Having looked at the logos of 2015's 100 top-earning companies, according to Forbes, to gain an insight into what's hot right now in logo design, one of the clearest trends we found revolves around color choices. Blue, red, and black make up the primary shades for the vast majority of logos, and all other colors of the rainbow only make rare appearances.

While some logos combine several shades to make up their design, 85% used two colors or fewer, with 41 companies using one color only. This speaks for a trend of simplicity and bold choices with no clutter, which is in perfect alignment with web design trends and the ongoing era of flat design.

When using only one color in your logo, it is vital to give careful consideration to which color suits your brand. While it's important your brand reflects you, merely going with your favorite color is usually a bad idea, as sending the right message to consumers is paramount to attract the clients you're after. Color psychology is a fascinating field to read up on, and can be great inspiration for logo design.

Before settling on one color, also consider how it will look in different settings. A good single-colored logo will use negative space as a sort of additional color to keep the design interesting and dynamic. This means the logo should be very carefully designed to make sure its detail does not disappear on smaller screens. Also make sure the logo's magic isn't lost even if it's in black and white – you'll never know when you might have reason to order a whole bunch of greyscale merchandise or flyers, so be ready for it.

Apple

Coca-Cola

IBM

McDonald's

Samsung

Disney

Louis Vuitton

Oracle

NIKE

Intel

Gillette

ESPN

H&M

L'Oréal

Hewlett-Packard

Gucci

Nestle

Siemens

Hermès

Starbucks

Cartier

J.P.Morgan

Zara

Kellogg's

Coach

Lexus

Canon

Prada

Philips

Sony

Adidas

Chanel

Allianz

Ralph Lauren

Exxon Mobil

Target

Panasonic

Lancome

KIA Motors

MTV

Estee Lauder

Want More?

Color choices are among the most important your business will make in design. Make sure you know your stuff!

100 Famous Corporate Logos From The Top Companies Of 2015

Business Color Palettes - How to Create a Color Palette that Reflects Your Business

Beautifully Designed Apps: Color

Written by Jane Murray on Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Jane Murray is a freelance copywriter based in Sydney. Apart from writing up a storm for the DesignCrowd blog on anything from logo design to Michael Jackson's shoes, she enjoys reading literary science fiction and hanging out with most animals except wasps. Get in touch via LinkedIn.