Cartoon & mascot logos
Main logo: InBox Diet
Project: Cartoon logo design for e-mail anti-spam software.
More: Cartoon & mascot logo gallery

Main logo: A whimsical mascot driven logo for In Box Diet - a e-mail spam control system. Our designers developed a cartoon character based on an envelope, and then added a 'health' shake to convey the idea of diet. Placing a logo within a circular shield (which has, in actuality, a square aspect ratio) makes the design applicable to a wide range of medium and uses. Note: Character, cartoon and mascot logos generally involve several preliminary design steps utilizing sketches and concept drawings. Accordingly, character logos of this complexity would require a minimum of a professional logo design package.

Cartoon logos

Cartoon logos are certainly not for everybody, and their development must be tailored very carefully to the market and theme of the business or company depicted. Imagine a bank with a cartoon character - hardly inspires an aura of strength or reliability. In some cases, a cartoon logo is entirely appropriate, especially when trying to demonstrate unorthodox ideas or concepts, or when marketing to a particular group of people. Such was the case with In Box Diet, who wanted to portray their spam filtering service in a light-hearted manner while still appealing to the widest market possible. After developing the e-mail character, our designers created several versions of the logo - a shielded version (main) and a horizontal aspect version (below) that was to be used in web site headers.


Character logos have the additional benefit of being adaptable to various situations. The character can be brought to life and placed in environments to illustrate various aspects of the company or service.

Some logo design projects cry out for a cartoon or whimsical treatment. See Condoms & Company (right) Condom Smart, Froggies Bait Dock and Snow Men (below). Cartoon logos also have the added benefit of being very popular on T-shirts and other premium incentive material As such, cartoon and mascot logos are very common with bars and nightclubs - especially those who are marketing to a younger audience. Sports team logos featuring mascots and cartoons are also very popular (see our sports logo section for some examples by The Logo Factory). The bottom line - if you're ready to brand your company with a mascot logo, and it fits your market segment, there's nothing wrong with this type of approach. In fact, a company mascot is the route of many Fortune 500 companies - think McDonald's (who have an entire range of character trademarks), Wendy's, Burger King, Michelin Tires, Pixar - all of whom utilize mascots in a substantial portion of their marketing if not as their actual main logo. And let's not forget the grand-daddy of cartoon character based companies - Walt Disney and their famous mouse. Nobody's going to claim that any of these corporations are foolish for using cartoons in their corporate identity. See below for more examples of The Logo Factory's work involving cartoon, mascot and character driven logos.

Cartoon & mascot logo gallery

Humdinger Character logo 1 - Roasted Nuts Family. Humdinger decided to 'brand' all their snack food lines with various animal characters. Designing such a logo requires a designer with well-developed illustration skills.	Humdinger Character logo 2 - Kettle Korn Family. Even though the characters are quite different, the similar style of illustration builds a 'look and feel' that the company can use throughout their marketing.	Stone Creek Grill character logo. Another character driven logo design featuring a fairly detailed raccoon mascot. Having a character in your logo, while not for everyone, allows unique marketing and artwork opportunities.
Mezzy Search Engine character and mascot. Even though a majority of 'mascot' logos feature stylized animals, cartoon and mascot logos can also feature humans - case in point the design for Mezzy search engine.	Mombu logo. This logo, developed for a children-friendly forum group was developed using simple shapes and colours. The characters are nondescript, yet illustrate the multi-cultural nature of the forums.	Unused Logo. A rejected cartoon design from a series for a fast-food restaurant and grill. This design is available through our Logos in a Box stock inventory service.
Unused Logo. Retro cartoon design from a series for a cheese themed grill and eatery. See the logo case study here. This artwork wasn't selected by the client and similar designs are available through our Logos in a Box stock inventory service.	Goblin Offroad. Black and white version of a cartoon logo developed for an off-road accessories manufacturer. Cartoon logos may be fun, but they still have to work from a technical point of view. See the magazine ad for this project.	The Bean Coffee and Ice Cream. To complete this logo, our designers created a jazz-inspired coffee bean mascot through a series of designs and concept sketches. See the design process for this project.
Soupy's Tequila Shack. One of our most commented logos, Soupy's features a great Mexican Tequila worm, complete with gold tooth and earrings. This logo was printed on T-shirts and other memorabilia that is sold at the bar.	To Go Chefs. This design features the combination of a cartoon character with highly-rendered graphic and text elements. Cartoon logos don't need to be 'goofy' and can portray a professional image if developed correctly. View the restaurant brochure for this project.	Red Swarm Basketball Team. The treatment of this wasp character illustrates how we can keep a design whimsical while still ending up with a highly versatile logo. Artwork of this nature can be turned into animations quite readily - see the flash example for this design.
Dice Man Board Game. While cartoon logos typically feature whimsical characters as the central focus, this isn't necessarily the case for every occasion. Case in point - the Dice Man Board Game design uses cartoonish fonts sans any mascot. See the package & board game design for this project.	Health Nut. Generally speaking, cartoon type designs will feature bright primary colours. Sometimes a simple monochromatic treatment works just as well, as this mark for this British Columbia health food company illustrates. View the package design for this project.	Enlightened Play. Developing a cartoon logo requires some fairly well developed illustration skills, and despite their whimsical nature, designs like this are often series business. Like any logo, the design for Enlightened Play had to work on their stationery design.
Tek Op IT Services. This 'bionic monkey' logo received the full treatment from The Logo Factory design team - everything from Flash animation to vehicle wraps and stationery. To view this artwork in use, you can view the Tek Op case study.	Papa's Sports Lounge & Casino. Highly rendered design features a cartoon Pirate with appropriate graphics and typography. This finished artwork is far removed from the original concepts - take a look at how this project evolved during a sports bar design process.	Junk Boys. While this design - for Toronto based Junk Boys Trash Removal Service - isn't technically a cartoon logo, we're featuring it here to illustrate how we turned the characters into cartoons for the Junk Boys animation. See the Flash animation example here.

While many of the logos portrayed above are four colour logos, due to their inherent linear nature, most cartoon logos can also be developed in spot or one colour designs.

Cartoon Logos

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