Icon

In logo design and interface design, an icon is a simple, recognisable graphic symbol that represents a concept, object, or action. Icons communicate at a glance without the need for text, making them universally useful across language barriers and in space-constrained contexts. A logo icon — sometimes called a brand mark or symbol — is the graphic element of a logo that is designed to eventually stand alone as a representation of the brand. Effective logo icons are distinctive (not easily confused with other brands), simple (clear and readable at small sizes), and meaningful (relevant to the brand in some way, even if abstractly). Icon design requires the ability to reduce complex ideas to their essential visual form — to find the simplest possible shape that captures the necessary meaning. This process of simplification is one of the most demanding and rewarding aspects of logo design.