Best Logo Designs of 2023

The Power Of Logos

And a lot of factors go into good logos.

Studies show that 50% of consumers are much more likely to endorse a company whose logo they easily recognize, while logo color improves brand recognition by 80%.

Logos are a powerful way for a brand to make its presence known and stand out on the competitive market. They are a great marker for a brand to determine if it's still modern and fresh, or if it's falling out of touch with current generations. Logo design awards can take you even further!

Brands often shake up their logos and identity from time to time, but most hold the most integral parts of themselves throughout the years. They are the features that make these logos timeless and lasting. And the brands on this page have created award-winning logos that you won't be able to easily forget.

What Makes A Successful Brand Logo

The best logo design tells a story about a brand and makes you think. When logos and brands work together and mesh seamlessly, sparks fly.

There are a variety of elements that can go into a logo design to make it successful - from the color choice to the imagery used and even down to the font. Logos have a way of making an impact on your audience in both subtle and striking ways. And it's up to you to decide in what way you want your logo to hit.

Logo designs are an integral part of a brand strategy and branding itself. They are the face of a brand. They are the visual part of a brand — its soul. A good logo can leave consumers feeling happy and positive, a bad logo can make them look away and never give your company a second chance.

Designing a logo that will define a brand is challenging work for a designer, but once it’s done and a logo has become entrenched in our cultural awareness, it’s nearly impossible to imagine it any other way. 

For consumers, a logo is the first piece of content that is interacted with. Logos build a brand up and set it on a path to either success or failure.

These award-winning logos should offer up some inspiration, guiding you along your path to design success. These brands have an impact on society as a whole, and their logos play a powerful role in this prominence.

Yours can too. Design wisely and become worthy of our logo design awards!

Nostalgia Strikes Back

You’ve seen it everywhere, from the local music venues, TV shows and digital art to the greatest Hollywood blockbusters – retro revival is dominating popular culture and logo design is no different. As our lives seemingly shift into turbo with the various tech-enabled commodities, more and more people grab onto the tried and tested escapism, fascinated with decades past.

Nostalgia works best when it’s authentic and when it genuinely reflects your company’s identity. Designers willing to experiment with this trend start by using the aesthetics of a chosen era as a foundation upon which they build visual representations of the respective brand’s values.

They do this to invoke familiarity, positivity and trustworthiness and incite an emotional response before customers and/or clients even start interacting with your company.

Hand-Drawn Illustrations and Typography

Designers go far and wide in their search for creative authenticity, however, many forget that the “distinct” is, more often than not, synonymous with “personal.”

In 2023, an appealing logo design demands a genuine human touch (especially after years of isolation) and what is more personal than a free-hand doodle or hand-written (brand) signature? Not only can you bring casual, spirit-lifting wit to your work, but going “down-to-earth” communicates openness, reliability and unwavering optimism.

Not every line has to be perfect. With the right drive, sometimes even unpolished simplicity can do wonders for your brand.

Geometric Shapes

Geometric styles are the building blocks of graphic design in general, so it is of utmost importance to learn how to incorporate them into your logo design. Basic shapes like lines, triangles, circles or squares are go-to elements and for a good reason.

This trend can be leveraged in multiple ways; it can be strictly professional, corporate, regal or casual and smooth, depending on the general approach but it will always be appealing to the general audience.

Complemented with the right color palette, or slight twists like skewing shapes or opacity, you can create something that is both original, rebellious memorable but also familiar. Alas, norms are there for a reason, but you can tug them however you like.

Layering, Gradients and Static Effects

While we’re all for bold colors and strong typography, gradients lend a much-needed air of delicacy to logo design. When we talk about layering, gradients or other effects, they are used to infuse the logo with an eclectic vibe, or in simple terms - to make it pop.

Of course, this doesn’t mean you should just slap a bunch of colors and erratically stitch them together, but carefully blend them with exciting transitions.

On the other hand, you may try embracing the fact that visual glitches are simply cool (just look at the TikTok logo). Whether it’s a retro TV static or a video game-inspired glitch, your logo should emanate movement and dynamism.

Memorable

The best logo designs foster success by creating a memorable brand identity that consumers remember each time they want to make a purchase. Also, memorable and consistent brand presentation can boost revenue up to 33%.

People process images 60,000 times faster than text, making detailed symbols a safe better for recognition. Logo color makes up to 90% of a consumer’s first impression and a signature color boosts brand recognition by 80%. You can increase that even more by utilizing blue, which fosters the idea of personalization and communication between a company and customers. In fact, 40% of Fortune 500 companies use blue volors

Timeless

A brand isn’t what you determine it to be - it’s how your consumers perceive your company. While some logo designs miss the mark and rebranding is always an option, creating a classic logo design that stands the test of time is in your favor - especially because 70 percent of brand managers place emphasis on cultivating a regular audience.

