Marketing design
9
min read
Before a customer remembers your name, they remember your icon.
Think about it. We associate a bitten apple with innovation, a swoosh with movement, and a golden “M” with fast food. That’s the power of brand iconography. It speaks before your copy loads and sticks long after your ads disappear.
Yet for many companies, icons are treated like something reserved for global giants. And that’s a mistake. When just starting a product or scaling it, your visual identity shapes how people perceive your brand and whether it stays in their heads at all.
To show you this in practice, we’ve put together this guide. You’ll learn what brand iconography is, why it works, and steps to design it strategically. And throughout the article, you’ll see examples from real businesses who’ve nailed their visuals.
If you’re serious about building a brand that communicates at a glance, let’s get started.
Brand iconography is the visual storytelling your brand tells. It’s the set of symbols, shapes, and images that people associate with your company, be it on a website, app, packaging, or just a tiny favicon in their browser tab.
Too often, businesses treat iconography as “just a logo.” But in fact, strong branding icons are everywhere, quietly telling people who you are without saying a word.
That matters, especially in a digital world overloaded with choices. People don’t read. They scan. And when your visuals are clear and recognizable, they make it easier for users to remember you, trust you, and come back.
It’s important to note that not all icons work the same way. Some tell you exactly what they are. Others leave more to interpretation. To choose the right style, you must understand how different visuals communicate and make people feel.
Let’s break down the four main types of brand icons you’ll come across.
1. Literal icons
Literal icons are straightforward. A shopping cart means “buy.” A magnifying glass means “search.” No guessing needed.
These elements work well when clarity is the top priority, especially in product UI, where users don’t have time to decode metaphors. But for branding, they can feel a bit too obvious or generic unless executed with a strong visual twist.
Dropbox’s original box icon is a great example here. It’s literal in concept, but stylized in a way that made it stand out.
2. Abstract icons
Abstract icons don’t show what your brand does. Instead, they hint at ideas or emotions. Take Nike’s swoosh as an example. It doesn’t show shoes, but it feels like speed and motion. That’s the point.
These types of icons give you more freedom in how your brand evolves. They’re flexible, scalable, and more memorable, but also carry more risk. If the design doesn’t land emotionally, it might not connect at all.
3. Meaningful icons
Some icons are meaningful because they’re rooted in your brand’s origin or mission. At the same time, they look nice and mean something.
Take the Evernote elephant. Elephants are known for their memory, which ties directly to the app’s purpose: remembering everything.
Meaningful graphic elements work best when they reflect something real — a product benefit, a cultural reference, or a brand value. However, they still require a strong design to make that meaning visible.
4. Symbolic icons
Symbolic icons tap into things we all recognize without needing context. A heart for love. A lock for safety. A flame for energy or desire.
The Red Cross is a classic example. The symbol instantly signals care, emergency, and humanitarian help, even without a brand name attached.
These design forms work well when you want your business to feel intuitive. But they come with competition. Since many brands use the same symbols, it’s harder to stand out unless your visual execution is original.
It’s easy to confuse iconography with typography, as they even sound almost the same. The key difference is that they work in very distinct ways.
Typography is about how your brand sounds when written. It’s the style of your letters, the weight of your fonts, and the spacing between words. A good typographic logo tells people what your brand stands for just by the way it looks.
Consider the bold, all-caps confidence of NASA, or the clean, friendly curves of Google’s wordmark.
Iconography, on the other hand, is more about how your brand feels. It’s the shape or symbol that can stand on its own and still say something recognizable. Think of the Apple iconography logo without any word underneath. It’s visual memory at work.
Some brands go all-in on typography (like Coca-Cola), others lead with iconography (like Instagram), and many mix the two. Our work on the Refera project is a great example of combining a clean wordmark with a symbolic icon of a group of people.
So, which one should you focus on? That depends on how and where people interact with the brand. If you’re building a digital product where users rely on fast visual cues, iconography does the heavy lifting. Typography, meanwhile, shines in more traditional brand assets like packaging, advertising, and editorial design.
