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10 Best Health Logos and How to Design Your Own

Published: 2020-12-14

Healthcare professionals spend years studying the minute details and intricacies of the human body — if only they had that kind of expertise with logo design! Private-practice physicians, specialists like heart or eye doctors, and medical companies like laboratories or pharmacies all need logos just like any other business. And for those just starting out, they may need to design that logo themselves. 

If you’re interested in designing a health logo yourself but don’t know how, we’ve written this guide just for you. First, we’ll look at 10 of the best health logos, broken up by field or specialization, so you can see what the most effective design techniques of the healthcare industry look like. Then, we’ll dive into specific techniques you, too, can apply — even if you’ve never designed a logo before! 


1. Best Physician and Private-Practice Doctor Logo

 

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Starting off, we see this physicians group use a couple of common trends with health logos; the medical cross imagery and the use of blueish colors. 

For health logos, imagery is essential — you need something in your logo to signify what you do, in this case it’s the medical cross. The color blue is more of a choice for comfort; it’s a friendly and inviting color, which mitigates some of the fear of going to the doctors. 

The TotalCare physician group also uses a circle as a parallel to their name (the unending circle shape signifies totality). The use of curves, rounded corners, and the sans serif typography also add to the comforting and friendly tones they’re going for. 


2. Best Cardiology and Heart Logos

 

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Cardiologist and heart doctors often use the same trends for their health logos. You see the heart shape a lot — not an actual heart shape, but the cartoon one. It’s also customary to use the color red, which both symbolizes the red color of the heart organ, and indicates the urgency and importance of heart health. 

The logo above also incorporates a heart monitor (EKG) line. Although the sharp spikes go against the other calming visuals, for cardiology it’s a clear signal about what kind of company you are. 


3. Best Optical and Eye Health Logo

 

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Optometrists, opticians, and eye doctors frequently use imagery of eyes — a popular logo icon for any industry. The eye suits logos well because of its repetition of circles and curves, which as mentioned create more calming and friendly designs. 

McKeons in particular use their eye logo well. They augment the calming curves by adding extras, and they paint the whole image in shades of blue, a color of choice for medical industries. 

 

4. Best Ear, Nose & Throat Health Logo

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Ear, nose & throat doctors have extra challenges when it comes to logos; it’s not easy to deal with those parts of the body lightly. The Essential ENT firm found a great way, however — the hand-drawn loops in the relevant areas give them a more light-hearted appearance, while simultaneously emphasizing their specialty. 

For an extra effect, they shade in the relevant areas of the cross-section face in their logo. This clarifies what type of medicine they practice, in case the loops alone weren’t clear. 


5. Best Dental Logo

 

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Dentistry and dental firms almost always use images of a tooth in their logos; it’s an explicit sign of what their business does. The key to designing a dental logo, then, is to make it stand out from all the other dental logos. Typically, this means doing something creative and original with the tooth shape — like how the Observatory uses a dynamic visual pattern and unconvention colors. 

It’s worth mentioning that the straight lines and rectangular patterns are not typical of other health logos. The designer choose an artistic style not common to the health industry as a means to stand out — and it works! 


6. Best Laboratory Logo

 

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Medical laboratories, especially those dealing with DNA, tend to use imagery of microscopes or DNA strands in their logos. Just like dental firms, the trick is to make it stand out by doing something new. Take Trend, which incorporates the DNA strand shape into their name (notice the masterful use of shading to create the letter E). 

This specific laboratory is going for an edgier look than most other health companies. Their use of the color black, sharp spiky edges, and inconsistent capitalization works for their particular brand, but might be out of place in more traditional health logos. 


7. Best Physiotherapy Logo

 

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As the field of medicine dealing heavily with movement and mobilization, physiotherapy, or physical therapy, uses a lot of body imagery in their logos. Our favorite is the logo for Equilibria, which combines body imagery, calming curves, a cool color scheme, and originality. The result is a logo that’s not only aesthetically pleasing to look at, but also clearly signifies what type of medical practice they do. 

 

8. Best Psychology Logo

 

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Psychology itself is abstract, so it’s practically impossible to design to a logo that immediately communicates “psychology.” Rather, most psychologists embrace the abstract — their logos tend to be more artististic and experimental than the formulaic logos in fields like dentistry. 

The logo for Dana Moriarty, for example, is not unlike a modern art piece. The asymmetry and use of color in particular would be out-of-place in other health logos, but for psychology it’s perfect. Still, despite the range of colors, most of them remain in the “cool” spectrum, in keeping with the standards of other health logos. 

 

9. Best Medical Cannabis Logos

 

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The newest entry into the medical field is cannabis, which in most countries was just legalized recently (or not-at-all in other countries). Medical cannabis logos usually follow the traditional techniques of other health logos — they still have to normalize their industry in the eyes of a lot of customers, so they tend to do this by the book so as not to ruffle feathers. 

There are some notable exceptions, however. For example, you see the color green used a lot in medical cannabis logos, a color long-associated with marijuana (for obvious reasons). You also often see the convergence of medical imagery with marijuana imagery, like the cannabis leaf/stethoscope hybrid in the logo above. 

 

10. Best Pharmacy Logo

 

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Pharmacies largely follow the same best practices of other health logos, although they have different icons and emblems than other medical fields. The most common one is the mortar and pestle, a classic symbol of medicine-making with roots in distant human history. (Pills are also normal, but not as popular; pills might carry negative connotations for some customers). 

Again, if you’re going to use the popular icons like a mortar-and-pestle, the key is to differentiate yourself. Canadian Valley pharmacy uses a unique minimalist style for their logo, which is simple enough to understand what they do, but interesting enough to be memorable. 

