Brands embracing minimalism in their logos isn’t new, but recent discussions have reignited the debate on whether it's effective — or just "blanding." While some argue that simplifying design helps with digital functionality, others believe it can strip away a brand’s unique identity. As companies like Burberry move back toward heritage designs, we may be seeing a shift toward more expressive branding in the future.
The article, Paypal Simple Brand Refreshes Blanding dives into the trend of minimalist logos, and looks how brands are trying to keep things simple without losing their personality, and whether we might see a shift back to more bold, expressive designs soon. Here’s what our creative team has to say about it:
“This trend stems from brands increasingly 'going digital,' requiring logos to perform well across every UX environment. However, the logo itself often becomes secondary within the broader brand system, reduced to just one small piece of the puzzle. The downside is the emergence of very bland logos that lack distinctiveness, often nothing more than a slightly tweaked typeface. It will be interesting to see how this evolves over the next five years—whether logos will return to more quirky and unique designs, or if new technologies will push branding in a completely different direction. (Where’s that 3D-projection hologram phone we were promised?)”
-Scot Forbes, Creative Director
“The logo is just one small part of a brand system, so there may be complexity in other parts of the new branding that aren't visible in the logo itself. But since the logo is the face of the company, it is odd we are going in that direction so intensely.
There's this old architecture quote "form follows function" which dictates aesthetics of design are based on the practical necessities first. And while I think there's important truth to this, as UX is very "function" oriented first and thus needs simplicity, I worry we've switched to "formless function" where simplicity and ease of construction takes precedence over EVERYTHING. If you abstract-ify everything too much, you render everything kind of meaningless. So I get it, but I think we as a society will start to suffer for it over time.”
-Ariele Lee, Associate Art Director
