Techniques for Creative Two-Letter Logos

Techniques for Creative Two-Letter Logos By Logoflow

Though it has unique advantages compared to other logo design styles, using a combination of typography as a visual component can be a tough tightrope to walk, especially when you want it to represent your entire brand. Make your letter-based logos (commonly called letter marks or ligatures) look too much like conventional “pictures,” and they lose their ability to communicate a direct message. But if your letters are too plain-looking, they’ll fail to make a visual impact on the audience.

Fortunately, we’ve rounded up our favorite techniques for creating two-letter logos to help you out By Logoflow

Removing and cropping

Sometimes getting two letters to work as a lettermark isn’t about adding something, but rather removing something in a way that ties them closer together.


Using negative space

When you use negative space in interesting ways (such as including a hidden image), it compels audience to do a double take and examine the logo more closely.

Creating bridges

When letters just don’t want to connect in any natural way, try building a bridge from one letter to the other with additional illustrations, shapes, arrows, or curves. You can use any sort of visual connector, so long as it doesn’t obscure the letters in such a way that renders them unreadable.

Similar letters

When you’re lucky enough to get to use visually similar letters in your lettermark, you can find a lot of success from exploiting those similarities.

Using symbols

Symbols can make it easier for audiences to instantly associate your letter mark with the type of business it represents. It could be an object directly related to what you do, or something more representative of the brand’s personality.

If you’re struggling to remember what a ligature or a crossbar is, it might be time to call in the cavalry. Our professional logo services will take the pressure off and make the logo design process as simple as possible.

Sometimes your ligatures will look like a font that is too tightly kerned, not letters that were connected deliberately. In these cases, try breaking up the kerned look by adding serifs, creating a pattern, or using colors to differentiate between the two letters.

Be careful about creating a “new” letter when you’re combining two similar looking letters. The point of a ligature is to have individual letters that are connected while still maintaining their individuality. Hybrid letters sometimes end up looking nothing like either of the letters they’re made from. If your ligature ends up looking like something totally alien, find a way to break it up so your audience understands.

Try different combinations of techniques to create something unique and new. However, avoid overloading your lettermark with too many bells and whistles. The more alterations you put a letter through, the harder it is to read

Always remember that the “letter” part of the word “letter mark” is the most important. You can alter, move and change the letters all you want, but when it starts to look more like a symbol or picture, it stops being a letter mark.