Logo design trends come and go. Some say you should take them with a grain of salt. After all, as a critical element of your brand, a logo must accurately reflect your company’s unique style and mission. It has to hold true to your brand—not get pushed around by fads.

But you can’t disregard design trends, either. Understanding what’s popular—and what competitors are doing—is crucial to creating a design that truly stands out. Following trends also helps avoid any staleness to which an older, out-of-date logo might cling.

To help you keep up with the Joneses (or make a clear, decisive statement that you’re not them), we scoured the internet and interviewed our top designers for insights into 2017 logo design.

So, what logo design trends will we see in 2017? Many will center around one core concept: simplicity.

Here are five key logo trends to keep in mind as we kick off the New Year:

 

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1) Clean, uncomplicated typography

A common trend is the shift to simple san serif font. Many companies have done away with frills and now present crisp, clean logo typography. You can see this typography in the logos of leading tech brands, Google and Bing. 

 

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2) Pure geometric shapes

These geometric shapes have become a central point of logo design. For example, Motorola and Ubuntu use circles. When you see these logos often enough, you begin to associate shapes with their brands.   

 

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3) Use of the monoline

Mono = one. Monoline = one line. It’s the use of one simple line to connect all parts of a logo. The result? A light, clean design. Examples of this trend include GE and Sharpie. They both use a continuous, cursive line to connect the letters of their name. 

 

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4) Room for negative space

Many logos include negative space—simplifying the design and allowing for a more impactful logo. For example, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) uses negative space to complete the head and body of its panda logo, just as USA Network uses negative space to show its “S.” 

 

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5) Duotones for extra boldness

A duotone logo is a logo that primarily uses only two colors. The simplified color scheme of these designs helps make the logo “pop” with boldness—creating a more powerful image. The Baskin Robbins and Dunkin’ Donuts logos both use duotones. This trend helps associate colors with a brand; if you see an orange and pink store awning from a distance, you can bet it’s Dunkin’ before even seeing a sign. 

 

Want to see more logo design ideas? Visit FreeLogoServices.com to look through thousands of logo templates. You can check out these five features and more.