Which logo style is better for business - illustrative or symbolic?

Logo design basically falls into one of two categories – illustrative or symbolic. An illustrative logo is a detailed picture (illustration) depicting a product or service. A symbolic logo is a graphic symbol and/or stylized text that defines the look and feel of the company image. Which type of logo design is best for a small business?

Let’s first determine the purpose of a logo. A logo is a pictorial image that defines the company image, provides a solid business identity, and is easily recognized. A professionally designed logo maintains a high level of detail when enlarged or reduced in size and prints equally well in color or black and white.

An illustrative logo falls short of this goal. To clearly show all graphic elements within the illustration, this type of logo tends to be fairly large. Because illustrative logos occupy a large area, it detracts from other necessary text or pictures in an advertisement or web page. In addition, an illustrative logo provides only a limited idea of what a company actually does. This type of logo also demands a high level of detail and many hours of design time go into its creation. Hence, illustrative logos tend to be more expensive than symbolic logos.

A symbolic logo provides greater creative flexibility for the graphic designer, is quickly remembered due to its simplicity, and is cost effective for small businesses and limited budgets. Symbolic logos may contain both graphic elements and text, and suggest a wide range of concepts relating to what the company offers. This type of logo also looks great in small size for the web, or enlarged for print publications. Symbolic logos are especially suited to a limited color scheme, typically no more than three colors, and are economically reproduced for printed materials such as business cards, brochures, and ads. This type of logo is extremely effective as evidenced by the fact that many large corporations use symbolic logos for their business identity.

One last and very important tip - the quality (sharpness/contrast) of your logo must remain the same whether enlarged or reduced in size. Make sure your graphic designer creates your logo using professional illustration software and provides your logo file in pdf, ai, or some other vector illustration format. These file formats preserve the fine details and smooth lines needed if you need to resize your logo. The popular jpg format, although fine for photos, isn't useful for logo design because lines become jagged when enlarged and loss of detail occurs when reduced in size.

In short, for maximum impact in print, opt for the symbolic logo in vector format.

Learn more about custom logo design options:
Unique corporate identity and branding with custom logo design

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