60 Highly Clever Minimal Logo Designs

Depending on the flavor of your business, your logo may appear big and flashy, bold and colorful or just plain simple and clever. In this roundup, I’ve turned the spotlight towards the more simple and clever logo styles that leave a strong impression. As simplistic as they may appear, there is genius behind these 60 highly clever minimal logo designs.

OneFund

Filmaps

NOON

Folder

back

Bipolar

Backspace

Stairs

Fence v.2

Walk

Unarmed

Frankenstein Films

Thinktank

Pelican

eveva

Love Clip

SewPerfect

Wave

Pendulum

Sex Lovers

City Direct

FishLine

Up

Straight UP

elefont

Rocket Golf

Illusion

Circus of Magazines

CodeFish

Zip

Mummy

Foot

Missing

Helium

Killed Productions

Bird

Giraffe

minimum

Catch 5

ascus

HandsUp

Pencil

James Forbes Plumbing

Wine Searcher

Ed’s Electric

LocKey

Handmade Pictures

upside down productions

More

Wine Kingdom

MOSLEEP

brand

Twins

Horror Films

Ross Poultry

Half

Crown

Jump

Atack

Tulipart

Have a Favorite?

When putting a showcase of inspiration together, I often find myself picking a couple of favorites out of the bunch. In this case, I would have to choose Tulipart, Backspace, Pencil and City Direct. In actuality there are a dozen or more that I favor from this particular roundup. Did you find one or a couple that struck a tune with you? I’d love to hear your thoughts below. Thanks!


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129 Comments

  1. Richie April 2, 2010 at 8:18 am #

    inspirational Logos. Horror Films and MoooooRE are my favorite ;)

    Its so amazing that we can explain so much with clever logo designs.

    Thanks for the round up, Shawn :)

  2. Erik Haberman April 2, 2010 at 8:38 am #

    Very smart logos. Pelican and Bipolar are my favorites. Great collection!

  3. Anna Mitchum April 2, 2010 at 8:41 am #

    Nice use of negative space in a lot of these. It’s amazing how clever some of these designers are. Favorite – Circus of Magazines

  4. kpriv April 2, 2010 at 9:30 am #

    Spectacular & very inspiring.
    Thank you for compiling.

    I was reminded of studying Herb Lubalin in college & being very impressed with his *families* logo.

  5. Erik April 2, 2010 at 2:11 pm #

    Really, really nice collection.

  6. inspirationfeed April 3, 2010 at 10:27 am #

    Nice collection, very inspiring!

  7. Xtence April 5, 2010 at 12:13 pm #

    nice roundup, like the Twins and the Walk most

    keep on the good work !

  8. Pieter April 7, 2010 at 3:43 am #

    Elegance is always simple. These are great.

  9. John April 7, 2010 at 9:32 am #

    folder, bipolor, zip and foot. those are awesome. stay blessed…jon

  10. ideaguy April 7, 2010 at 8:53 pm #

    terrific stuff- found “wave” to say the most elegantly, while still calling up the SoCal culture as a bonus…M

  11. Comparateur April 8, 2010 at 7:08 am #

    So simple but really efficient,
    Thanks for this beautiful collection

  12. J Ratford April 19, 2010 at 3:45 pm #

    Some of these are so good

    my two favourites are illusion and missing :) great job!

  13. MyLogo April 20, 2010 at 4:11 pm #

    Great collections. Thank you. My favorite logo design is Walk, Love Clip, Sex Lover and Wine Searcher.

  14. Car April 21, 2010 at 10:38 pm #

    I’m looking for a logo designer to produce exactly this kind of this for my company hyperlingo.com. If that’s you, or you know someone who can, please get in touch at webdeveloperapplications@googlemail.com

    Thanks!

    Carl

    • Swadeep Pillarisetti December 20, 2011 at 1:32 pm #

      or you can even try http://www.99designs.com – decent stuff for $300-$500. In these websites, I still haven’t seen this quality – meaning intelligent and smart yet so elegant.

  15. Brett April 28, 2010 at 7:38 pm #

    FREEEEEEERRR!!!

    • Grega Menih September 15, 2011 at 1:25 am #

      I LOVE YOU!!!! PELASE MARRY MEE!!!!!!!!!

  16. Vinay Teli April 28, 2010 at 11:18 pm #

    You feel what you see……Illusion and Killed Production logos are my favorites….

  17. hubeRsen April 29, 2010 at 12:36 am #

    Wow, that are amazing logos, love nearly all of them. My two favorites are backspace and illusion… Great, thanks!

