Logos and branding are a huge part of any successful company.
In short, a good logo grabs attention, tells people at a glance what your business is about, builds trust, is memorable and separates you from your competition.
Having a solid logo, is an integral part of making your brand successful.
If you are interested in graphic design, then we have a range of courses here at North Kent College that can teach you everything you need to be successful in the industry.
But before we go into detail on those, let’s look at seven of the world’s most recognisable brands, and how their logos evolved…
Amazon
The Amazon logo has taken many iterations over the years.
The initial logo, in 1995, was in a trapezoid shape with a river (presumably the Amazon) crossing the trapezoid to form the letter A.
Two more logos were created in 1998, both of which featured the full name of the company for the first time, but it was a logo used from 1998 to 2000 that paved the way for the current logo. This logo had a yellow/orange curve underneath emphasizing the word Amazon.
The current logo, introduced in 2000, took this previous logo one step further.
The yellow/orange curve was altered slightly to become a curved arrow, resembling a smile, going from the A to the Z of the word Amazon, thus suggesting that the website offers all products from A to Z.
The smile element of the logo is now associated with the company, and is used on the boxes its products are shipped in.
Apple
For one of the biggest companies in the world, the story behind Apple’s eponymous logo is surprisingly straightforward.
Steve Jobs really liked apples.
Jobs was in the middle of a diet that involved eating lots of fruit at the time he formed the company and apples were his favourite.
He even went on record as saying that there is no hidden meaning or profound connotation to the name.
The logo itself was designed by Rob Janoff in 1977, a year after the company was formed.
To avoid confusion with a cherry, Janoff designed the apple with a bite taken out of it.
And that is the simple story of how one of the world’s biggest companies got its logo.
Coca Cola
A sign of how much the world of logo design has changed is the fact that the Coca-Cola logo was actually designed by a bookkeeper!
Back in 1885 Dr. John Pemberton created Coca-Cola by mixing coca leaves, kola nuts, sugar, extracts of cocaine and carbonated water.
The product was sold initially as a brain tonic that would regulate mood and temperament.
Pemberton’s bookkeeper, Frank Mason Robinson, coined the name from the coca leaves and kola nuts ingredients, and came up with the logo’s distinctive script.
The script reflected the dominant form of handwriting in the USA at that time, and the two capital Cs were used as Robinson believed this would catch the eye more in advertising.
Red was chosen as the primary colour of the brand as, at the time, the bottles needed to be painted red to distinguish them from alcohol when they were being distributed.
Facebook has grown exponentially since Mark Zuckerberg debuted it in January 2004.
Less than 18 months later, investors had already sunk almost $14million into the website. Then in October 2007 Microsoft purchased a 1.6% share of the company for $240million.
By April 2007 the site had 20million active users, this had increased to 100million by August 2008. It broke the 500million users mark by July 2010 and the 1billion mark by September 2012.
Today it is estimated there are almost 3 billion Facebook users around the world
The iconic Facebook logo is blue and white for a number of reasons. One of which is the fact Mark Zuckerberg is red-green colour blind, so blue and white is an easy colour scheme to see.
Also blue is considered more of a “high-tech” colour, hence why many IT companies use it in their logos.
You will also notice that the logo is lowercase, this is because lowercase letters are said to portray an “attitude of approachability”. That is people are more likely to associate with a brand logo written in lowercase.
McDonald’s
Founded in 1940, the famous golden arches were seen for the first time when the inaugural franchised McDonald’s restaurant opened in 1953 in Phoenix, Arizona.
They weren’t however seen on the logo, they were just used as part of the exterior design. They became part of the logo in 1961 and have remained so ever since.
The colours of yellow and red were chose to represent energy and stimulation (red) and happiness (yellow).
The logo is now synonymous with McDonald’s and makes a McDonald’s restaurant especially spotted in a busy street.
Nike
The famous Nike swoosh is another example of how you don’t necessarily need a big budget and a team of designers to come up with an iconic logo.
Nike founder Phil Knight wanted a logo that signified movement and determination. Formerly a professor at Portland State University, Knight contacted one of his old students with a view to creating a logo.
The student in question, Carolyn Davidson, came up with a design that represented the wings of the Greek goddess of victory. Nike.
The company had been named Nike a few months earlier, at the suggestion of Knight’s first employee Jeff Johnson.
Davidson was paid $35 for the logo, which she created in 1971.
Just over a decade later Nike invited Davidson to an executive dinner in her honour and presented her with a diamond ring in the shape of the swoosh and company shares that are now said to be worth over $1million!
Twitter (Until August 2023!)
Although the company itself was founded in 2006, the bird that is now synonymous with the brand only began to be used in its logo from 2010.
The actual inspiration for the design was a bird image the company found in iStock designed by Simon Oxley and bought by Twitter for $15.
It was initially named Larry after the famous American basketball player Larry Bird.
The iStock image couldn’t be used as a logo, but it did provide the basis for the logo. A team of designers drew a bird based on the image, and from 2010 to 2012 it served as the company logo accompanying the brand name.
By 2012 Twitter had grown to 200 million monthly active users, and the decision was made to remove the company name from the logo and focus it entirely on the bird.
The bird was tweaked to make it more symmetrical and clean cut, with the final design created from 15 circles that said to add a sense of harmony to the logo. It was drawn up by Martin Grasser, a graduate from the Art Center College of Design in California.
The logo is in a light blue shade, a colour which has proved popular with social networking platforms, and obviously references the name of the company as well.
Editors Note: In the days after writing this article Elon Musk controversially changed the Twitter logo to a less colourful ‘X’!
Studying Graphic Design at North Kent College
If you have you heart set on becoming a graphic designer, we have a serious of Creative Digital Design courses here at North Kent College ranging from Graphic Design and Illustration to 3D Design and Architecture.
You will learn all the fundamentals of branding, typography, design software and more over the two year courses, at the end of which you are required to showcase your work in a professional exhibition.
To find out more visit our Creative Digital Design course page or get in touch with us.