Difference between logo and emblem.

A product or its manufacturer can be recognized by a logo or emblem. What are they?

What is a logo?

Under a logo is usually understood to be an original in its structure and design image of the letter name of a brand (or, for example, an institution, a sports team) or a product. The name can be full or abbreviated, supplemented with corporate slogans and graphic elements, but it will occupy, one way or another, the main part of the picture.

The originality of the name of a brand or product can be ensured through unusual style or construction of letters, the use of non-trivial combinations of their fill colors, the use of various graphic filters provided by popular image processing programs.

What is an emblem?

Under the emblem is usually understood as an abstract, but bearing a certain semantic load, the image of an object related to a product or brand (institution, team). It can be built in such a way that a person has associations with a product or brand or a segment in which they are represented. Or - to have an original structure that does not allow to unambiguously interpret the essence of the picture, but on the whole looks impressive and attractive.

As with a logo, a product or brand name may be present in the structure of the emblem. But the main area of ​​the picture will be occupied, one way or another, by an abstract image. It often happens that a particular product or brand is recognized on the market both by a “clean” emblem, and by a graphic element that contains the name of the product or brand.

Comparison

The main difference between a logo and an emblem is that in the first graphic element the main area of ​​the picture is occupied by the letter name of a product or brand, in the second - an abstract image associated with a product or brand.

In some cases, it is difficult to tell the difference between a logo and an emblem. For example, if the letter name of a product or brand, on the one hand, occupies the main part of the picture, on the other hand, it is presented in the form of an abstract image.

For example, the main part of the Edmonton Oilers hockey team's emblem is the word "Oilers", stylized to depict spreading oil (or, in another interpretation, oil wells).

According to formal features, this emblem, in principle, can be attributed to the logo - but the tradition of calling those emblems that are used by sports teams “logos” did not work out.

It is possible, accordingly, to single out another criterion for differentiating the concepts under consideration - the scope. So, in relation to graphic elements related to the symbols of sports teams, the term "logo" is rarely used. In turn, if we are talking about a well-known commercial brand, then even if it is recognized by an image that clearly corresponds to the features of the emblem, this picture is often referred to as a logo.

There is a special category of graphic elements - completely corresponding to the characteristics of logos, but very often considered as emblems due to historical tradition or due to exclusively original design. An example would be the logo of the Coca-Cola Company.

On the one hand, this is a “classic” logo - a stylized letter brand name. On the other hand, this graphic element is very often called an emblem due to its original design, and this is not considered a mistake.

Having determined what is the difference between the logo and the emblem, we will fix the main conclusions in the table.

Table

Logo Logo
What do they have in common?
Both of these graphic elements ensure the recognition of a company, a sports team, a state organization
It often happens that very it is difficult to attribute a specific graphic element to a logo or emblem
Some "classic" logos are called emblems
What is the difference between them?
Represents a graphic element, the main area of ​​which is occupied by a stylized letter name of a brand (institution, team) or productRepresents a graphic element, the main the area of ​​which is occupied by an abstract image associated to one degree or another with a brand (institution, team) or product
.