Versatile

In the age of social media and mobile devices, a versatile logo design is imperative. 60% of millennial consumers expect a consistent experience on every platform, meaning that all of your mediums need to be clearly branded.

Unfortunately, not all logo designs lend themselves to content marketing, email campaigns, and small mobile phone screens. Enter: the responsive logo design - the approach to design that evolves the logo to fit every screen size and marketing medium.

To incorporate a versatile design, worthy of logo design awards, create a catchy symbol that will transition anywhere. A responsive logo gives you more flexibility in your creations while ensuring that consumers always recognize your products.

On-Brand

Did you know it only takes 7 seconds to form a first impression of a brand? This means you truly have one shot to describe your company’s mission in a single image.

Before your designers even attempt a logo design, do some research first. Learn about your demographic and determine your overarching goal. All of these items will inform your branding, ensuring you create something appropriate and on-brand with your message, products, and services.

Gives Social Media Structure

It’s easy to dismiss social media marketing, but nearly 59 percent of consumers interact with brands on social media one to three times each day. What’s more? Visual content is 40 times more likely to be shared on social media.

But producing the right kind of imagery is key. The good news is that your logo design creates the perfect framework for your social media strategy. Use your brand style guide to create a signature color palette for your social network feeds - which studies say make a marketing message 80 percent more effective - and incorporate your versatile logo design throughout various images.

Improves Email Marketing

Email marketing is 40 times more effective at securing new customers than Facebook and Twitter and has the highest conversion rate. With proper branding, you can capitalize on those click-throughs to grow your business.

Email marketing reinforces your brand identity while allowing consumers to engage with the company - something they desire to do when they consent to receive emails. And branding itself is more than just a logo: it is the way in which consumers view your brand. Your banner images, fonts sizes, styles, and colors, and calls to action should all reflect what you present on your website design, print designs, and social media channels. This will help increase conversions while promoting the overall brand.

Betters User Experience

Successful branding should increase customer loyalty and awareness while minimizing confusion. Studies overwhelmingly show that a consistent brand experience across all channels increases the likelihood that consumers will interact with it.

What’s more? Sixty percent of consumers have more positive feelings about a brand after consuming branded content from it -- and since user experience is all about cultivating positive feelings associated with your business, it seems like a strong brand is a major win for UX.

Facilitates Partnerships and Collaborations

Designing a strong logo and well-defined brand allows you to place parameters around your customers' wants and needs. By maintaining this structure, you can better determine professional partnerships that will breed successful campaigns.

When you’re looking for other businesses to collaborate with, industry and location don’t matter as much as your demographic does. If your brands both aim for the same people with the same interests, collaboration will likely prove fruitful.

Find A Design Team

Finding the ideal team to create your brand identity, including logo, is no easy feat. Should you utilize in-house designers or find a branding agency? How can you ensure they capture the vision and demographic you worked so hard to determine?

First thing’s first - define your budget. There are pros and cons to outsourcing a design project, but they can be pricier. Conversely, by investing in an agency, you’ll be privy to plenty of expertise, a structured process, and be released of the energy    

Create A Process

Creating the perfect logo requires innovation and a solid process. This lends structure and order to an otherwise creative process.

Whether you’re using in-house designers or a design agency, be sure to outline a timeline for each part of the process, such as mood boards, design concepts, and sketches. After all, you can’t just coast along with no due dates and unlimited revisions. At some point, you’ll have to make decisions and move the project along.

To achieve this, meet with your team, determine your point of contact, finesse your company goals and decide on each deliverable you want to see and every step the designers need to take to refine the branding - such as pen-and-paper drawings and constructing vectors. Then, stick to that schedule! This will ensure that every box is checked, resulting in a custom logo design that builds your brand and boosts your bottom line.

Ensure It’s Versatile

Seventy-one percent of consumers expect a consistent brand experience on every platform - and the brands that can’t deliver in the digital age lose customers. 

In order to achieve that seamless experience and cohesive brand identity, companies need to create a logo design that can transition to any marketing collateral or screen size at the drop of a hat. One tip is to create a responsive logo. Mobile apps, products and even social media posts can be subtly branded with the iconic swoosh, negating the need for the word “Nike.”

Brands can also create an award-winning logo design that adapts to a variety of color schemes. This opens the door to potential partnerships and marketing campaigns without limiting media and imagery. DesignRush’s own identity does this, showcasing the versatile logo design in different gradient hues across the website. This allows DesignRush to foster an identity without committing all future creations to one color scheme.

Brand Everything

Once you have your logo design finalized, there’s only one thing left to do - brand everything with it! This will make your products, promotions and information officially your, clear to consumers and will facilitate better brand recognition.  

Just remember, branding isn’t just about the clean logo you just created - it’s also the fonts, colors and overarching visuals that your company evokes. Those design elements can cement your brand identity without slapping your company name and logo on every surface you see.