Famous brand logos: history and meaning

Creation of logos

Logos are made to be rememberedThey must connect people with the brand. Transmitting its values ​​to its clients and helping companies to build your identity. But it is not easy, since consumers are very demanding and any small detail can generate rejection. It is not the case of famous brand logos that we are going to present to you later.

These brands have known how to adapt to the passage of time, making variations to a greater or lesser extent on their logos. Over the years these companies have known how to continue transmitting the same values. What is the history and meaning behind the most famous logos? Here are 5 famous logos that will inspire you with their characteristics and stories.

Logos of famous brands and their stories

The logotype It is a graphic sign that identifies a company, institution, brand, person or society. The logo design process requires a combination of design skills, creative theory, and keeping up with the latest design trends. In addition, the four states of creation in branding must be taken into account: research / strategy, typography, figure / symbolism and color theory. But we will not go into more details. If you are interested in creating a logo, here We leave you the link to another article where we give you some tips so that you can design your own logo.

Most likely, you have seen these logos a lot of times, since practically most of them are present in our day to day. We have chosen 5 well-known brand logos from various sectors: technology, automotive, clothing, furniture sales or photography.

Nike

Logo of Nike, the sports-related products company

Nike It was born in 1971 under the name of Blue Ribbon Sports (an import company), but it did not really come into existence until 1971 due to the expansion of the production of its sports shoes. Carolyn davidson was the graphic design student who created this logo. He only charged $ 35 for this design. To make this logo se inspired by the greek goddess of victory Nike, specifically in their wings that represented movement and speed. The characteristic symbol of this brand is known as "Swoosh".

In 1978, Nike decided to update its logo to a more attractive version. To do this, they chose a bolder typeface, in capital letters and a change in the position of the Swoosh. The typography is characterized by being a minimalist type sans-serif, which fitted in well with the core values ​​of the company. Currently the company has preferred to use only the Swoosh, thus becoming one of the most iconic images of the world. The primary colors that are currently used in their logo are black and white, although previously a dark red hue was chosen.

Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC),

Apple logo, Steve Jobs' company

It was the year 1975 when Steve Jobs decided to reject the first Apple logo, since it was too detailed. Ron wayne, was commissioned to design said logo. Inspired by Isaac Newton's discovery of gravity. The famous scene that we all know, where the English scientist drops an apple and thanks to it he can formulate the theory of gravity. That logo only lasted a year, due to the complexity required to reproduce it. It is rumored that the brand's name refers to the suicide of Alan Turing, who died after biting an apple infected with cyanide, but it was never confirmed.

In 1976, Jobs decided to commission the Graphic Designer Ron Janoff, the new design. Due to the need for Apple to need a logo that represented the values ​​and philosophy of its company. Janoff proposed something much simpler. Realizing the importance of the Apple symbol to Jobs, he settled on this idea. He showed Steve a colorful logo with a bitten apple. From top to bottom, it is characterized by horizontal lines of green, yellow, orange, red, purple and blue. This logo was present until 1998. Later, Apple has remained faithful to this symbol, only varying the colors and shading.

Tesla

Tesla logo, the car company

The name of Tesla was born in honor of its inventor Nikola Tesla, who would be the forerunner of alternating current and electromagnetism. This company was born in 2003 along with the launch of its first car, thanks to a group of engineers who wanted to demonstrate that it is possible to drive on electric power.

Currently the Tesla logo has undergone some variations. Yes OK, your logo can be easily identified by the large letter "T".  Although it looks like a crown, it is actually the cross section of a part of an induction motor, in which movement is generated due to the phase shift between the magnetic fields of its coils. The Corporate colors of this company vary between black, red and silver. In the first design that was created, the letters were black and the shield was silver. Instead, today, the logo can be a red or silver letter T.

Canon Canon logo of a camera

This company was created in 1933 when a new camera model was created thanks to Precision Optical Instruments Laboratory. The Canon logo is born in honor of the Buddhist goddess of compassion Kwan Yin.  In the first canon logo design, we could see the goddess inside a circle of flames, in a lotus flower position with many arms. Above it was the word "camera" and below it "Kwanon." In 1935 the company, with the purpose of reflecting a more modern image, decided to change its name to Canon. In 1956, the logo was redesigned to the one we all know today and remains unchanged ever since.

The current Canon logo is the company name. The typography it is very characteristic due to its great thickness. It was exclusively designed by graphic designer Gio Fuga. This designer chose the color red to represent the passion, determination and energy they use to create their products. The most characteristic letter of this logo is the «C», due to its glyph that is curved inward and sharpened at its top. We can find two color variations of this logo: the first in red and white and the second in monochrome.

Ikea

Ikea logo

The IKEA logo is a combination of its founder's initials "Ingvar Kampar", his family farm "Elmtaryd" and his hometown "Agunnaryd". The first logo was created in 1951. It consisted solely of a circular seal. In the center you could see the word "IKEA", surrounded by the words "Kvalitets Garanti" (Quality Assurance), both in handwritten and italic type. They wanted to demonstrate the quality of their products. This logo was soon replaced. In 1954, it became a brown-gold stain with the word "IKEA" in capital letters, with a thick, straight, white typeface.

Instead, in 1967, the logo began to look a lot like what we know today. Composed of the word «IKEA» in black in a thicker font, but the letters "K" and "A" were modified with serifs. They were enclosed in a white ellipse, and that ellipse in turn was enclosed in a black rectangle with a white frame. In 1982, a change was made in the color palette, thus finding the color combination that we know today: a yellow ellipse placed inside a blue rectangle and blue letters. Recently, in 2019, Ikea redesigned its logo. They decided to change the shade from blue to a darker one, thus making the brand look more serious and professional than the previous one.


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