 

3 Expert Tips for Designing Your Health Logo

 

Want to know how to design your own health logo? Here are three expert design tips specifically for logos related to medical fields. 

 

1. Use imagery to show your specialization

 

One of the advantages of a good logo (in any industry) is easy communication. When you’re a new company or brand, you want everyone to know who you are and what you do — and because humans are visual creatures, showing is always more effective than telling. Logos are great for that because they can show what kind of company you are in a split-second, even from a distance, all without the need for words or explanation. 

That goes double for medical professions — even when you spell it out for them, some people won’t know the difference between a podiatrist and pediatrician. So the most efficient way to communicate your specialization is using connected imagery: a foot for a podiatrist, a child for a pediatrician, and so on. 

If you look at the best health logos above, you see most of them use imagery related to their fields. Even general practitioners can use general symbology: the medical cross is a popular one, as is the stethoscope. For your logo, try to use an image that tells people exactly what you do, all without saying a word. 

 

2. Calming shapes

 

No one likes going to the doctors in reality. It’s often associated with pain and malady, and even if you’re just visiting someone else who’s sick, there’s still a negative connotation. The best medical brands are aware of this, and take as many measures as possible to alleviate the stress involved with their services. 

That extends all the way down to the logo, with medical brands using the right graphic design choices to influence how people perceive them. Different shapes have different emotional connotations, i.e., curves are friendly and playful, whereas straight, angular rectangles are more formal and opposing. 

Health logo design favors gentle and calming shapes, as a way to help patients relax. You don’t need to be a professional designer to know which shapes communicate what — just read our guide to using shapes in logo design, and see which visuals match your brand personality best. 

 

3. Stick to the standard colors

 

Just like shapes have their own subtle emotional connotations, so too do colors. Most graphic designers have studied color theory so they know which colors to use to set the right mood. That’s why branding colors are so important, they influence how people perceive you. 

When it comes to health logos, though, there’s more to consider than brand personality. For one thing, you want to try to relax your patients, the same reasoning behind using calming shapes. That’s why you see a lot of blue; the friendliest color, blue helps win people’s trust and tends to be more tranquil. 

But with medical industries, you also want to come across as effective and professional — after all, sometimes you’re asking people to put their lives in your hands. That’s why you often see white associated with medical brands — white is the color of sterility and cleanliness, as well as virtue and moral good. Think of it this way: how you feel about going into a hospital painted all black? 

Occasionally, you also see red with health logos. Red is the color of urgency and vitality — befitting of the medical industry, but doesn’t exactly help people calm down. That’s why health logos should only use red under certain circumstances, such as high-stakes fields like cardiology. 

If you want to stray from the common colors like blue, white, and red, we suggest sticking with cool colors: blues, purples, and some greens. Cool colors are more relaxing than warm colors like red, yellow, and orange, so they’ll help keep your patients see you as a more calming brand, again taking the edge out of going to doctors.  

 

How to Design a Health Logo 

 

Now that you have an idea of what goes into an effective health logo, the question is, how do you make one? Essentially you have two options: hire someone to design it for you or design it yourself. Both have their own merits and drawbacks, so let’s examine both individually. 


Hiring a Designer

 

Professional designers know by heart all the tips, tricks, and techniques we’ve mentioned above, and then some. When you hire a designer, freelance or from an agency, you’re buying their expertise just as much as their time. 

The problem is, no skilled designer works for free. The most glaring downside of hiring a designer is the cost — talented designers charge hundreds or even thousands of dollars for logo design. 

Sometimes you can find cheaper alternatives on sites like Fiverr, but those sites have a poor record for delivering what they promised, and there’s tons of ex-Fiverr users who felt they were ripped off. The industry standard for a logo design is around $200, so if someone charges $5, you’re right to be suspicious. 

Moreover, even if you have the money to spare, it can be difficult to find the right designer for you. Graphic design is a creative field, so there are innumerable artistic styles to choose from. You have to be sure to find a designer who both understands your vision and is capable of bringing it to life, but that can take time. 

 

Design a Logo Yourself

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If you don’t have spare cash in your budget for a logo, don’t despair. While in the past you may have had limited options, nowadays technology has advanced so that virtually anyone can design their own logo using an online logo design tool like logogenie. 

In our digital era, design software is less about the technical skill of your hands and more about your creative ideas. You don’t need to master your brush strokes or pencil shading — you don’t even need steady hands. With digital logo makers, all you need is an idea.

Logogenie, and other online design tools, use templates to make design fast and easy, even for first timers. First, you select your industry from the dropdown menu. 

 

We’ve categorized our templates by the needs and demands of the top industries, so finding yours is the first step. Our algorithm will then generate the top choices for your industry. 

 

Simply choose the one you like and start editing. You can customize each template however you want, personalizing your choices for: 

 

Main images
Company name and slogan
Font and typography
Color schemes
Text and picture sizes
Text and picture placement
Adding new icons
Layering (putting some images behind or in front of others)

 

You can choose from our internal library of over 200 icons. A quick glance shows that there are plenty of the intellectual imagery we mentioned above, including trees with rainbow leaves, shield crests, books, graduation caps, and more. 

 

If you want to use more advanced techniques, we wrote a quick beginner’s guide to using Logogenie. This explains all the nuances of the Logogenie interface, including how to edit individual aspects of the base image, change certain colors but not other, and perfecting your typography. 

Using a DIY logo maker like logogenie, you can create a professional-tier logo in just minutes. When you’re done, you can buy all permissions and commercial licensing for $24.90, which grants you your logo forever. 

While the template-style of design works well for first-timers, you’ll get better results if you bone up on some graphic design basics beforehand. Keep reading our blog for special design tips, straight from expert designers. 

 

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