When April Ludgate says in Parks and Recreation that “(animals) should be rewarded for not being people”, she spoke to me on a personal level. Fact is that human beings love animals. We love them so much we refer to our pets as our babies. And rightly so.
Therefore, a brand choosing an animal as its business logo is playing safe and clever at the same time. Animals, especially the ones we have domesticated, inspire caring and maternal instincts in us. We think positive of them, want to care for them, protect them, and be with them. Even wild animals enjoy human reverence. These overall positive associations human beings have developed towards animals work brilliantly for businesses choosing animal logos as their brand identities.
In fact, the application of animal or pet logos is not limited to obvious businesses such as pet store or pet adoption agency logos. As we’ll demonstrate in this article, there are tons of different industries and sub-industries that can successfully use animal logos as brand mascots. These include, among others, food logos, childcare logos, video game logos, book publishing logos, airline logos, sports team logos, legal logos, charity logos, agriculture logos, and even adult entertainment.
Let’s discuss 5 of these industries.
Farm animals such as cows, roosters, hens, and horses, etc., are considered some of the easiest and most appropriate symbols for food and dairy logos. People already associate these animals as something to do with food and farming. Therefore, displaying a cow on your milk brand or a hen on your organic eggs brand, for example, will ensure ready and positive recall.
Image Source: Behance
Rooster Logo with sun in the background
Image Source: Dribbble
In addition to farm animals, we also use wild animals to create brand identities for food businesses. These businesses usually are companies that want to display the strength, energy, and power you’ll get if you consume their product. Breakfast cereals, energy drinks, and snack brands often go for wild animal logo symbols such as lions (Nestle Lion Cereal), bulls (Red Bull), and Cheetahs (Cheetos), etc,.
Other animals such as fish, pigs, pandas, and birds etc., often find themselves displayed on restaurant logos. In fact, the fish logo is a common but very popular symbol for seafood logo designs as it allows people to instantly figure out what the brand is offering.
Childcare is another area where animal logos make their mark. Using a puppy logo for a daycare business works all the time. Similarly, you can use a cute kitty logo, put some glasses on her and an adorable graduation cap, and display it on an elementary school logo. There’s something about these tiny animals that makes people think of them as their fur babies. Use this association to work for your education logos, childcare logos, daycare logos, and other similar businesses.
In addition to puppies and cats, some other animals that we routinely see featured on school logos are owls, eagles, and lions, etc. These animals signify intelligence, courage, and discipline – qualities very much admired in an education setup.
Image Source: Behance
Eagle logo with circular shield
Image Source: Dribbble
So bring forth the brand qualities you want to signify through your logo and choose an animal that’s the perfect ambassador of those qualities.
This is where you get to really flex your design muscles. There are all kinds of fashion brands and all kinds of apparel businesses that want to communicate unique brand qualities. Beauty, elegance, and sophistication are some. Then, there’s agility, strength, and sheer power. There are also luxury fashion businesses such as jewelry making where grace, elegance, and charm need to ooze through the logo.
Therefore, consider your choices wide open when it comes to choosing animals for your fashion or apparel brand. From lions to horses, dragonflies to peacocks, swans to alligators, and dogs to cheetahs, your options are limitless.
Peacock logo with minimal colors
Image Source: Behance
Image Source: Dribbble
Since here you will be creating a fashion logo essentially, make sure that you are not just sketching an animal on your logo and calling it a day. In addition to all the other details coming together beautifully, you must also need to ensure that your present the animal in a pose or a stance that symbolizes your brand’s core value or character. Think of how the puma is leaping on the Puma logo. Do something similar for a decisive effect.
Gentle, caring, and endangered animals are considered the best icon choices for philanthropic logos. Non-profit organizations, charities, pet adoption agencies, vet clinics and other such platforms often look for animal logos that can reflect their brand character.
Bird logo with hand symbol
Image Source: Behance
Image Source: Dribbble
Since a lot of animal charities or NGOs work with a niche group of animals, you’ll often see a certain set of animals used on pet adoption logos. Dogs and puppies and cats and kittens are some such animals. But that’s not to say that animal care platforms do not have other animals on their hands. You’ll often find rabbits, turtles, different kinds of birds, and reptiles etc. in these centers. So, as a designer and a business, think of which animal will work the best as your pet charity icon.
The choice becomes simpler if you are designing for a shelter or organization that’s directed towards a certain animal or a certain cause. Panda on the World Wildlife Fund logo is a popular and powerful example. It is an endangered animal that’s symbolizing an organization that works towards preserving wildlife on a global scale.
Think of how your animal logo choice can aid your philanthropic cause in a similar way.
When it comes to choosing animal icons for a sports team or a gaming logo, you only need to focus on some specific animal qualities: power, energy, strength, ferocity, aggressiveness, and such.
Most sports teams that use animal logos as their brand symbols participate in contact sports: football, soccer, hockey, and such. In contact sports, domination and aggression are the name of the game. Lions, panthers, horses, bears, hawks, eagles, snakes, scorpions and other ferocious animals/reptiles are enthusiastically favored as sports team logos and mascots.
Image Source: Behance
Lion logo in gold color
Image Source: Dribbble
The same is true for gaming logos as well. Wild animals are preferred as their brand symbols to make their games look more complex, powerful, and unbeatable.
As a designer, you might think it’s a one-dimensional approach. But consider this, in sports and gaming, winning is the only goal. Therefore, creating brand logo designs that feature challenging, dangerous, and untamed animals seems exactly on spot.
We love animals and what they represent. Be it fun or ferocity. Using an animal or a pet logo as a business identity mark is almost always a good idea. As long as you are choosing an animal whose dominant and most visible or established quality matches with your brand’s core value, you can’t go wrong.
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