Wordmark (logotype)
Your brand name itself, drawn as the logo. No icon, no symbol, just the letters styled until they become the mark.
See it
What it is
A wordmark is the brand name doing the entire job of the logo. There is no separate symbol to learn and nothing to explain: the letters are the mark, so the design work goes into the letterforms themselves (hand kerning, unified stroke weights, one redrawn character) instead of into a shape parked next to them. Google, Sony, Braun, and FedEx all run on wordmarks.
Reach for one when the name is short, distinctive, and worth teaching. A wordmark forces people to read your name every single time they see you, which is exactly what a young brand needs and exactly what an abstract squiggle cannot do. Long names are the limit: 'Nike' is a great wordmark candidate, 'Consolidated Interlocking Systems' is not.
Gotcha: a wordmark is any text-only logo, so your name set in a licensed font still counts as one. What it does not automatically buy you is distinctiveness, and that is the part worth paying for. Custom lettering, hand kerning, and one redrawn character are what stop your mark looking like every other company running the same typeface. Check the licence too, since plenty of typefaces restrict use in a logo or in a trademark filing, and converting to outlines does not automatically make that fine.
Ask AI for it
Design a wordmark logo for the brand name '[NAME]': the full name set as the entire logo, with no icon or symbol anywhere. Use a single geometric sans (or a high-contrast serif for a luxury read), then customize it: tighten the kerning by hand, unify stroke weights and terminals, and modify one letter so it becomes ownable. All lowercase, one horizontal line, flat black on white, vector, no gradients, no shadows, no tagline. Show it large, then again at 24px tall to prove it stays legible.