A logo is the visual equivalent of the name, the identity in purely visual terms. Being a creative rendition, all aspects of it lend themselves to debate. Steering clear of any such controversy on creativity, positioning or the meanings of colors, in this part only analyze the how the 50 most trusted companies have treated an important, but complex aspect – the color, in their logo.
In logos, one thing is clear – less is better. If the number of colors used is any indication of logo-simplicity, then believe it or not, 58% of the top 50 Most Trusted Brands use only one color in their logo. Two colors are used in 26% of the logos among the top-50 Most Trusted Brands (the total of one color only and two color only totals a massive 84%, showing a very high correlations between visual simplicity of identity and Brand Trust).
An analysis of the single color logos revealed that 32% (or 55% of single color logos) had only Blue, 12% only Red and 8% only Black. Further 32% of the top 50 Most Trusted Brands had only used the name as the visual symbol with no other visual element to support, reiterating the importance of simple visual identities. While it cannot be stated that logo simplicity produced trust, the inverse is most certainly true, trusted companies chose to keep their logo’s simple.
Thinking the colors Blue and Red to be significant we analyzed logos which had either Red or Blue in them (including single color logos), and 46% of the most trusted 50 brands used these colors. A quick reference of meaning of the color Red showed its association with energy, strength, power, and passion; and that of Blue showed its association with trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence and truth. Guess it is little wonder that these colors are so prominently used in the visual identity of the top trusted companies.
Nice Information! I always wonder what makes people so innovative to choose their logo color.