35 Logos brilliantly using Negative Space: Negative is Positive

Creating logo designs is not a big deal anymore, anyone can do it but what makes them different is your creative approach. Every designer wants his artwork to stand exclusively so people remember it in the long run. To achieve this goal always think out of the box and come up with brilliant creations. Specifically, while logo designing, try to be conceptual and utilize exclusive trends for your designs such as Negative Space.

It takes a designer’s clever eye to balance the negative and positive space of a design. I am sure you all must be well aware about the magic of negative space in a logo but I would like to define it a little here. Let’s say it is the space between an object, around an object, which can be utilized to convey the real message of the logo.

However, with a blog post about negative space in logos, how can anyone forget to mention the great example of negative space….the eternal “FedEx” logo. The spaces between the letters in “Ex” create an almost subliminal arrow. According to FedEx spokesman Jess Bunn:

 
“The arrow was indeed intentional as a secondary design element…”

“If the viewer sees it, it’s a neat, interesting visual bonus. If the viewer doesn’t see it, that’s OK. It’s still a powerful logo. The arrow is intended to communicate movement, speed and the dynamic nature of our company.”

     
Therefore, to double the fun, I have collected 35 most ingenious Negative Space Logos from net, which will surely thrill you once you perceive the creative use of negative space.
     

8 Fish

 
Four fish in orange are clear and evident but on a closer look you will see 4 more fish in opposite direction.
 

5.10
 
When seen in upside position the logo shows a very clever blend of the numeric’s of 5 and10.
     

ASP

 
The logo shows merger of the lower case letters "A", "S" and "P". I think the first two letters are quiet easily figured out but "P" being the shortest of the three letters is losing its legibility.
 

Big Ten

 
The Big Ten collegiate conference has eleven schools therefore, using the negative space, number "11" is hiding within the logo name
     

Bistro

 
At the first glance you might not see what my eyesight witnesses here…. you would see two wine glasses but I see three wine bottles. What do you see?
 

Blade
 
Take a closer look and you will find a knife integrated in the alphabet “a”…it explains the purpose of a blade.
     

Cafe Melody

 
It’s a top view of a coffee cup, creates the alphabet “C” and on to highlight the melody part it looks like a volume button.
 

Brand Union

 
Using different geometrical shapes, the word “Brand Union” make you confuse while reading it.
     

Child of the King

 
The logo is a clever example of utilizing negative space with a child’s pic integrated in a painted hand print.
 

Concealed
 
The “Black and White” graphics show the silhouettes of two running children with a dove forming between their clasped hands.
     

Fish

 
You all must think that this logo is an example of brilliant typography rather than negative space utilization but however I think the designer has beautifully used the shape of the fish to merge the alphabets.
 

etfi
 
This is a logo for a broadcasting organization but let me highlight the exclusive part of this design…the alphabets "F" and "I" remarkably fit within the letters "E" and "T"
     

Flightning
 
If you flip the letter “f” in opposite direction, you will see an image of a plane taking off.
 

Fit
 
The designer has made an attempt to explain the meaning of the word “fit”. The alphabet “i” fits in so well that the logo delivers the message clearly.
     

Elefont

 
I notice two creative aspects of this logo. An elephant’s trunk is making its way through the letter “e” and at the same time it makes us pronounce the word “elephant” in a new way.
 

Grace Hospice

 
I can make you find three things in this small logo: A face of a lady with orange hair, a dove and the orange part makes us perceive a tree.
     

Hammer
 
The integration of the letter "H" with the hammer is outstanding and a little difficult to find at first glance.
 

1 Here There

 
I don’t claim this logo to be a clever example of negative space use. However, utilizing the mirror image, the designer has given a new meaning to the logo, just like negative space logos.
     

Lady Rocket

 
In the first glance you will catch the silhouettes of a lady but on a closer look you will see a rocket outlined in the top part of the figure.
 

Nicholson
 
Honestly speaking…I don’t know much about this logo but found it amazingly creative to show the letter “N”I will really appreciate if any of you could tell about the company this logo belongs to so I can give the real credit.
     

New Man

 
I would add my personal favorite, the reversible Newman logo. This logo is the best example of simple but clever logo…what say?
 

Hug a Panda

 
I was amazed to find this cute little panda encircled in this logo…don’t you think this is brilliantly done.
     

Piece
 
This logo has been designed by Felix Sockwell showing a child’s figure face integrated with a flight of a dove.
 

Pencil

 
The space between the letters “i” and “l” has been carved in a way to look like a pencil.
     

Piano Forest

 
To explain the name of the logo, piano keys have been designed like tall tress of the forest.
 

Sink IT

 
To explain the action of the word, very playfully the designer has made the letter “i” sink into the negative space…..great idea!!
     

Treacy Shoes

 
The hidden shoe packed between the company initials conveys the company message in a very stylish and interesting way. I simply loved it:)
 

Truce

 
Upside down or backward/forward, no matter in which direction you look at this logo. The designer has made the point that it reads “truce” from every direction.
     

Urban Chic

 
The idea of utilizing the white space between the bristles of comb to portray the urban life makes this logo loveable.
 