  18. Pepa April 29, 2010 at 12:39 am #

    Awesome! Horror films is no.1!

  19. CSSReX April 29, 2010 at 3:29 am #

    Cool, great Inspiration and concepts :) looking for more..

  20. Jesch April 29, 2010 at 5:37 pm #

    I’ve narrowed my faves down to Ed’s Electric, More, Illusion and Think Tank. At least, those are my faves until I look again.

  21. Phil Schaffner April 30, 2010 at 1:34 pm #

    … I like ‘pendulum’ a lot. By the way, it would be good to have several different backgrounds in order to see the visual appearance in different contexts.

  22. Trixie April 30, 2010 at 3:40 pm #

    Fantastic! My fave is ZIP

  23. Adam Nybäck April 30, 2010 at 4:26 pm #

    Walk, Jump, Killed Productions and Ed’s Electric are my favourites. Also like the logo of Shark Energy Drink http://farm1.static.flickr.com/51/129895066_43ffa231da.jpg.

  24. Artlady May 1, 2010 at 1:36 pm #

    I have been teaching art for 40 years and simplicity is the answer. These are superlative! I am going to try to print them and use them in a lesson plan. Giraffe is so whimsical and the others are great tool

  25. Tracey Chorley May 2, 2010 at 7:18 am #

    Fab collection of imagery. My fave has to be “giraffe”.

  26. gobsmacked May 3, 2010 at 10:16 am #

    I love all of them! My favorites are attack, think tank and codefish.

  27. Shawn Ramsey May 3, 2010 at 10:35 am #

    @ EVERYONE

    Thank you for your comments, they are much appreciated.

    • Swadeep Pillarisetti December 20, 2011 at 1:35 pm #

      Shawn – where do I find such talent to design a similar logo in terms of intelligence, simplicity and elegance?

      You truly have done great work putting all this together!

      SP

  28. Bjørn Mike Boge May 4, 2010 at 5:06 am #

    my favorits are: up, pencil, and upside down

  29. cyrus May 6, 2010 at 4:25 am #

    excellent logos with large variety

  30. Sheryl James May 10, 2010 at 7:38 am #

    Excellent Variety, The best of it which like are two of them, Handmade Pictures and James Forbes Plumbing

  31. Nat May 12, 2010 at 12:51 am #

    Fantastic! simple, straight to the point.

  32. timomi May 13, 2010 at 2:34 am #

    nice. i wonder how many of these are logo designs versus type treatments. were they all used as actual branding logos?!

  33. xoochu May 14, 2010 at 10:01 am #

    ♥kudos

  34. Reklambyrå Stockholm May 25, 2010 at 11:55 pm #

    Some very unique logo ideas here. I specially like the logo for horor films. Lovly

  35. David June 13, 2010 at 11:11 pm #

    My favorite is “Think Tank”, very clever.

    Would you have a look at mine and tell me what you think?

    http://www.myspace.com/envyphotocheyenne

  36. Marc July 9, 2010 at 3:10 pm #

    They’re all amazing in their own right. Personal standouts are: Bird, and Unarmed, I love that unarmed takes a second to get and the sense of humor.
    Bird is very relaxing, and seems so unhurried, as if there was no intent to be clever, just intent to be creative.

  37. arfin July 22, 2010 at 9:32 pm #

    AAAAAAMMMMMAAAAAZZZZIIIINGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!
    i like the illusion….. its about your ayes…….!!!
    ALL LOGO is very unique idea. great

  38. Lukas Tonetto August 13, 2010 at 1:43 am #

    Great minds create great things, though greatness need no big effects. Wonderful works!

  39. jotha August 13, 2010 at 2:39 am #

    My favorites: Wine Searcher & handsup

  40. Frank August 13, 2010 at 6:52 am #

    These logos are overwhelmingly clever. I love the simplicity and cleverness of the helium logo. Frankenstein Film made me giggle which is more emotion than one gets from most logos.
    Some logos are a bit too playful and too clever for their own good, though. Biggest offender is the “Fence” logo in my eyes.

  41. davidbdale August 13, 2010 at 7:09 am #

    Each was my favorite for a few seconds.

  42. davidbdale August 13, 2010 at 7:17 am #

    Response to “David,” if that’s OK:
    The NV=envy concept is fine, but would be so much more meaningful if your own initials were N.V. The dots between the letters are distracting. And the overall balance of the several type messages needs work. A good logo-in-progress, I’d say.

