Logo of the Year

James I. Bowie

In the first ten months of 2011, there were 44,227 logos filed for trademark registration with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Among them:

  • The two most common design elements were “shaded circles” (found in 4.3 percent of the logos) and “shaded rectangles” (found in 3.8 percent of the logos); see Logos Taking Shape
  • The most common color used was red (of logos featuring colors, 23.84 percent contained red and 23.69 percent contained blue); see The Color of Logos
  • The most common USPTO industry classification was advertising/business management/administration (16.2 percent of the logos fell into this category)
  • Logotype/symbol combinations accounted for 87.1 percent of the logos, while logos that only contained symbols made up the other 12.9 percent (logotypes alone are not included in this analysis); see Logotype vs. Symbol
  • The state producing the most logos was California, with 14.9 percent of the total; see Logo Geography

The EMAX VPMA logo, above, a trademark of Encore Legal Solutions of Los Angeles, represents a web-based legal support service system. It may not be 2011’s most beautiful, best-designed, or most effective logo, but it fits the criteria above perfectly and is therefore the most typical, making it Emblemetric’s Logo of the Year.