Have you ever looked at
a logo and wondered how they came up with it? What inspired them to put
a half-bitten apple for Apple's logo? Well, you'd be surprised what
these 10 modern logos actually represent and mean. Remember: there's a
hidden meaning behind every logo!
1. Amazon
Your initial thought when looking at the Amazon logo might be that the arrow looks like a smiley face, meaning Amazon is there to make its customers happy. Well, notice that the arrow is pointing from the a to the z; representing the fact that Amazon provides a variety of items for sale, literally from A to Z.
2. FedEx
The
FedEx logo is a creative one! At first glance all you can really notice
are the two different colors, but if you look closely you can see an
arrow is created between the spaces of the letter 'E' and 'X',
representing the company's forward-thinking ways and outlook towards the
future.
3. Apple
If you guessed that the Apple logo has to do with the creation story of Adam and Eve, then you guessed correctly. It represents the forbidden fruit from the "Tree of Knowledge"
4. IBM
IBM’s logo has a hidden message for the whole world hidden in the Big Blue logo that represents it’s company. The white lines passing through give the appearance of the equal sign in the lower right corner, representing equality.
5. Adidas
Ever
notice that Adidas' symbol looks like a mountain? Well, that's exactly
what it's supposed to mean. The three stripes, which was part of the
original logo in 1967, never really meant anything. It was just supposed
to be unique. In the '90s, though, they slanted the stripes so that it
would represent a mountain, which stands for the obstacles people need
to overcome.
6. McDonald's
Yes, it really means "M" for McDonald's and there really isn't any other meaning McDonald's had intended. Instead, it came to mean something unintentionally by customers, at least according to design consultant and psychologist Louis Cheskin. In the '60s, McDonald's wanted to change their logo but Cheskin insisted on leaving the golden arches. He said it's because customers unconsciously recognize the logo as "symbolism of a pair of nourishing breasts" (via BBC). Whether we unconsciously believe this or not, Cheskin convinced them and now the logo is one of the most recognizable in the world.
7. Audi
Four
hoops...plain and simple, right? Well, wrong. In fact, each of these
hoops represent the 4 founding companies of the Auto-Union Consortium
way back in 1932: like DKW, Horch, Wanderer and Audi
8. Google
Ever
notice how the Google logo has four primary colors in a row then it's
broken by a secondary color? This was entirely intentional. Google
wanted to show that they don't play by the rules and are also playful
without making the symbol bulky. To do that, they just used simple
letters and colors.
9. Mercedes-Benz
The Mercedes-Benz logo is the most confident one out of the bunch. The tri-star is representative of the company's dominance in quality and style over all things land, sea and air
10. NBC
Yeah,
it's a peacock, but did you ever wonder why it has so many colors?
That's because, during the '50s, NBC's owner was RCA and they had just
begun to manufacture color televisions. Since RCA wanted people still
watching on black-and-white TV to know what they were missing, NBC
created a colorful logo to adapt to the new technology.
11. Volkswagen
The Volkswagen keeps its logo very simple but heartwarming as well. The 'V' and the 'W' can easily be seen.
'Volks', in German, means people, while 'Wagen' means car. It's the car for the people!
12. Mobil
The
importance of this logo lies in its colors. The red is said to
represent strength and the blue represents faithfulness and security
that the company provides.
13. BMW
As
long as I can remember, the BMW logo has been associated with a blue
sky and a propeller spinning, going back to its aircraft-building days.
But what if I told you that wasn't the original intention? According to
NYTimes, the trademark was registered in 1917, but the propeller
association wasn't created until a 1929 advertisement where the logo was
featured alongside an aircraft. What does it mean then? The colors are
blue and white to represent the Bavarian Free State colors. The reason
it looks how it does is because using a national symbol in a commercial
trademark was illegal, so the colors were arranged in an opposing order.
There you have it. (Source: New York Times.)
14. Toyota
The
three ellipses that are found in the logo for Toyota represent three
hearts: the heart of the customer, the heart of the product, and the
heart of progress in the field of technology
15. Pepsi
In
2008, Pepsi spent $1 million to pay Arnell Associates to come up with
the new logo (the old is the on the left and the new on the right). As a
result, Pepsi had to pay millions more to re-brand everything. Then
Arnell's document was leaked and it was entitled, "Breathtaking Design
Strategy." It proposes that the new logo is some kind of Da Vinci Code.
According to Arnell's document, the Pepsi logo draws on Feng shui, the
Renaissance, the Earth's Geodynamo, the theory of relativity, the
universe, and more. For more, read it over at Gawker. There you have it: the Pepsi logo is the key to the universe.