  43. Gregor August 13, 2010 at 7:38 am #

    Great! Yesterday I founded a company called “back”. I can perfectly use this logo as an inspiration. My other firm called “missing” already has a logo similar to the one shown above.

  44. rick August 13, 2010 at 8:04 am #

    stairs, codefish, & tulipart.

    thx for gathering these…

  45. Jonathan August 13, 2010 at 8:50 am #

    yeah those are really cool – nice post!

  46. guido August 13, 2010 at 9:22 am #

    iloveit…

  47. David August 13, 2010 at 9:56 am #

    Thanks for a lot of new ones.

  48. Jay August 13, 2010 at 10:34 am #

    How many times do we have to see these same logos in a blog list?!?! DO SOMETHING ORIGINAL!

    • Shawn Ramsey August 13, 2010 at 11:32 am #

      Jay, I write original material on this blog consistently. In between those original posts I like to throw in some inspirational roundups. I’m sorry that this particular one does not meet your standards.

    • Christopher August 13, 2010 at 11:55 am #

      @ Jay I’ve been coming to this site for a while and always find original material. When he does put together roundups, they are always of high quality. Look at these two font roundups he did where he used each font in it’s own design – http://bit.ly/br1fKa and http://bit.ly/boMZ1A . Who else is taking the time to do that?

  49. Lygia August 13, 2010 at 1:04 pm #

    ed´s eletric, up, and foot. “less is more”.

  50. Daniel Gnattali August 13, 2010 at 2:04 pm #

    Wonderful works! ZIP is a very clever one. I love the work of this brazilian designer from the 60/70′s, Aloisio Magalhães. Particularly the light company logo http://bit.ly/91G0b2 and the energy company logo http://bit.ly/d7MDIA .

  51. Sue August 13, 2010 at 2:34 pm #

    Sew perfect and Ed’s Electric – took me a while to spot the E!

  52. Sopi August 14, 2010 at 6:06 am #

    Extremely gr8 talent.
    Hats off

  53. TN August 14, 2010 at 8:38 am #

    When you investigate further, you realize that most of these logos are made up – that is, there is no client. This renders the whole thing pretty useless for me.

    Having a clever idea, coming up with a mark to fit a one word made-up company name, and then just drawing a logo like “UNARMED” to me has nothing to do with logo design. Next up is “LEGLESS” and Ill just draw a stick figure with no legs. Has nothing to do with logo design…

    • Chris September 14, 2011 at 1:21 am #

      If your claim is true, I agree with you 100%. It’s a lot easier to “reverse-engineer” the graphic when the company name is whatever you decide it to be based on your vector. These are very slick but if it was done in the manner you imply, it is fraudulent IMHO.

  54. JmsCrk August 16, 2010 at 7:08 pm #

    bckspace is incredibly creative and the thing I like about it the most is that it is provocative – it makes me want to press my backspace key!

  55. Liz August 17, 2010 at 7:43 pm #

    Wonderful! My favorites are mummy and helium. So cute.

  56. tat September 4, 2010 at 12:45 am #

    Ah to be a student again… no clients, name your own fake company with a clever hybrid name.

    Function follows form in most of these examples.

  57. w. September 20, 2010 at 10:03 am #

    nicely put, and very true. Many is the time I wished I could have renamed a company.

  58. John November 1, 2010 at 1:35 pm #

    They’re all fckng amazing!

  59. фотохудожник November 26, 2010 at 4:47 pm #

    Wonderful! Very good selection

  60. Graciela Garfinkel January 27, 2011 at 10:54 am #

    in this article. I will bookmark this and keep an eye on updates. I wish every blogger paid so much attention to their blogs.

  61. cassettedesign.cl February 6, 2011 at 7:16 pm #

    maravillosos!

  62. Rockylifestyle February 16, 2011 at 5:05 pm #

    Wonderful ! they all are cool love it.

  63. kllajeezer March 30, 2011 at 10:31 am #

    ilovethis

  64. David April 3, 2011 at 6:07 am #

    Some clever designs. A friend came up with this one which I’ve always liked. http://www.layfielddesign.com/#logos?id=1&page=1

  65. Danilu April 8, 2011 at 1:13 pm #

    So !clever I love them and will share them with my friends in facebook :)
    Favorite: PENDULUM!!

  66. fajas colombianas April 21, 2011 at 10:57 am #

    Whoever made those have a very creative mind.

