social media is transforming logo design

Almost everyone has a smartphone, and almost all of us use Social Media. It’s transformed how we communicate and consume content on a daily basis. This change is having a direct impact on how designers are approaching logo design, and in this blog, I want to talk through a few of the developments I’ve noticed.

Social media has become one of the fastest, cheapest and easiest ways to interact with your target audience. For that reason, it’s very likely to be the place where people will see and engage with a companies brand identity the most.

Logoflow Designing for small sizes is nothing new. It’s common practice to design a logo that’s versatile (read my SMART logo principles for more common practice logo design tips), but before social media, a super tiny logo was not so important. In the pre-smartphone-era, a logo would most commonly be seen in an email signature, on the top bar of a website, on the packaging, and the shops exterior – meaning 50mm was realistically the smallest a logo would be seen (I’m ignoring 16-pixel favicons as they have always been tucked away anyway). Here today, because of social media, for an identity to have an impact it must look good at super tiny sizes.

An example of a brand identity that’s evolved because of the developments in social media is The Premier League, who launched a new logo in February 2016 designed by global agency DesignStudio and Robin Brand Consultants.

appearing somewhat unprofessional. The revised design includes only the lion’s head, which is a much more simplified icon that looks great on social media, yet still has a dramatic impact at larger sizes too.

The term ‘Logo Systems’ has been used to describe this type of logo, and they are designed as a framework that can be modified, whilst remaining identifiable

It has a lot of power and influence. By changing only her twitter icon to a variant of its logo, Hillary Clinton is able to draw attention to any topic, without using words or any other imagery than her logo.


When a logo is launched it sparks huge discussion online. Thanks to social media we can instantly share our opinions of a logo, and every man and his dog have an opinion to share. What’s scary is that this feedback is instant, and globally visible to anyone, meaning both the company it represents and the designer responsible will see every word of it.