple tweaks to a capital A, and Sea World’s wavy “o” borrows the same swashy style of the S and W. The goal is cohesiveness.
Logos that replace a letter with a picture can work—but only for certain brands, and only sometimes. Use caution!
Other collections of logos
If you adore looking at logo roundups, also check out:
- Logos for super long company names (or, how to make your designer cry)
- Logos with “the” in the name (“the” can be annoying to deal with)
- All-lowercase logos (should you or shouldn’t you?)
- Logos that are someone’s last name (examples for clients)
- Types of logos 101 (the main categories)