USA Network

 
It is an old but ever living example of utilizing the negative space. I could not stop myself from praising the stylish integration of letter “s” in the logo.
     

Wave

 
Using the swirls and flows of the waves has been merged here with the negative space to create the word “Wave”
 

What’s For Dinner?

 
The Swirls of the letter “W” has been utilized to make an image of a waiter who is ready to serve the dinner.
     

New Castle

 
To explain the vast catering services of this company, the designer has merged the wine bottles with a fork.
 

X MAS

 
The lower space of the letter “X” creates the image of “Christmas Tree”…nice idea!!
     

Yoga Australia

 
At first glance the logo may look like a simple picture of a young girl doing her yoga exercise but if you watch it carefully the body posture is creating the Australia Map.
     
It’s for sure that one cannot take off his eyes from negative space logos until the hidden messages within them are not discovered. I am sure this tour of "Negative Space Logos" must have thrilled you but if you think my eye has slipped any of such more brilliant examples, don’t hesitate sharing with us…it will be great fun.
 

  1. Joseph Maguire On August 25th, 2009 at 7:41 am

    There are three or four good ones, some I remember from logopond a few years ago, and some I just liked overall, the USA mark is brilliant. Brand Union, also brilliant, yoga australia intelligent.. I think the rest are fairly mediocre though, and this is because many of those names seem like ficticious made up brands. But thats just my opinion. Either way good post.

  1. Garth On August 25th, 2009 at 7:51 am

    Here’s another negative logo worth checking out:
    http://www.inhousegrind.com/

    Cheers!

  1. Ed Coyne On August 25th, 2009 at 8:08 am

    All sweet logos! Jealous much? YUP!

  1. Rafi On August 25th, 2009 at 8:47 am

    Wonderful collection of logos! I really like how the logos have used the spaced to produce icons / graphics within them. Great thought from the logo designs. Thanks for sharing!

  1. Erin On August 25th, 2009 at 11:02 am

    There’s also the arrow in the FedEx logo, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FedEx

  1. BlindAcreMedia On August 25th, 2009 at 11:11 am

    Some really great design playing with positive and negative space.

    -BlindAcre

  1. Adelina On August 25th, 2009 at 1:46 pm

    thanks for an awesome post!

  1. wouter de Bres On August 25th, 2009 at 5:59 pm

    very cool! thanx for the inspiration…
    Especially like the lady rocket and flightning!
    played with negative space in my own logo too:
    http://creattica.com/logos/logo-bread-and-pepper/20647

  1. Webme1 On August 25th, 2009 at 7:15 pm

    This is a nice collection of some very interesting Logos. I love the use of negative space.

    I particularly like the Logos of:
    Child of the King, Concealed and Hug a Panda.

  1. Caleb Withers On August 26th, 2009 at 12:05 am

    I love this website. I have never before appreciated how brilliant logos can be.

  1. STRAIGHTALK On August 26th, 2009 at 12:16 am

    Very nice collection of logos I was simply impress by the art & creativity of those who masterminded the sence of Design!

    Norman Flecha

  1. Nick On August 26th, 2009 at 7:25 am

    “Creating logo designs is not a big deal anymore, anyone can do it”.
    Oh dear. That’s quite a misinformed comment.

    There are *some* good examples of lateral thinking. It’s a shame about the vacuous explanation of the concepts.

    Bad form for not including a credit for the originators of each artwork.

  1. Bender Rodriguez On August 26th, 2009 at 11:59 am

    The best exemple ever of a brilliant use of negative space is Carrefour’s logo… In France, you can see Carrefour supermarket everywhere, but most of people never figured out there is a ‘C’ in negative space. Here is an example : http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:9vuoYizxu7XI3M:http://www.webcarnews.com/ressources/deuxroues_articles_dir/deuxroues_article_id409/awi-carrefour.gif

    It’s been created in 1959 and hasn’t almost changed since…

  1. favSHARE On August 26th, 2009 at 12:48 pm

    This article has been shared on favSHARE.net. Go and vote it!

  1. Most Interesting Ideas On August 26th, 2009 at 2:27 pm

    Some of them is with nice idea

  1. mug25 On August 26th, 2009 at 2:28 pm

    another logo that uses good negative space is the 3N2 logotype. Check it out

    http://www.3n2sports.com

  1. Gyorgy On August 26th, 2009 at 2:32 pm

    Similar to Toblerone’s logo. A bear is hidden in the mountain logo: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2396/2131558116_6f1313d63c.jpg?v=0

  1. mauco On August 26th, 2009 at 2:47 pm

    Thanks for the great collection. My personal favorites – in no particular order are:

    wave
    Truce
    Tracy Shoes
    1Here 1There
    Elefont
    Fit
    Fish
    Hug a Panda

    I still cant see the ‘face of the lady’ in Grace Hospice logo!

  1. Dan the Music Master On August 26th, 2009 at 8:52 pm

    Thanks for the ‘logo journey’.

  1. Bluest_Cube On August 26th, 2009 at 9:11 pm

    Nice!
    Here’s another one:
    http://mmissions.org/
    and of course the FEDEX logo with an arrow in it.

