What is the power of a logo? It can make or break an organization. Creating one that aligns with your company’s core values and personality isn’t child’s play, but all successful logos share certain qualities: they’re clear, simple yet powerful when needed (no need for frills!), memorable to customers who see them every day–and not just forgotten in some dusty design book on someone’s shelf!
The Amazon logo has evolved over time, but today’s is one of the most iconic. It features a wordmark with an orange arrow that serves as its smile. They introduced the design in 2000 and used it throughout various parts of company branding like product packaging or customer services materials. The smile illustration on the logo symbolizes a customer’s excitement when they receive their package from Amazon. The line starting at A and ending at Z represents that Amazon can be deliver anything to you because it starts with point “A” as in an author or actor, and ends with point “Z”.
The McDonald’s logo has become known across the globe as a symbol of fast food dining. This small burger joint in San Bernardino, California has created one of the greatest feats of branding and is recognized amongst all other logos out there today. The first McDonald’s restaurant was opened by Richard and Maurice McDonald in 1937. But it was only with the opening of its first franchised store that the new building included stylized half circles by sign-maker George Dexter, which led to a golden arch logo being introduced for all future restaurants from 1953 onward.
Since 1886, the Coca Cola logo has kept a similar version of its original design. The Spencerian script represents classic handwriting and is full of elegance. Frank Mason Robinson, the founder’s bookkeeper suggested that two big “C”s would look fabulous in advertising and thus he ended up designing it. Coca-Cola has maintained its brand image since 1886. The bright red color of the logo and cursive font are so distinctive that it can be recognized worldwide, even when translated into other languages.
The International Business Machine Corporation, or IBM as it is more commonly known, has been a major player in the tech industry for over 130 years. The company’s current logo was designed by Paul Rand and first introduced to the public back in 1972. It features horizontal stripes forming letters that are suggestive of speed and dynamism – something unsurprising considering their technological expertise!
Nike’s logo is a nod to Greek mythology and the goddess of victory, Nike. The swoosh represents one of her wings through which she bestows immense power upon warriors. This makes it an appropriate emblem for sports apparel and equipment brand that helps athletes win their games with superior performance gear like shoes, clothing etc.
The BMW logo tells of the company’s history in aviation during World War II, when it created aircraft engines for German military use. The blue and white depict a propeller at motion with sky peeping through it.
Founder Adolf Dassler inspired the Adidas logo together with his ambition to help athletes achieve great heights. Many believe that ‘ADIDAS’ stands for ‘All Day I Dream about Sports’, but this isn’t true. It’s actually taken from the name of its creator: Adolf Dassler who founded it in 1949 as a small company producing sports shoes with two brothers named Adi and Rudolf after their family surname. There is a three-striped mountain on top of the writing ADIDAS which symbolizes peaks people need to climb over when reaching excellence or high goals they set themselves.
Ron Wayne originally designed the Apple logo. It depicted Sir Isaac Newton sitting under an apple tree, but it got replaced with the iconic rainbow-coloured version illustrated by Rob Janoff and redesigned to feature a bitten fruit because people might mistake Apple for cherries otherwise. The coloured stripes were added to show that this early computer could display colours on screen as well!
Passion leads to success
“Logos are the graphic extension of the internal realities of a company.” —Saul Bass
A logo is an essential part of a company’s branding. It’s the first thing any potential customer will look at, and it can set the tone for your brand narrative from day one. A good designer knows that every logo plays its own role in this story—which means each must be unique to tell their different stories well!