Animated logos are making big moves in the branding world and with good reason - it’s eye-catching and is more memorable because of the unique animation that is exclusive to the brand. Also, it was said that 75% of consumers recognize brands by their logos.
On top of that, a brand logo is all about versatility because it is likely to be featured on brand collateral and campaigns. So, why not bring an animated version to the mix?
Is an animated logo a good idea?
There are many perks to using both static and animated logos. In fact, most companies who have animated logos, also have a static version. A static version is always needed for platforms such as an app logo for mobile devices, or favicons on websites.
While not all brands have an animated version of their logo, it is worth considering and here’s why.
- It can tell a story: Creating a logo takes a lot of time and creativity. You’ll need to take into account factors such as what personality should it portray? What should it represent?With an animated logo, you are able to give it life and turn it into a story - something that can be hard to do with a static logo. You can also animate your existing static logo, which can give it more meaning.
- It is more memorable: Animated logos give your brand more character and they work as a top-of-mind piece that helps users identify with you. You can even use these animated icons in out-of-home advertising such as billboards, which work to evoke more emotion from your audience compared to a simple static logo.
- You create better connections: Animated logos, like the first point we made, can tell a story. When you are able to do that, you are crafting a relationship with your audience. In fact, 42% of consumers think a logo can effectively communicate a brand’s personality.
- It works great on videos: Having an animated logo doesn’t mean that you’ll need to incorporate it on every asset you put out. But having an animated version of your logo gives you the flexibility of using it for assets with motion such as videos.
How to use animated logos
There are many uses for animated logos that can boost factors such as brand recall.
- Brand video intros or outros: Animated logos work extremely well as a video intro or an outro. When you use it as an intro, this helps viewers easily identify that this video is your brand’s original content. Even as an outro, your animated logo can conclude your video memorably.
- Email signatures: Why not add your animated logo to email signatures as a GIF? It’s unique and memorable for all correspondence - especially those in the business-to-business (B2B) line.
- Social media: Motion, in general, gives you an advantage when you use it on any social media assets. This can be attributed to the fact that our peripheral vision is sensitive to motion, so we’re bound to be distracted by anything that moves. On top of that, our attention span is short, so when you use motion on social media, it holds the power to capture attention. Hence, using your animated logo on social media assets, especially on GIFs or videos, can prove useful to communicate your message and branding.
- Presentation decks: Presentation decks are always a part of business and a good presentation holds attention - but then again, that’s much easier said than done. Using animated elements like your animated logo can drive interest to your audience, while also helping them identify your logo with your brand.
- On-ground marketing activities: If you’re a brand that often hosts on-ground activities such as trade shows, you can put your logo on the screens to bring out your brand personality.
- Website: You could use an animated logo to introduce users to your site, or even as a loading animation. There are definitely many areas you can use an animated logo when it comes to a website. However, we would caution against overdoing it as it can be overly distracting.
How do you make an animated logo?
You can create an animated logo using the SVG to Lottie tool. This means you can animate any logo without having to use Adobe After Effects. To do this, you’ll need to create a logo beforehand which you can do in Figma.
Once you have your logo in Figma, you can drag and drop it into LottieFiles’ SVG tool, where you can see various animation options. Then, just download it and save it to your private animation dashboard. However, if you already have a logo, you can just drag it directly into the SVG to Lottie tool to try our different animations.
For a full tutorial on how to do this, read our article on How to Animate Any Logo Without Adobe After Effects.
Examples of animated logos
If you’re looking to make your own animated logo, or are just curious to see what brands are doing, here’s a list of examples for your inspo.
Netflix
How could we make a list of logo animations and not include the iconic Netflix logo? Their logo draws out an “N” one stroke at a time, before it enlarges and fades out with line streaks that almost resemble television intermission lines.
This logo is so popular, so much so, that the accompanying sound of “tudum” has become so familiar in households. It’s become so famous that Netflix hosts a yearly event known as “Netflix Tudum”.
Meta
When social media giant, Facebook, rebranded to Meta, an animated logo was introduced. The animated logo shows a looping shape with two coiled ends that is placed next to the new company name. The animation is subtle as it twists into place before finally forming the loop, which sort of resembles an infinity sign.
Fiverr
Fiverr, the freelance marketplace, has its own logo animation. Their version uses text animation where it spells out the brand name from left to right. It’s pretty simple, but effective as it shows their branding in a swift and quick motion.
Amazon Prime Video
Like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, incorporates their own iconic sound with their logo. Appearing before some of their original content, the animation features their popular arrow logo that’s on their main logo before the words “AMAZON ORIGINAL” appear. Then, the arrow swiftly expands to the whole screen - almost like a transition into the content.
Apple TV
You’re probably starting to see a trend where streaming services almost always have an animated logo.
Well, considering that they harp on video, it only makes sense to have one, especially to add to their original content. Apple TV’s version is pretty classic as their iconic Apple logo, together with “tv+” appears as a glowing light brightens - probably resembling the moment we start-up our television.
Disney+
And another streaming service makes the list! How could we forget Disney+? This streaming service showcases quick animation with its usual arch that falls on top of their brand name.
However, for this streaming service, the arch is animated to end appropriately on top of the plus sign.
Mozilla Firefox
Mozilla Firefox has had a few runs with its animated logo - like any brand starting off, the logo is bound to change.
If you haven’t noticed, the inner part of their logo is actually a fox clutching something that resembles a circle - probably a representation of the World Wide Web. Currently, their animated logo uses a spinning motion for the curved square that frames their well-known circular fox logo.
PayPal
PayPal’s animated logo is fast. They’ve long been known for their dark and light blue “P” that are layered on top of one another. Sticking to their original logo, the animation is simple as it starts with the darker “P”, before it splits to reveal the second letter.
This just goes to show that you don’t have to design something completely new - playing with your existing logo could be even better!
Google is known for playing around with its logo, especially for special occasions and seasons. But their original animated logo is four dots of their brand colors - blue, red, yellow, and green - that create a wavy animation before it is spelled out as “Google”.
Slack
Messaging app, Slack, incorporates their popular messaging sound of when a message is sent. Their animated logo features four colored dots that rotate and make up their main logo, which is a hashtag. Once the hashtag is formed, their brand name appears together with their popular messaging sound.
LottieFiles
Of course we’d include our own animated logo - we’re proud of it, especially because we’re all about animations!
Our logo shows coloured shapes jumping about to form a line, before it transitions to our main logo and "Think Motion" - just before "LottieFiles" is shown. We think it resembles what we do best and that is being experts in motion design!
More animated logo inspiration on LottieFiles
If you’re looking for more inspiration, we have thousands of free animations, including a library of free animated logos!
Here’s an idea: you can download some Lottie animations and see which best fits your brand. From there, you can make your own version and draw inspiration from it. But if you’re looking for something quick to play with, you can download a Lottie animation and customize it with our features that include a custom branded color palette.
However, if you are looking for more advanced logo animations or something specific to your brand, you may need to hire a motion designer or animator (if you’re not one yourself). You can check out lottiefiles.com/featured for tons of talented motion designers you can hire!
