Logos are a distinctive emblem of each brand, with some gaining greater renown than others.
Developing a successful logo is no easy task, and every major firm has one thing in common: an iconic logo that is adored by the masses.
Almost every well-known company has a backstory and an intriguing tale about how designers and marketers came up with the logo after a lot of brainstorming and research.
IBM
IBM, which started as the International Time Recording Company (ITR), in 1888, changed several names and logos before it came to be called the International Business Machines Corporation. The current logo, designed by Paul Rand, was introduced in 1972. The horizontal stripes forming the letters IBM are suggestive of ‘speed and dynamism’.
Nike
Nike’s logo is simple, but effective. Nike is the goddess of triumph in Greek mythology. Her wing, dubbed ‘Swoosh,’ inspired the logo. According to Greek mythology, Swoosh imparts enormous force and motivation to warriors. This makes it the ideal logo for a sports apparel and accessories company, inspiring them to ‘just do it’.
BMW
The BMW logo speaks of its history in aviation during World War II, when the company used to create aircraft engines for the German military. The blue and white in the logo depicts the propeller in motion, with the sky peeping through it.
Nestlé
The Nestlé logo was designed in 1868 by Henri Nestle, based on the meaning of his name in German. The logo also included a little nest and his family emblem. Later on, as the logo evolved, the mother bird’s beak was removed and the three fledglings were reduced to two to depict an average modern family.
Baskin-Robbins
Burt Baskin and Irv Robbins, two brothers-in-law, founded their ice cream businesses in 1948-49, which became known as Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream in 1953. A local advertising agency suggested the “31®” design, which represents a different flavour for each day of the month. The current logo design was created by the advertising agency Ogilvy and Mather, skilfully inscribing 31 in the name.
Adidas
Adidas is one of the world’s most well-known sports brands. It’s name is taken from the name of the founder, Adolf Dassler, and the logo features a three-striped mountain on top of the word Adidas, to inspire athletes to achieve great heights.
Apple
Sir Isaac Newton is pictured under an apple tree in Apple’s original logo, designed by Ron Wayne. Rob Janoff drew a rainbow apple to replace this emblem right away. The purpose of a bitten apple was to prevent people from mistaking it for a cherry. The coloured stripes were added to make the emblem more visible and to show that the Apple II could generate colour graphics. Later, the company switched to a monochrome logo since it gives them more options when branding their products.
Amazon
Amazon is a renowned online retailer, with its name referring to how large the store directory is. The logo features an upward arrow pointing from ‘A’ to ‘Z’ within its name, implying that the store carries everything from ‘A’ to ‘Z’!
Toyota
Toyota was previously known as Toyoda, after the founder’s family name, and was sold with the Toyoda logo. Following a public competition to develop a new emblem, the name was changed in 1936. Three ovals are joined in a horizontally symmetrical pattern in the current logo. The heart of the client and the heart of the firm are represented by two perpendicular ovals inside a larger oval. The outer oval, which overlaps them, indicates a customer-company relationship that is mutually beneficial.
Mercedes
Gottlieb Daimler, one of the founders of Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG), the firm that held the Mercedes brand at the time, sent a postcard to his wife in the 1870s. He drew a three-point star above his house and wrote, “One day, this star will shine over our triumphant factories.” After the success of the business, his sons, Paul and Adolf Daimler, proposed the star emblem to the DMG board in the 1900s.
Audi
In Latin, the word Audi means “to listen.” August Horch started it after being thrown out of his previous vehicle company, Horch. Audi merged with Horch, DKW, and Wanderer to form an automobile union in 1932. The four interconnected rings, which subsequently became Audi’s official logo, and symbolised the company’s early name ‘Auto Union’. Even today, the logo lives on, adorning the grilles of Audi’s everywhere.
