men's health logo

The core design criteria for men’s health logos has never been “whether they highlight male characteristics or not”, but rather, on the premise of matching their own business attributes, they should maximize the elimination of users’ sense of shame while conveying sufficient professional credibility – any extreme logo that falls short of “overly serious and cold” or “vulgar” will basically exclude target users from the first step.

Two years ago, I helped a friend to upgrade the logo of a community men's clinic run by a friend, and I felt particularly deeply about this. Their earliest logo was pure blue and white, with a medical cross and a ♂ symbol put together. It was hung in front of the door as cold as a public laboratory sign. When patients came to the door, they had to scan left and right three times before getting the prescription. After taking the prescription, they folded it into small squares and stuffed it into the innermost layer of their wallets, for fear that people passing by would catch a glimpse of the word. Later, it was adjusted to a light green background with a cartoon family image hugging each other, and only a very small ♂ logo that blended with the font was left in the corner. The number of consultations increased by 30% that month. An old patient later joked that he used to hide in the toilet when receiving follow-up calls from nurses. Now he is holding a medical record bag with the new logo printed on it. When someone asks, he will go for a family health check-up. It is not embarrassing at all.

Nowadays, the industry is actually divided into two groups regarding the design ideas of this type of logo, and no one can convince the other. A group of colleagues who are engaged in the brand design of the public medical system insist that men's health logos must first maintain rigor. Cold colors, medical elements, and weakening of non-professional logos are the ironclad rules. After all, most of these institutions serve users with clear medical needs. What they want is the sense of security that "I am looking for a formal medical institution." If the logo is made flashy, it will be reminiscent of Yeluzi Hospital with small advertisements posted on the street. This does make sense. I went to the Reproductive Medicine Center of the Provincial People's Hospital before. Their logo is a blue-gray ♂ symbol combined with an olive branch. There is no redundant design. Most of the users who go to see the doctor have the needs of preparing for pregnancy and treating organic diseases. No one thinks it is too serious and there is a problem.

Another group of designers who work on online health content and consumer-grade men’s health products have completely different ideas. They feel that the biggest barrier in the field of men's health has never been that the product is not good enough, but that people dare not say, ask, or click on it. Therefore, the first thing to do with the logo is to "reduce the sense of presence." It is best that no one can guess what you do at first glance. Only when you click in will you find that the content just meets your needs. I have previously come into contact with a blogger who promotes prostate health science for young men. The earliest logo had the four characters "Men's Health Science Popularization" written in black letters on a white background. The number of followers increased by less than 20,000 in half a year. Later, it was changed to a warm orange cartoon chestnut holding a small dumbbell (medical students all know that the shape of the prostate is similar to a chestnut), and even the account name They were all changed to "Chestnut Care Diary" and gained more than 300,000 followers in half a year. Many fans dared to directly tell their true symptoms in private messages for the first time, instead of repeatedly asking "Will you leak privacy?" People said that when they first saw this round little chestnut, they felt that "it doesn't look like they would scold me for my improper life."

Of course, there is also an unavoidable controversy: many people think that it is the original sin to ignore gender in the men's health logo, but I don't think it can be beaten to death. If you are doing serious medical care or science popularization for all age groups, you will definitely be courting death if you ignore it. But if you are making fun health products for young people, appropriate sexy hints can accurately hit the audience. For example, there is a brand of men's delayed care products. The logo is a cartoon man holding a shield, with a line of very small words "Guard Every Minute" added below. It highlights the attributes of the product and is not vulgar at all. Its sales are more than twice as high as those brands in the same period that directly show their abdominal muscles and use vulgar homophones. But if you don't grasp the scale well, it will overturn. I once saw a men's health spa that hung a red super-large ♂ symbol on the door, and everyone passing by had to walk around.

After doing medical brand design for so long, I feel that men's health logos actually don't have so many fancy rules. The core is just to think about it from the user's perspective: when he sees this logo, is he standing in the hospital lobby where people are coming and going, or is he nesting in bed searching for a problem that he is embarrassed to say out loud? The former wants the solidity of "This is a formal organization", while the latter wants the relaxation of "I don't think anyone will laugh at this." If you can understand this, your logo will basically not make a big mistake. To put it bluntly, the logo in this field should be a step, so that those who are originally embarrassed to take the first step can dare to walk forward calmly.