A new childcare centre opens with a logo designed by a friend who works in tech. It’s striking: a sharp, geometric mark made of triangles, in black and electric blue. It would look perfect on a cybersecurity company’s website. On a sign above a door where parents leave their toddlers each morning, it feels oddly cold.
The owners can’t quite put their finger on why some parents seem hesitant at first. Their staff are warm, their rooms are bright and their reviews are excellent. But before parents have met anyone, the logo has already said something about the place, and it isn’t “gentle” or “caring”.
Most people assume logos are mainly about recognition: a mark that helps customers remember you. That’s true. But research suggests that even the basic shape of a logo, whether its lines are round or angular, can shape what people assume about a business before they know anything else about it.
One Like insight: Your logo makes a first impression before your name has been read.
Round or angular?
In 2016, Yuwei Jiang and Gerald Gorn of Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Maria Galli of Pompeu Fabra University and Amitava Chattopadhyay of INSEAD published five experiments in the Journal of Consumer Research testing whether the shape of a logo changes how people judge a product or company.
They started from a simple observation. In everyday life, round things like pillows and cushions tend to be soft, while angular things like bricks and knives tend to be hard. The researchers suspected logo shapes might trigger those same associations.
They were right. In one experiment, people saw an advert for a running shoe with either a circular logo, an angular logo or no logo. Those who saw the circular logo rated the shoe as more comfortable; those who saw the angular logo rated it as more durable. The researchers concluded that a logo’s shape alone can change how people judge a product or company. The effect extended beyond physical products: when a fictional airline had a circular logo, people expected it to be more caring and sensitive towards customers.
Importantly, the effect had limits. It disappeared when people’s visual imagination was occupied with something else, and when an advert’s headline clearly highlighted a different attribute from the one the logo suggested. In other words, shape is a subtle nudge that clear words and real experience can override.
These were controlled experiments, mostly with students and fictional brands. But they suggest that logo shape is a small, early signal worth getting right.
Matching shape to your promise
None of this means every business should switch to round logos, or that angular ones are cold. The practical lesson is that a brand’s visual language should support what it wants customers to believe about it.
If your promise is about care, comfort, gentleness or approachability, softer, rounder forms tend to reinforce it: childcare, healthcare, hospitality, wellness, bakeries. If your promise is about strength, precision, durability or security, more angular forms may fit better: engineering, construction, cybersecurity, tools.
This applies across a whole brand system, not only the logo. The same signals come from typefaces, icons, button shapes on a website, packaging and even interior design. A business with a rounded, friendly logo but sharp, aggressive icons and harsh angular layouts sends mixed messages. As we explored in What Does Your Business Sound Like?, elements that agree with each other tend to work better than ones that pull in different directions.
Many businesses need a balance. A builder might want to suggest both strength and friendliness, for example, with a solid, structured mark softened by rounded corners or warm colours.
[Infographic placement] What shapes suggest. Two columns of simple shapes. Round forms (circles, curves, soft corners) linked to: comfortable, caring, approachable, gentle. Angular forms (triangles, squares, sharp corners) linked to: durable, strong, precise, tough. Beneath, example sectors for each. Caption: Jiang, Gorn, Galli and Chattopadhyay (2016): circular logos made products seem more comfortable; angular logos made them seem more durable.
Checking your shapes
Write down, in two or three words, what you most want customers to feel about your business: perhaps “safe and caring”, “quick and reliable” or “strong and precise”. Then look at your logo, icons, typeface and the main shapes on your website and signage. Do they suggest the same qualities? If you’re unsure, show your logo to a few people who don’t know your business and ask what kind of company they imagine behind it.
If there’s a mismatch, you don’t necessarily need a complete rebrand. Small changes, such as rounding corners, adjusting icon styles or choosing a softer or sturdier typeface, can bring the system into line. And remember the research’s limits: clear words and real experience can easily override shape. A logo is a starting signal, not a substitute for a good business.
A few questions can help:
- What two or three qualities do we most want customers to sense?
- Do our logo’s shapes suggest those qualities or work against them?
- Do our icons, typefaces and layouts send the same message?
- What would someone who knows nothing about us guess from our logo alone?
Which brings us back to the childcare centre and its sharp, geometric logo. The owners didn’t need to start from scratch. A softer, rounded version of the same idea, in warmer colours, would keep the modern feel their friend designed while telling parents something truer about what happens inside: that their children will be safe and cared for.
Sources
- Yuwei Jiang, Gerald J. Gorn, Maria Galli and Amitava Chattopadhyay, “Does Your Company Have the Right Logo? How and Why Circular- and Angular-Logo Shapes Influence Brand Attribute Judgments”, Journal of Consumer Research 42(5), 2016. Summarised by the Association for Psychological Science.
