With many things in life, less is more, and this is the same for negative space in logo design. Space is often over looked on a page, or in a design, though it can be utilised and become one of the most powerful parts of a design.
When developing logo design ideas, it’s important not to neglect negative space. Negative space can really give your logo that essential something extra to make it seem that little bit smarter and more noticeable than the rest in your industry. However, another truism here is that simplicity works best. If your design is too complex it may go right over the head of the person viewing the logo.
One of the best executed and smartest negative space logos was created by FEDEX. The hidden arrow between the E and the X in the FEDEX is a simple and very effective example of how powerful negative logo design can be.
You must ensure that a symbol is used that embodies the company’s specialism or uniqueness when designing a negative space logo. Building logo design ideas that mix both this symbol, while ensuring the logo is attractive is one of the most difficult tasks. This is a very abstract part of logo design and in many ways people need a certain conceptual way of thinking or it may involve lots of people working together to ensure everyone gets the idea the logo is trying to push. To help you get started we have handpicked 20 examples of negative space logo design ideas for your inspiration.
Writer
Dig
Hunterrace
iPhone Vacancies
51 Lincoln
HZ
2011 Year of the Rabbit
Sew Perfect
Bison
Hope
Inkventor
Grove Concept
Treacy Shoes
Bird
LAB
Snooty Peacock
Black Cat
Pittsburgh Zoo
Eat Innovations
Nice! Thanks, this is giving me a lot of help in t-shirt design, I think the other way. Consequently, I am not very successful in that area.
A nice selection of negative space logotype design, my fav goes to LAB !
Clever logos
Used to run Design Partnership, in Cheltenham, in 1980’s.
I started seriously doubting my spatial aptitude looking for the arrow between the D and the E in Fedex. Now I see it should be the E and the X ;). Nice article.
Haha, thanks for pointing that error out, fixed it. 🙂
The arrow in the Fedex logo is in fact between the E&X. Never notices it before and took a while to see, probably because the article says it’s between de D&E. One logo I like a lot is the new logo of a Dutch liquor store called Gall&Gall: http://www.winkelcentrumbrazilie.nl/logo/gall.gif
That’s a set of creativity. The idea of Pittsburgh Zoo logo ist just amazing!
There are some logos around that were designed that way. Amazon has an arrow from a to z, which stands for the asortiment of the company and a smile. Google also changes its logo on the browser on holidays like halloween
Excellent Examples of Proper sorted Logos!
From what I have Been led to Believe a Proper Logo will always use Negative space.
This Is Both Inspiring and Insightful!
I am also Now Schooled (by this post) in what makes a Great Blog Roundup!!!
Cheers.
Love using negative space in logos.
It’s great when you first look at a logo and think to yourself, “That’s a nice…hay wait a minute, that’s a really cool logo” This is the point where your brain and eyes finally catch up with each other.
Great selection of Logos. Hard to pick just one as a favorite.
Some lovely ideas, thanks for sharing!
Our designers, Peek Creative, used negative space to great effect (in my opinion) when creating our new Virtual Aviation logo.
Here is a blog post they wrote about the process:
http://www.haveapeekatthis.com/case-study-Virtualaviation-peek-creative.html
I love those Unique and Hunterrace logo designs. Inspiring! I think I’ll bookmark this page for referance. I think this is an underused technique in logo design. It makes people recognize the logo immediately.
@Eric Shafer. Do you mind if I translate this blog post into Norwegian, and give you a link back on my site?
Some of the nicest, most elegantly resolved logos I’ve seen in a long while. Thanks for the post.
These are really clever – my favorite is the rabbit! Great way to use negative space when thinking about web design …
//Taylor @ the Phoenix Web Design
Very nice logo symbol design!
Very nice logo symbol design! awesome
Some of the most inspirational logos with negative space I have ever seen! Really very amazing.