This is an interesting time to talk about employment, HR, and work opportunities. 2021 saw the century’s biggest brain drain from the U.S. workforce. Millions of people quit their jobs and, across the board, businesses of all kinds and sizes started to suffer from staff shortages. Experts started calling it the Great Resignation, and it sparked countless debates, research papers, newspaper articles, and late-night show discussions.
While people have slowly started to return to work, nobody is in any doubt that we are still in the age of the Great Resignation. Employees have refused to work in toxic environments, suffer minimum wage, or settle with poor work-life balances.
In such an environment, the employment industry, on the whole, needs a complete redesign. Just raze it all to the ground and build anew. Starting from its foundations that are built on archaic models of economy, to upper-level structuring that refuses to open itself up to the changing needs of the modern workforce – it all needs to go.
If you are an employment agency that represents clients who can take on this work, the talent is watching you. People are still willing to work but the pandemic has given everyone a greater appreciation for what truly matters in life. Companies that fail to recognize that, and refuse to incorporate it into their systems, will suffer the most at the hands of talented individuals who know their worth.
For everyone else, this article is a refresher course on how to use modern HR logo identities to brand your HR firm as a forward-thinking platform. Show the top talent of this world that you represent clients who are evolving, unlearning and relearning, and willing to connect to their employees on a more human and intimate level.
1. HR Software Logos
Software branding has a very specific aesthetic. Shortened spelling, broken letters, rounded shapes, serif fonts, and primary colors.
HR branding, on the other hand, is exactly the opposite. We prefer earth tones in HR logos, and triangles and pointy shapes that can show forward motion. With fonts, the only rule is not to use scripts and anything twirly. Otherwise, it’s an open space to let your HR identity shine.
As you can imagine, bringing these two together with harmony and sync can be a challenge. You don’t want the smarter tech branding to overshadow the seriousness and professionalism of HR logo imagery. But you don’t want that imagery to weigh down the modernity and inclusiveness of high-tech branding.
If you think walking this tight rope can’t be done, these HR app logos are on a mission to prove you wrong. These logos display the perfect balancing act of flat colors but emotive imagery, minimalist icons but with a splash of color, and broken letters but serif fonts that hold everything down.
Image: Dribbble
Image: Dribbble
Image: Dribbble
Image: Dribbble
Image: A man logo on a phone screen
2. HR Company Logos
These logos cover a whole wide range of employment branding. Everything from recruitment to training, development, consulting, etc., comes under this umbrella. If you own an HR company, of any size and any type, a quick search of HR company logos can give you an idea of the leading trends.
Since these businesses serve a broader audience, you cannot use details that point in any certain direction. Steer clear of images that contain tech icons, engineering icons, chef icons, or anything too specific. Instead, focus on what human resources are all about – people, communities, growth, and opportunities.
Forward moving arrows, human imagery, things coming together in circles, and interconnected shapes are a few of the several ways to show community, a sense of togetherness, and growth. You can use these logos if you run an HR consulting firm, a community project, or even a PR platform. These versatile images can hold on their own whether you want to showcase them as commercial design assets or something that brands a charitable project.
Image: Logo with H and R letters
Image: Forward moving arrow logo with people icons
Image: HR logo with communication signals
Image: HR logo with pointer and people
Image: Human resource logo with people silhouettes
3. Temp Agency Logos
When we think about rebranding a temp agency, the design brief has to be unique. A temp agency, essentially, serves the role of a transitioning space. There’s a lot of movement. You’re constantly getting people connected to available (and hopefully, ideal) jobs so the focus is less on attracting top talent, and more on upselling both the talent and the job.
For this reason, integrity in design will set you apart from the competition. Most temp agencies go big on their branding, trying to imitate HR companies. But a temp agency – because it deals with the realities of lives on every day, every minute basis – has something quite extraordinary to add to the design: the charm of a transparent message.
Use this space to include hand-drawn imagery, add icons that show you care and use colors and spaces that highlight your need to find the next perfect candidate that’ll be hired as a permanent employee. Smudgy edges, contrasting colors, attractive shades, and zoomed-in icons – these are the details that’ll elevate you above the rest of them.
Image: HR logo with letters
Image: HR company logo with two men with ties
Image: Logo with a man under a microscope
Image: A tree logo signifying growth
Image: An HR or a community logo showing hands
4. Head Hunting Firm Logos
A headhunter or a headhunting firm looks for top tier talent for top-tier jobs. In more professional terms, it’s called Executive Search – because it’s literally searching for executives to fill top-level positions in high-end companies. I’m talking about corner office, seven-figure salaries, and lots of stock options.
The mantra to design identities for these firms is to harness exclusivity. Polished, muted, minimal. Serif fonts usually find their home here. And dark, saturated colors. But the leading design trend for headhunter logos is wordmarks.
Font-based logos do not use icons or any images in their design. They highlight the business name and do it with the confidence that comes with simplicity. By keeping the brand name front and center, the distracting details are banished from the design,s and logo recall is ensured. But in our collection today, we have variety in headhunting logos to show you that no rules govern this space. You can choose to follow what others are doing, or you can decide to make your own mark by choosing an icon or a particular color that is more authentic to your brand.
Image: Dribbble
Image: Dribbble
Image: Dribbble
Image: Dribbble
Image: Dribbble
5. Specialist HR Firm Logos
The logo design scripture in recent years has been partial to modern, minimalist design. And for good sense. The early to mid-2000s were too loud, too garish, and too all over the place. The widespread adoption of flat design calmed things down and the industries where it made its most impact included niche HR firms.
A niche HR firm is a recruitment company that specializes in specific types of jobs/industries. Consider the example of an HR firm that only deals with software engineers, or one that hires dancers for theater. Or a headhunter who connects Michelin star chefs to exclusive restaurants all over the world. Here, in our midst, we have a niche HR logo of a firm that specializes in finding people who can produce glass for the NASA spacecraft.
Talk about specific.
Identity design work for these companies needs to highlight their expertise as well as exclusivity because as a designer, it is your job to illustrate the fact that such firms are a rarity and they are serving special segments of business and community. The recruitment company logos we have chosen for this section perform this task very well.
Image: Dribbble
Image: Stint
Image: Woman icon sitting on the moon
Image: Dribbble
Image: Logopond
Conclusion
As we wrap up our discussion, I want to quickly mention here that a logo design is the neat little package that your brand message comes in. We can help you choose the best wrapping paper and write the best short poem for your intended clientele, but if the content is not strong enough, if you cannot deliver what you have promised, the package alone can’t do much.
Therefore, while you choose the most perfectly representative HR logo possible, try to do the hardest work at restructuring the culture and dynamic of your firm. Let the logo be a shiny, beautiful thing – not the hero of the evening.
