12 modern logos for inspiration

Branding is one of the most powerful tools for taking your business to the next level.

Furthermore, logo design is one of the key elements of your company’s branding. That is why you must pay attention to your logo design, as it will help people identify your business for years to come.

What's a modern logo?

Before going into more detail about modern logos, let’s define the term “modern.”

It's a common mistake to think that modern only refers to current times and events. However, modern times start from the Enlightenment and the 18th century until today. ​​The modern world, as we know it, began thanks to the Industrial Revolution and the many advances in industrial technology.

Nowadays, modern logos are the ones that follow a set of rules that define them as “modern” or even futuristic.

Here are a few characteristics of modern logos:

• Are memorable
• Are easily scalable
• Include 2-3 colors in total
• Have a sleek and clean look
• Contain simple shapes
• Use modern typography
• Tell the brand’s story in a simple way
• Contain clean and elegant lines
• Simple but unique
• Are versatile
• Use fun color palettes
• Look professional
• Send the right message
• Use recognizable symbols

While there’s no exact recipe for creating a stunning modern logo that will stand the test of time, some companies have managed to hit the mark and have created modern logos that are memorable and can be spotted from miles away.

In this article, we’ll take a look at 12 modern logo examples for you to get inspired by.

1. Simply Invest Logo by Milos Zdrale

This logo is a perfect example of how you can use your brand name on the logo and still be playful with it.

Including a simple growing graph icon is subtle, yet it plays many roles. The third bar of the graph is used as a shorter “I” for “Simply” and a long “I” for the word “Invest.”

At the same time, the inclusion of this growing graph icon right before the word “invest” also plays a call to action role, indicating that people investing will see their capital growing once they decide to invest.

The choice of colors is simple. Yet, it conveys the company’s seriousness with the bold and authoritative look of the red text on a grayscale background.

2. Ten11 Logo

Who said a retro look couldn’t be used to create a modern logo?

With the incorporation of a retro flip clock changing from 10 to 11, the creator of this logo has proved that you can use “old-timers” to create something new and creative that will tell the brand’s story (or name, in this case) in a simple way.

The number 0 is replaced by the number 1 looks like a screenshot of a clock changing from 10 to 11. Not only is this a clever design, but it also has a sleek and clean look. Simple logos that leave a visual impact, such as this one, can be easily recognized by anyone.

3. Catalyst Design Studio Logo by Donndesign

As mentioned earlier, simple lines and shapes are essential when designing modern logos.

This logo is a perfect example of that. Using several colors to fill in the geometric shapes and color overlapping also works well, considering that many famous brands use several colors in their logo designs, such as Slack and Google.

Stunning logos that use a primary color mixed with other colors send a strong message that plain blue logos are a thing of the past.

4. Claud by Halo Lab

The Claud concept brand that forms part of Halo Labs' portfolio is simple and fun. The creators used a bold, modern font with a slight serif that instantly gives a sense of retro design.

The logomark is a simple shape created by one continuous line. It looks like a little cloud with a shape inside, but it could also be interpreted as a butterfly or slightly parted lips that are talking. Halo uses white space creatively to keep the designs minimal and uncluttered.

Combining two complementary colors (purple and yellow) in different shades and tones with black-and-white imagery makes this branding eye-catching.

5. Gamabox by twintrick

Similar to the previous example, this logo uses negative space and a maximum of two colors.

The designers used an informal sans-serif font and brought the concept of a box through by using a hexagonal shape to represent an isometric drawing.

With the letter 'G' in a dark blue juxtaposed with light tones of blue on the opposite side, along with the use of color gradients, twintrick effectively created the illusion of a three-dimensional space.

6. Horror Films

Film spool and horror films.

What if you combine both to create a modern logo design? This is precisely what the witty designer of this logo did.

While a film roll has several circular shapes, the designer decided to include only three and place the film spool so that the two circles at the top look like eyes and the third circle looks like a mouth to portray a horrified look.

It suits the brand well, and we must say, the beautiful technique of mixing design elements and negative space makes the biggest impact in this beautiful logo design.

7. Flour and Dough

Sometimes, you will not have to combine visual elements to create a new look that best represents your brand.