Ideally, the two should complement each other. When typography and iconography speak the same language, your brand feels unified and unmistakably yours.
If you’ve made it this far, you probably need to build a proper icon branding system. From there, you’ve got two paths: hire a graphic designer who knows how to do it right, or roll up your sleeves and figure it out yourself.
Both can work. But whichever way you go, one thing stays the same — you should follow a clear, consistent approach. Without it, even the best-looking design elements would fall apart once they go live.
Here’s a step-by-step guide to building a brand identity icon that won’t betray you later.
Iconography isn’t a solo act. It’s a system, and systems need structure. Before opening Figma or Illustrator, ask yourself:
Once that’s clear, define the core visual rules:
For example, a fintech app might use crisp, geometric outlines on a strict grid. A wellness platform may lean into softer, filled icons with curved edges to be more human. What matters is that the style fits the brand’s visual identity and is applied everywhere.
Great branding icons must be clear. That doesn’t mean your visuals have to be boring, but it does mean they shouldn’t be solving puzzles.
So, how do you walk that line?
When designing, remember that icons aren’t there to be admired. They’re tools for helping people move faster, smoother, and more confidently.
Iconography can’t be universal. That heart icon might mean “like” in one context, but in another culture or product, it might carry a different weight. A color that suggests innovation in the West might signal mourning elsewhere.
Psychologically, users expect graphic elements to behave a certain way. A lock = safe. A red warning triangle = danger. Subvert the common brand imagery definition, and you risk confusion or distrust.
Keep this in mind when:
Use testing, cultural checks, and accessibility tools to validate your decisions early.
Once your icon style is defined, don’t let it live in isolation. Shapes and symbols should weave into every layer of your brand, not just your app interface.
That means:
Create a living style guide to keep everyone aligned. Show do’s and don’ts, spacing rules, approved icons, and examples of proper usage. This helps onboard new team members and prevents the “every designer does it differently” problem.
Your guide should answer:
Make your icon rules as much a part of your brand as your fonts and colors.
Once your iconography graphic design is ready, start integrating it across all key areas:
The goal is to keep visual consistency, no matter where users interact with you. If a product uses line icons and your marketing design uses filled blobs, it’s going to feel disconnected. Iconography should reinforce your brand voice, not compete with it.
And don’t forget about scalability. If your icons work beautifully in the app but fall apart in a billboard or a 16px mobile menu, it’s time to refine.
No icon branding set is perfect forever.
As your brand matures, your style may shift. Maybe you decide to soften sharp corners, increase stroke weight, or refine outdated metaphors. All of that is normal and even expected.
Treat your brand iconography like a living design asset:
Small adjustments in brand refresh can have a big impact. Consistency, over time, builds trust and recognition and helps manage your workflow as your design system grows more complex.
Some brands have already done the hard work of building icon systems that are instantly recognizable, emotionally resonant, and deeply functional.
Let’s take a look at what we can learn from a few of them.
Slack’s icon of that colorful octothorpe (yes, the hashtag) has gone through a few iterations, but the essence remains the same.
Why it works:
Starbucks’ iconography logo of a twin-tailed siren seems far from simple. But over the years, they’ve refined it into a monochrome symbol that stands on its own.
Why it works:
TikTok’s icon is part music note, part glitch effect, and 100% brand. It’s simple enough to work at small sizes, yet bold enough to stand out on any screen.
Why it works:
In branding, you’re often fighting for attention in milliseconds. People don’t stop to admire your UI. They glance, click, scroll, and maybe, remember. That’s where iconography graphic design quietly does its job.
It doesn’t scream. It doesn’t pitch. It just shows up — again and again — building familiarity with every interaction.
Strong icons won’t fix a weak product. But if your product is good, and you want people to trust it, remember it, and recognize it across every screen, then a thoughtful imagery system isn’t optional. It’s part of the user experience.
So, whether you’re just shaping your visual language or auditing your brand after it’s grown messy over time, now’s a good moment to ask: do your icons speak the same language as your brand?
If the answer is “not quite,” you know what to do next (or who to contact).
