The Best and Worst of Logos in 2024
The Best:
01. Mazda
While it hasn’t announced it officially, Mazda this year trademarked a new logo. Like most new car logos, it’s a flatter take on the existing design – but we think it was a necessary change for the brand.
The Japanese brand has been trying to move upmarket, but it’s been doing so with a logo that’s starting to look very dated. The new design follows the trend in recent car logo redesigns, but it’s a much better fit. It’s recognizable (unlike the Kia logo), and it would serve Mazda’s efforts to shift its brand appeal from a young audience to focus on a higher-end market.
02. The 2025 World Games logo
A new logo with an optical illusion? Yes, please. And it’s adorable one. Created by British designer John Fairley, the Chengdu 2025 World Games logo features geometric shapes symbolizing the interconnected fate of humanity and respect for cultural diversity, but it also has a little Easter egg. The top section (coloured black) looks like the face of a panda, which Chengdu is famous for.
03. National Football Museum
The National Football Museum logo is a goal. Literally. Proof that simplicity is often the way to go with logo design, the icon is inspired by a goal and a ball. But designing such a minimalist logo in a way that allows easy interpretation is a huge challenge. Poke Marketing achieved this by using the shape of a goal viewed at an angle rather than face on.
The Worst:
01. Jaguar
The entire Jaguar rebrand of 2024 has been mocked to oblivion, with the marketing images featuring diverse and colorfully dressed characters bearing most of the brunt. But the logo has proven unpopular too.
Jaguar calls the wordmark "a powerful celebration of modernism – geometric form, symmetry, and simplicity – demonstrating the unexpected by seamlessly blending upper and lowercase characters in visual harmony." But the design was quickly parodied by several other brands on social media, who jokingly presented versions of their own logos featuring a similar mix of upper and lowercase characters.
02. Visalia
The people of Visalia, California, were not impressed one bit when it was announced that the city’s elaborately illustrated logo would be replaced with a flat minimalist design that was described by one person as "so oversimplified it’s comedic." People complained that the design "sterilized" the city’s personality and rendered its landmarks unrecognizable. So fervent was the response that authorities have tossed out the redesign and reopened submissions to seek a new, new logo.
03. X TV
Elon Musk has a difficult relationship with logo design. The Tesla logo has an unfortunate likeness to something else, and SpaceX at one point appeared to be using the logo of a small Scottish football club. With Twitter’s rebranding to X, it seems he gave up altogether, using a simple unicode character that an imaginative Twitter user claimed he had ‘designed’. So the X TV logo was perhaps predictably anticlimactic.
Conclusion:
This year’s logos have shown a mix of creativity, controversy, and, well, just plain weirdness. While some have been well-received, others have been panned by the public. As designers and brands continue to push the boundaries of what a logo can be, it’s clear that there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. Whether you’re a fan of bold and bright or simple and subtle, there’s a logo out there for you.
FAQs:
- Q: What makes a good logo?
A: A good logo is one that is recognizable, memorable, and easy to interpret. It should also be simple, yet unique, and convey the brand’s values and personality. - Q: How often should a logo be redesigned?
A: A logo should be redesigned when it’s no longer serving the brand effectively or when the brand’s values or personality shift. - Q: Can a logo be too simple?
A: Yes, a logo can be too simple if it’s not memorable or recognizable. A good logo should strike a balance between simplicity and uniqueness.