Sometimes, all you need as a visual element for your modern logo is the exact representation of a real object, in this case, a whisker.

It works perfectly with the brand's theme and is pretty recognizable. The vintage feel is also an added look that makes this modern design feel unique in its own way.

8. French Toast

Are you a fan of minimalism?

If yes, we have great news for you! Most types of logos nowadays embrace a minimalist logo design. Minimalism design, whether for a minimalist tattoo or a minimalist logo, is a powerful way to make your brand speak boldly through a few minimalist visual elements.

Imagine you have to create a logo design for a brand called French Toast. The first thing that comes to mind for many when they think of France is the Eiffel Tower. But as previously mentioned, simple lines and shapes are essential for creating a sleek logo design.

The Eiffel Tower looks great as a visual element on its own. However, it may bring quite a few scalability problems in the future if you include it in your logo design.

The creator of this modern logo has found an intelligent way to include the Eiffel Tower and bypass the scalability problem. How? By using negative space. They made sure to incorporate the silhouette of the Eiffel Tower through the cutouts of the toast, which looks like it has the Eiffel Tower printed on it.

We can say that a minimal style and negative space combined with simple typography always work best together.

9. CAT Logo by Yoga Perdana

We will give you a few seconds to study this design in detail. Found the cat yet?

Visual breaks and distortion are just some of the “tricks” designers use to create engaging logos. This perspective-play logo uses only two colors and a few letter cutouts to form the shape of a cat between the letters that form the word “CAT.”

We must mention that the background color is intentionally left the same color as the cat to make the “play” a bit “harder” for viewers to see the cat between the letters.

10. Target

The logo of Target proves once again that the icon you choose for your logo can make or break your design.

In this case, the selected icon cannot be more on target (pun intended).

You can remove the brand's name, and people will still recognize this powerful logo. It is so easy to recognize that you can spot a Target a mile off.

The color choice is also smart in this modern logo example. If you are a retail company and want people to make purchases, grabbing their attention to enter your store may be your number one priority. The smart usage of red color does wonders if you want to reach this goal.

11. Handpicked

While bolder typefaces and simple lettering are usually used in most fonts for logos, the designer of the Handpicked logo has given the design a modern twist.

They have used bright colors for every other letter and white colors for the rest of the letters. The usage of negative space is also used intelligently in this case, as you can see the full letters “A” and “D” if you read between the white-colored letters.

While all the letters have clean lines, they are in different sizes and seem handpicked to better visualize this company’s image.

12. The Sahara Coffee

Nothing “screams” more “modern design look” than logos using a simple bright color or several vibrant colors. By combining the 'S' and the 'C' of Sahara Coffee, the logomark makes the shape of an espresso machine, making a hot cuppa with steam rising.

The Sahara Coffee concept brand embraced the latest design trends and trending elements to create a fun and friendly look.

The fun and modern approach and the mixture of unexpected hue combinations tell the customer that this company is not afraid to follow the rules of the modern movement.

Ready to create your own modern logo today?

As long as you follow the main rules of creating a modern logo and get some inspiration from the modern logo ideas in this article, you will be on the right visual path of creating amazing logos that will stand the test of time.

Are you a fan of minimalism and want to incorporate your less-is-more approach into your logo design? Feel free to do that! Simple logos are trendy nowadays, and they work best if you also aim to provide a clean design.

Are you a fan of bright and vibrant colors or want to mimic the same vibe Google product logos transmit with their use of bold primary colors?

Don’t forget to experiment with non-traditional colors as well. You don’t want your logo to look like yet another Google design.

If you have entered a design contest and want to design a modern vector logo without the help of a modern logo maker, you are in luck. Linearity Curve is the best tool to create any modern logo for any type of company.

Anything is possible with this easy-to-use design tool, from minimalist design to abstract logo design.

Linearity Curve's lettering feature is another powerful tool to use to your advantage if you also need to create high-quality lettering designs.

Regardless of your modern design approach, be sure to share with us by tagging us on social media. We are curious to see what you come up with and might even share your design with our audience.

(Cover image source: Unsplash)