What do Disney, FedEx, and Google have in common? Aside from billions of customers spread across the globe, these companies use wordmark logos—a stylized version of their brand names.
Effective wordmarks are clear and straightforward, emphasizing the company name and building brand recognition. Here’s what a wordmark logo is and how to create your own.
What is a wordmark logo?
A wordmark, also known as a logotype, is a logo that uses stylized text to represent its brand name with no symbols, icons, or additional imagery.
These logos incorporate customized typography and graphic elements—like color, shape, and size—to present brand identity in an instantly recognizable and straightforward way. A wordmark logo could make sense for your brand if:
- Your business is new. Since wordmark logos emphasize brand names, lesser-known companies can use them to establish name recognition.
- Your business name is short. Use wordmark logos for names with one or two words; anything longer can clutter the design and make it difficult to read on smaller surfaces or screens.
- You have a distinct business name. A wordmark logo can set you apart from competitors when your business name is catchy and memorable.
Wordmark vs. lettermark: What’s the difference?
Wordmarks use a full brand name and work well for companies with short, unique names. Lettermarks use a brand’s abbreviation or initials and work for companies with lengthy or hard-to-pronounce names. For example, “Entertainment and Sports Programming Network” is a mouthful to say and easy to glaze over, but the lettermark logo “ESPN” is recognizable and convenient. (ESPN jokes that its full name "took too long to paint across our chests on game day.”)
In some cases, lettermarks may require previous exposure to the company or logo, as they use a simplified form of the brand name. For example, New Balance used a combination mark logo with slanted initials above a full name in the 1970s, then transitioned to just a lettermark in 2008 after developing stronger brand recognition.
As with wordmarks, lettermarks use stylized fonts and colors to reinforce identity. Consumers might not know what NB stands for alone, but the slanted styling and colors immediately identify the lettermark with the New Balance brand.
Famous wordmark logo examples
The most famous wordmarks effectively blend color, fonts, and subtle design elements to create instantly recognizable logos. Here are four prominent companies that aced the assignment:
Google’s logo is one of the most recognizable logos in the world, designed to convey simplicity, accessibility, and innovation. Designers created a custom typeface called Product Sans, a geometric sans-serif font, and used vibrant primary colors and a tilted E to convey playfulness and nonconformity.
Disney
Disney’s wordmark logo evokes childlike charm and magic in a whimsical script-style typeface that mimics Walt Disney’s signature. The exaggerated swirls and flourishes reflect the fun, friendly nature of the company and its products. Disney uses its basic black-and-white wordmark to reinforce nostalgia while adapting the logo to fit the tone and color of certain movies or projects. For instance, Disney mirrors the colors and texture of “Beauty and the Beast” in its wordmark to create a cohesive logo.
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola’s nearly 140-year-old logo uses Spencerian script, a classic American style of handwriting, to convey a sense of timelessness, charm, and tradition. The wordmark appears either in its signature red color or in white against a red background. Today, the logo’s custom red hue is almost as recognizable as the wordmark itself.
FedEx
The FedEx logo uses strong typography with a bold, modern sans-serif font to represent efficiency and professionalism. The FedEx logo contains an arrow in the negative space between the letters E and X to symbolize speed, precision, and forward movement, reinforcing the company’s focus on fast and reliable delivery.
How to design a wordmark logo
- Define your brand identity
- Pick a font
- Incorporate colors and create a grayscale option
- Incorporate graphic elements
A large brand may engage a graphic designer or hire a design firm to make its wordmark logo, but creating a free wordmark logo isn’t difficult with modern tools. Shopify’s free logo maker is available to anyone—even if you’re not a Shopify user—and includes hundreds of logo templates to create a unique logo that’s downloadable in multiple formats.
Whether you create your own wordmark logo or work with a professional, you’ll need to think through key elements like typeface and color. Here’s how to get started:
1. Define your brand identity
Your logo is central to your brand identity. Define your company’s values, mission, and target audience to shape the artistic direction of your logo. Write down the core traits that represent your brand’s personality and consider how your brand name fits into your larger brand story.
Analyze how individual letters and words in your brand name could represent different parts of your identity to decide on where to place emphasis. Research competitors in your industry to understand how they position themselves and avoid significant overlap in logo design.
For example, suit company Stitch could list tradition, minimalism, and quality as brand traits, then choose to emphasize tradition to demonstrate its old-fashioned approach to tailoring. It may target Gen Z customers, who prefer stronger hues, which could then inform the design of any wordmark logos created.
2. Pick a font
Font choice is critical to a wordmark. The first choice you’ll make is between classically inspired serif logo fonts, which have strokes at the end of letters, and modern and minimalist sans-serif fonts. From there, you’ll decide to work with a free font (one with an Open Font License), a licensed font (which you’ll have to pay for the right to use), or to create a custom font from scratch. If you opt for a licensed font, make sure you read and understand the specifics of the font’s license before using it in a logo design.
As with any logo, try adjusting the size and placing your wordmark in different settings to ensure it’s clear, scalable, and reproducible in multiple formats.
3. Incorporate colors and create a grayscale option
Like typeface, your wordmark’s color palette communicates your business’s personality. Incorporate your brand’s primary color in your logo, but consider experimenting with multiple colors from your palette to add emphasis or pop. Each word of your logo could be styled with complementary colors, or a single letter could use a high-contrast color to draw the eye. Since you’ll use your wordmark in different formats, verify it works in black-and-white, grayscale, and full color.
4. Incorporate graphic elements
Wordmarks primarily focus on text, but subtle graphic elements can enhance your message or the logo’s visual appeal. These embellishments, or character marks, can improve your logo memorability by adding personality—think of the iconic arrows capping the Subway logo’s S and Y.
For instance, a smoothie shop named “Sip” might incorporate a thicker letter I with a slight tilt to mirror a straw. Though wordmarks contain no symbols or icons, these more minor character marks help your logo stand out.
Wordmark logo FAQ
What’s an example of a wordmark logo?
A wordmark logo is a type of logo that primarily consists of the company’s name. Some wordmarks blend subtle design elements into the letters or spacing around the word to reinforce brand messaging and identity. For instance, Amazon’s wordmark features an arrow that connects the A to the Z, representing its large variety of products.
What are the disadvantages of a wordmark logo?
A wordmark logo relies heavily on typography, which may lack the visual impact of more complex logos with graphic symbols or illustrations.
When should you use a wordmark logo?
Businesses often use wordmarks when they’re looking to establish or build name recognition. This type of logo is also ideal for a business with a short and distinctive name. Companies with longer names or ones with multiple words may choose a different type of logo, such as a pictorial logo, like the Twitter bird, or monogram logos, like Louis Vuitton’s LV symbol.