  1. Blog Design On August 26th, 2009 at 9:40 pm

    Thanks for the list of logos and the explanations. There are a couple I have to check out for my website.

  1. Rahul - Web Guru On August 26th, 2009 at 10:13 pm

    Really impressive compilation of logos.

  1. brian On August 27th, 2009 at 4:03 am

    Love them, great for inspiration/get creative juices flowing

  1. burak delizade On August 27th, 2009 at 5:00 am

    greate brains. thnx for collection.

  1. Fabian / brandsimplicity On August 27th, 2009 at 4:47 pm

    Awesome,I’m a huge fan of negative space used well.

  1. maureen mitchell On August 28th, 2009 at 3:17 am

    New man is one of my fave’s too – thanks -inspirational!

  1. Bert Happel On August 28th, 2009 at 5:16 pm

    A local favorite utilizing negative space is from the Reis Nichols jewelry stores in Indianapolis – http://www.reisnichols.com

  1. arenacreative.com On August 28th, 2009 at 11:09 pm

    Gotta love the use of negative space, it really stands out from the masses of the same old crap floating around out there :) Great post!

  1. Carl Vervisch On August 31st, 2009 at 10:11 am

    Great collection of logos. I’m actually one of the party responsible for the One Here One There logo (please fix name of organization in title if possible). It was completed through a non-profit emerging ad professionals group called Ad 2 Tampa Bay for a charity that empowers American college students to help children in sub-Saharan Africa through school. Their website is at http://www.onehereonethere.org. I’d appreciate if you could link the image to that as well.

    Thank you!

  1. wsbartlett.com On September 1st, 2009 at 7:45 am

    I always thought the F1 logo was quiet good:
    http://www.topnews.in/files/F1-logo_0.jpg

    I never really been into racing but whenever I see it I think it works well.

  1. Sheryl On September 1st, 2009 at 12:13 pm

    Thank you for the great collection – each logo sparked new ideas.

  1. Elisa On September 2nd, 2009 at 1:44 pm

    Everytime you post things like this it insipres me to do great logos!

  1. Roberto Blake On September 3rd, 2009 at 11:12 am

    A very nice collection of logos, though I would argue that even though anyone can do logo design, not everyone or even every designer can do it well.

  1. Kelli On September 3rd, 2009 at 10:06 pm

    Fascinating! I love looking at foreground/background logos, they’re brilliant!

  1. linko On September 4th, 2009 at 8:00 am

    thanx for the inspiration,8 Fish logo is brilliant

  1. Todd On September 7th, 2009 at 7:47 pm

    These are definitely the types of logos that I hope the designers charged $1000-2000+ They are definitely worth that, if not more. Masterpieces of corporate identity.

  1. michael On September 13th, 2009 at 3:47 pm

    i was afraid i was going to see the FedEx log here again. but i didn’t well done!!

  1. Katie On September 25th, 2009 at 10:24 am

    I used this post to teach my third grade art students about positive and negative space, they loved the logos! Thanks!

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  1. Rhoreven On October 11th, 2009 at 3:26 am

    Perfect work!,

  1. hha On October 12th, 2009 at 4:03 pm

    nice site about logos.

    its in dutch but the logos speaks for them self.

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  1. Logon suunnittelu On December 2nd, 2009 at 3:09 pm

    Wau! Thanks for these! The 5.10 is veryveryvery good!

  1. Chuck Dean On December 15th, 2009 at 7:12 am

    Great collection of logos using negative spce. Here is a link to a logo I did for Vanishing, Inc. a web site for a magic supply company. Used negative space to help convey the meaning of the word.

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  1. Freewallpapersbox On January 13th, 2010 at 8:00 am

    Great collection!

  1. TRUE On January 15th, 2010 at 12:38 pm

    for the “sink it” logo, the “i” isn’t “sinking” into the negative space, rather, it has become a hole on a golf course, and the dot of the i becomes a golf ball — “sink it” refers to sinking a golf ball in a hole.

    kind of a clever idea, but not an altogether attractive logo.

    here are a few logos i’ve done, the first, i think, is a good use of negative space: http://www.TRUEart.biz/logos/

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  1. div On March 25th, 2010 at 4:22 am

    Clever usage of Negative Space……………….Negative is Positive…….Super Positive….:)

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  1. Ric Merrifield On June 1st, 2010 at 11:50 am

    Given your comment about “1 Here There” suggesting that there isn’t use of negative space, I wondered if you missed the arrow in the logo, not unlike the one in the FedEx logo that you mention. As odd as the name is, I think 1 Here There has an brilliant logo, combining mirror imagery and the notion of a palindrome.

  1. Logo Service On June 21st, 2010 at 8:34 am

    That’s wonderful, Great collection you have..

  1. online website design On July 13th, 2010 at 2:21 am

    Great collection of logos using negative spce. Here is a link to a logo I did for Vanishing, Inc. a web site for a magic supply company. Used negative space to help convey the meaning of the word.

  1. SEO Content Writing Service On August 18th, 2010 at 2:20 am

    You made a great logo negative design work.

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