Logo, wordmark or brand mark: what’s the difference, and which do you need?

“Logo” gets used for almost anything with a name on it. Designers split it into a few distinct types, and knowing the difference makes it easier to brief a project and judge what comes back.

Wordmark (or logotype)

Your name, set in a distinctive way. No symbol, just letterforms, either a carefully chosen typeface or custom lettering.

Works well when: your name is distinctive, reasonably short and something you want people to remember. Wordmarks are clear and confident, and there’s nothing to decode.

Watch out for: long names, which get small and hard to read in tight spaces.

Baltic Bespoke uses a restrained wordmark. It needed to feel premium and authoritative on stationery and site hoardings alike, and the name does the work.

Brand mark (or symbol)

A standalone graphic, abstract or pictorial, that represents the business without words.

Works well when: you need something that reads at very small sizes, on products, apps or social avatars, or across languages.

Watch out for: a new business with an unfamiliar symbol. It takes time and repetition for people to connect a mark with a name, so most brands launch with the mark alongside the name.

For Bleubird, the mark has appeared on every product, hangtag and piece of packaging the brand has produced. That kind of repetition is what turns a symbol into something people recognise on its own.

Monogram (or lettermark)

Initials, designed as a unit. Useful for long names and for brands with heritage or a sense of craft.

Works well when: your full name is long, or you need a compact mark for stamps, embossing, labels or embroidery.

Badge (or emblem)

The name sits inside a shape: a crest, a seal, a roundel. Badges feel established and collectable, which is why they’re common in sport, food and drink and apparel.

Watch out for: detail. Badges can lose legibility when small, so they usually work best as one part of a wider system. ALLSZN pairs a badge with a separate wordmark and sub-idents for exactly this reason.

Combination mark

A symbol and a wordmark locked up together, usually with versions that can separate. This is the most flexible option and the one most businesses end up with.

Which do you need?

Usually, more than one. A modern brand appears on a website header, a social profile picture, a favicon, a business card and perhaps a van or a shopfront. No single format suits all of those. That’s why a proper logo design project delivers a family: a primary logo, secondary versions for wide and narrow spaces, and a compact mark for small uses.

A few questions help decide where to start:

• Is your name distinctive, or descriptive? Distinctive names suit wordmarks.
• Where will people see the logo most? Small, square spaces need a compact mark.
• Do you make physical products? Labels, tags and packaging often benefit from a badge or symbol.
• Will you expand into new services or markets? Abstract marks stretch further than literal ones.

Simple tends to last

Whatever the format, the logos that last tend to be simple, distinctive and built for the places they’ll actually be used. Trend-led detail dates quickly. Clear ideas don’t.

You can see examples in our logo collection. If you’re thinking about a new logo, or wondering whether your current one is doing its job, get in touch.