  67. enke April 22, 2011 at 6:35 am #

    The best blog post I’ve ever read

  68. Nandan Moghe April 25, 2011 at 3:48 am #

    Awesome Creations. Really Clever Mind.

  69. Denim Geek April 25, 2011 at 4:06 am #

    Nice, clean, original Designs. Good Post.

  70. ifti April 26, 2011 at 1:47 am #

    Good one…. my favorite one is “UNARMED” great visualization and execution

  71. Valentin Spitsyn April 27, 2011 at 7:00 am #

    This is BRILLIANT!

  72. SOFAADS May 3, 2011 at 1:39 pm #

    ED’s Electric
    FTW

  73. SOFAADS May 3, 2011 at 1:40 pm #

    ED’s Electric
    FTW!

  74. akanksha May 19, 2011 at 11:28 pm #

    ol d logos are simply awesome…very inspiring :)

  75. ace85le May 23, 2011 at 1:39 am #

    Very nice collection. I like the Sew and the Mummy one!

  76. Samana June 8, 2011 at 12:07 am #

    witty

  77. Emily Biddiscombe June 10, 2011 at 6:46 pm #

    I really love these sorts of things. You should check out my mates band page logo, he designed it himself. Really clever I thought.
    http://www.facebook.com/pages/Break-3/119143804827688?sk=app_178091127385

  78. aron July 4, 2011 at 11:50 am #

    GREAT..all logo is awesome
    my favorit is NOON and ILLUSION,those was clever idea..

  79. aron baranoery July 4, 2011 at 11:56 am #

    ILLUSION is amazing one..!!
    Great idea..

  80. aron baranoery July 4, 2011 at 11:56 am #

    ILLUSION is amazing one..!!

  81. Ben Hunter July 5, 2011 at 6:25 am #

    Love these – I did a logo for an architecture practice some years ago. Inside Out Architecture designed houses and extensions but also interoir designs too. They called themselves ‘i o’.
    file:///Users/benhunter/Desktop/IO.html

  82. Shatabdi Biswas July 11, 2011 at 3:42 am #

    Its a amazing lesson for a student. It gives us inspiration to think and apply our wit with grace. The logos are so subtle and imposes the view to feel about the brand. The world’s best collection. Thank you for sharing. <3 them all.

    • Josh September 26, 2011 at 9:25 pm #

      These aren’t even real companies. Designing a logo is about creating a mark that will effectively capture the identity of an organization. They seem to just take the name of the ‘company’ literally and translate it into some kind of visual pun. I’ve seen worse but they certainly aren’t anything worth drooling over.

  83. honour chick July 18, 2011 at 10:26 am #

    very creative and inspirational.

  84. Jason July 23, 2011 at 8:54 am #

    I was wondering if you could help me come up with a logo for my company. The name is Precision Electrical Contracting or Precision Electric.

  85. Haters Inc July 26, 2011 at 9:21 pm #

    our logo is really cute too! check it out!

  86. jeff July 27, 2011 at 9:01 pm #

    Beautiful, creative and effective!!!!

  87. Sheena August 2, 2011 at 10:18 am #

    Great minimal logos. Very creative.

  88. Domain Registrar August 25, 2011 at 12:21 pm #

    I liked ZIP most. Overall cool minimalistic designs,

    Thanks for sharing, good inspiration!

  89. Shuttur September 12, 2011 at 2:35 pm #

    The film logo is very good

  90. skatle September 13, 2011 at 1:29 pm #

    i really liked the half one.

  91. Andy September 25, 2011 at 1:06 pm #

    well compiled. very clever.

  92. ghada September 25, 2011 at 4:51 pm #

    great work

    really you have got u work precisely go on

    fauvorite up – illusion – missing – bird – killed

  93. Russ Tafari September 27, 2011 at 3:37 pm #

    Very inspiring designs! You can really get a strong message across with a minimal design!

  94. Piper October 1, 2011 at 8:18 pm #

    My mom taught Typography for 15+ years and the final projects she graded every year were a lot like these. I miss them so thank you!

    FAV: Ed’s Electric

    NEXT BEST IDEAS: Bipolar, Thinktank, & Horror Films

  95. All Design Stuffs October 3, 2011 at 1:58 am #

    Awesome and clever logos! I have few more at my blog
    http://www.alldesignstuffs.com/category/logos/
    I hope you like it!

