Books on logo design – any recommendations?

elliott

I hope this isn't too off-topic – I know this is a type forum, but I suspect more than a few of you have some logo expertise as well.

I just finished some client work which included a bit of logo design, and I've realized I don't know nearly as much about the theory and history of logos as I do about type. I'd really appreciate any book recommendations – anything you've found helpful or instructive, or even just useful and inspiring reference books.

John Butler

You could start with

Leslie Cabarga’s Logo, Font & Lettering Bible

and

Doyald Young’s Fonts & Logos.

CORRECTION: I wanted to delete this, because upon re-reading your post, I missed the theory and history part of your request, and I don’t know whether those two would satisfy that requirement. Cabarga perhaps more than Young, though both are worth owning. But I can only edit my comment, not delete, because of the, ahem, well-meaning way this forum was set up.

elliott

John Butler said:

CORRECTION: I wanted to delete this, because upon re-reading your post, I missed the theory and history part of your request, and I don’t know whether those two would satisfy that requirement. Cabarga perhaps more than Young, though both are worth owning. But I can only edit my comment, not delete, because of the, ahem, well-meaning way this forum was set up.

My apologies John, my post could have been clearer. Any logo-related reading, including instructional texts, would be very welcome! And thank you for these two recommendations!

Andreas Stötzner

I always found it worth studying brand marks and logotypes in reality. When you see something which attracts you, ask yourself Why? When you see something which feels less convincing, ask yourself Why? Traditional Publishing house’s signets are often of a fine quality, but also the brands of (older) car manufacturers or football clubs.

And learn to distinguish motif from composition and style.

piotr_s

John Butler said:

[...]

Doyald Young’s Fonts & Logos.

It's great that you've mentioned the Doyald Young's book - he was one of my private masters regarding lettering and logo design. He's also written some more books on this topic: Logotypes & Letterforms and Dangerous Curves - they're briefly described (with some pages previews) on the Young’s website (archived - he passed away in 2011): https://web.archive.org/web/20200224002702/http://www.doyaldyoung.com/portfolio/3books/

@elliott I think you can also consider reading Logo Design Love by David Airey - it's a good reading for the start:
https://www.logodesignlove.com/book
You can find quite a big archive of posts relating to logo design on the home page. [Edit: additionally, please check a resources section on his personal website: https://www.davidairey.com/resources ]
He's also written some other books on the topic - but they're not focused on logo design only, rather broader scope of thing related to CI/BI design: 
https://identitydesigned.com/book/

Also - quite a new book by George Bokhua: Principles of Logo Design - but please keep in mind it's intended rather for novices. The author is running 3 classes on logo design on the Skilllshare platform as well as.

You can find a nice collection of books devoted to logo design on the Ian Paget's website:
https://logogeek.uk/logo-design/books/
(please note one item on the list above, regarding theory and history of logotypes you've asked about - Marks of Excellence: The History and Taxonomy of Trademarks by Per Mollerup - in my opinion it's definitely worth of buying). 
He offer some free ebooks on the topic (when you sign up for a newsletter - the option is disabled for now, but as he wrote in the webpage footer, you can still drop him an email and get those ebooks):
https://boxset.logogeek.uk/

Igor Petrovic

I am not saying that I qualify as a top author writing on logo theory, but I am adding this link rather as an opinion

I recently posted an article on my studio's blog. It is the first in a planned series of short articles on the same topic:

https://nostalgicdolphin.com/blog-post-2/