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The Psychology of Shapes

The logos and imagery that make up your brand are the combination of 3 distinct elements; colour, type and shapes. We've covered the psychology of the first two, so today we're bringing you the general ideas, emotions and themes common shapes evoke in your viewers!


GEOMETRIC SHAPES:

Geometric shapes are the most commonly used, and include those basic shapes we learn as early as our toddler years. They include:



CIRCLES

Circles, rings and loops, with their lack of points, evoke a generally positive emotional response. They represent a vast range of ideas including wholeness, infinity, continuity, and promote a sense of community, protection and unitedness. They tend to give logos an air of femininity in this regard.



SQUARES

Squares tend to represent stability, balance and tradition. They are commonly adopted in logos for brands that wish to promote professionalism and efficiency.



TRIANGLES

Triangles are typically associated with power, strength, growth and energy. Historically, they have commonly been used throughout sci-fi, religious and law related media and brands, and have thus also gained an air of mystery and conspiracy.



PENTAGONS, HEXAGONS & OCTAGONS

Are a great way to give designs a unique feel. These shapes are commonly used in our everyday life to represent things such as warnings, so adopting these into your visuals thoughtfully can portray these existing meanings to your audience.



STARS

Aside from their most basic celestial representation, stars are associated with success, fame and reward.



VERTICAL LINES

Straight vertical lines are commonly used to project commitment, growth and strength. They are commonly associated with goals and achievement.


HORIZONTAL LINES

Historically associated with things such as timelines, horizontal straight lines tend to give a sense of time passing. They are common in technology based logos.



ORGANIC SHAPES:

Organic shapes are those that reflect and represent things found in the natural world such as flowers, leaves, water and so on. If your brand is all about the environment, ecology and the outdoors adopting organic shapes into your design is ideal!



ABSTRACT SHAPES:

Abstract shapes are representations of people and objects of our human world, or otherwise simplified forms of verbs and processes. Clever development of abstract shapes can convey a complicated idea quickly and simply.

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