Refresh
Submitting Designs Help
Generic, common and overused logo concepts and how to avoid them
What are generic logo designs?
Generic logo designs are overused, common, cliched design concepts, and they occur in every industry. In a nutshell, when elements in logo concepts are used by designers over and over again, the designs are arguably no longer original and very hard to trademark because the design's IP is not considered original. DesignCrowd's quality standards require all designers to submit original, unique designs tailored to the client's requirements.
Design Standards:
- Your design must be entirely your own work.
- Do not copy another design.
- Never use stock images, clip-art or purchased vectors in a logo design, illustration design or icon design contest.
- Use of stock images in any other contest must be declared.
- The Client should be informed if proper licences should be acquired.
- You must also be able to demonstrate that you own the rights to any stock images used.
- Do not submit placeholder designs or use personal watermarks
- All designers can be reported by the community, clients and DC Admin for using stock or copying designs at any time.
- We will close your account without the prospect of reactivation if this is proven to be the case.
Read the guideline to submitting designs
Why and how to avoid generic logo concepts:
As designers, we are in a unique position to create the face of a brand (new or existing), which is an amazing privilege. And with great power, comes great responsibility. Great logos are not just icons or symbols with text, a logo stands for the entire business or organisation. An overused, cliched or generic logo hints strongly that the company or organisation is dull, average, and unoriginal.
We've created a list of common logo concepts to help you avoid using these concepts in your design projects. There are plenty more generic logos and these suggestions should be treated as only a guide.
Cliched and overused concepts...
This section covers generic concepts that we frequently see used in company logos including Abstract Figures, Bar Graphs, Human Rings, Initials inside Shapes, Layouts, Spheres, Swoosh Lines, Wordmarks.
Overused concepts by Industry / Category
Featuring the following industries and categories: Accounting, Automotive, Beauty/Wellness, Dental, Health, IT/Software, Law, Mother and Child, Love, Nature, Pets, Photography, Plumbing, Oil, Power/Solar, Real Estate/Construction and World/Globe logo design concepts.
New to design and DesignCrowd?
Guide to submitting work to design contests
7 steps of the professional design process
Guide to file formats and deliverables