  96. abdul G October 21, 2011 at 4:37 am #

    I’m looking for a logo designer to produce exactly this kind of this for my business. If that’s you, or you know someone who can, please get in touch at abdulmah_G@hotmail.com

    Thanks!

    Abdul

  97. Joy Sebastian October 22, 2011 at 2:58 am #

    Pendulum is brilliant

  98. safaan October 27, 2011 at 11:26 am #

    hw can pendulum b not ur fav? lol, awsm, jst simply awsm

  99. Thomas Keith November 3, 2011 at 10:22 pm #

    All very wonderful. But for me, Frankenstein, Horror, and

    {

  100. jacqueline van der venne November 4, 2011 at 12:49 pm #

    I really love graphic design.

  101. Brack November 5, 2011 at 3:45 am #

    Every single one of those got a smile outta me. My favourite is Think Tank though. Really inspiring stuff.

  102. aims November 5, 2011 at 10:33 am #

    My fave is Folder – very tricky and perfect really……

  103. Geenee November 9, 2011 at 11:29 am #

    Hey guys. i manage this really cool band in the uk

    Any of you clever creative types fancy suggesting a good approach to a logo for them

    http://www.facebook.com/parkerandtheflowingwow

    cheers

    Geenee

    • Nick November 16, 2011 at 5:18 pm #

      Hey. I don’t create logos. I am a graphic design student, though. I could attempt to help you out, but their current logo is cooler than anything i could make probably. Anyway, the real reason I wanted to write you is because i really like the band! I live in The USA and i am 16 years old. I would like to get some of their music if you could tell me how that would be great. I could show a bunch of my friends, too. I really like their sound.

  104. GvSparx - Inspiring lives November 10, 2011 at 6:02 am #

    Do you mind designing a free one for GvSparx …..

    • Andy November 13, 2011 at 11:49 pm #

      GvSparx

      I sent you an email with a quick minimal logo.

      Andy

  105. mobcer November 11, 2011 at 6:24 am #

    True clever . nice

  106. Katelynn November 11, 2011 at 1:21 pm #

    My favorite is Bipolar because I am Bipolar

  107. Steve November 14, 2011 at 8:31 pm #

    Something about the ross poultry logo attracts my eyes… has to be the chick (^^) cute.

    I will say though, looking through the logos, they make you smile at their cleverness … at first glance.

    Now I am by no means a logo designer but after staring and inspecting a few, I get the sense of gimmicky. As thought a lil’ too clever for their own good.

    But what do I know. ^^ still a good time browsing through.

  108. ruth November 18, 2011 at 5:26 pm #

    I like Helium logo best.

  109. Jack Bendit November 23, 2011 at 2:48 pm #

    Man, these logos are all very cool… super creative !!!

  110. abhishek November 26, 2011 at 4:52 pm #

    these are some really cool stuff!!…creative and eye catching…simple yet marvellous…i too myself design on photoshop and corel draw…but buddy hats off!!…superb…
    i just really hope that you can help me out with designing a logo for our college’s upcoming cultural fest where my designed posters have been posted…
    do have a look at its facebook page http://www.facebook.com/utk12?ref=ts and suggest a suitable logo…if you may please….

  111. ViNo November 27, 2011 at 10:35 am #

    Simply awesome… very creative :) Kudos!!

  112. Haiku Hammock Swings December 6, 2011 at 10:57 am #

    /agree.. Love the logos.

  113. aBhAy December 8, 2011 at 2:17 am #

    You are great buddy…..

  114. Besfort December 12, 2011 at 11:15 am #

    Most of them are my favorite. Really, it’s hard to pick one.

  115. Cynical Reviews December 17, 2011 at 2:02 am #

    Seriously some of the best graphic design I’ve seen in a long time, simple but effective.

  116. cashmere December 22, 2011 at 9:01 pm #

    I liked the one for Twins, and the plumbing one

  117. AJ December 30, 2011 at 1:33 am #

    Great designs. I’d been looking for a selection lof this quality for hours. Is there anyway I could find out who some of the designers are?

  118. hudson27 January 7, 2012 at 1:26 pm #

    There were a few I really had to look at before I got it..
    “wait for it… wait for it… Ahh god that is cool!!!”

  119. Chris Hall January 13, 2012 at 6:35 pm #

    I am a graphic designer and logos are where I struggle the most. These logos are extremely inspirational.

  120. Mridul Joshi January 14, 2012 at 4:09 pm #

    Lovely collection
    “Code Fish” and “Sew Perfect” are much impressive and I feel they have Excellent sense of minimal design.

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