A company’s logo is a unique identity to the mass people to link their services or products to the company. In other words, it is part of a company’s branding. Without such branding, the public will not be able to recognize & differentiate between companies.

A logo, if designed effectively, can bring to people’s mind the unique selling proposition of a company, which inevitably promotes the organization on a sub-conscious level.

What better way to evaluate the effectiveness of logos than to examine how they have evolved in successful and age-old companies? We have scouted for some of the most well-known companies in the world and researched on how their logos have changed over the years, decades and even the century. We hope that these will give you some ideas on how companies like these have designed their logo in such a way that people could easily identify with their brand names.

Here are some of the most iconic logos of all times and how they have evolved over the years.

Analyzing The Evolution Of 10 Most Iconic Logos Of All Time.

Apple

The first Apple logo was created in 1976, where it features the famous scene of how Sir Issac Newton discovered gravity – sitting beneath an apple tree. In the same year, the logo was switched to one of a shape of an apple with rainbow stripes. It was then further simplified into a silhouetted apple image consisting of only black. Since the year 2000, the apple logo has been recognized as a monochrome apple.

BMW
Everybody knows a BMW automobile when they see one, but most of them have no idea what the logo means. The trademark blue-white BMW logo is meant to symbolize the movement of an aircraft propeller, of white blades cutting through the blue skies. It was first created in 1923, but the logo has pretty much retained its original features other than a few minor modifications to its fonts and colors.

Canon
Canon’s first logo was indeed very different from what follows over the years. It was a depiction of the Buddhist’s Goddess of Mercy sitting on a lotus flower, with her thousands of arms and surrounded by flames. The next logo in line only retained its ‘Kwanon’ brand name, using unique typefaces. By 1935, Canon’s logo was changed to that of ‘Canon’. That logo was progressively refined till 1956, when it becomes the logo we see today.

Mozilla Firefox
Dave Hyatt and Blake Ross had created a web browser “Firefox”. The first name of it was Phoenix, which had a clear resemblance with their first logo in 2002. Due to some trade name issues, the name had to be changed to “Firebird”, to retain the same logo. But, again due to trade name issue they decided to change the total branding including name and logo. The 2nd time change was needed because of the existing software.

After that, in October 2003, a professional interface designer Steven Garrity revealed some points which were not consistent with Mozilla’s visual identity. And because of this, Mozilla Foundation invited him to join the recently created Mozilla branding team in the purpose of producing a new logo identity. And then his team’s first effort was Firefox 0.8 (February 2004). Silverorange (Steven Garrity worked there as a creative director) designed the new icon, initial sketched by Stephen Desroches, rendering by Jon Hicks. This icon was first deployed in Firefox 0.8.

Ford
In the beginning versions, the writing of “Ford” appeared to be influenced by Henry Ford’s own signature. Then later came the first use of an oval. From the mid-1930s onward, use of this logo on the cars themselves was first deemphasized and then dropped entirely. A completely different “crest” logo appeared with the 1949 models. As of today, the 1957 logo (which serves its current “Ford” script logo) is only being used as an alternate logo. It can also be used in tandem with the next two logos below. The blue oval badge began to replace a block-letter “FORD” wordmark as the primary logo on cars themselves beginning with the 1976 international and 1976 North American models.

GE
General Electric was originally founded on April 15, 1892 by Thomas Edison, Charles A. Coffin, Elihu Thomson and Edwin J. Houston. This design would continue to be used as the company’s logo, albeit in several redesigned forms. In July of 2004, the GE logo underwent a color change to blue, coinciding with the debut of the Inspira font. The previous version of the logo continues to be used in print.

Google
Google has refined its famous logo as it prepares to become a part of a new holding company called Alphabet. The new logo in a font called “Product Sans” is the sixth since the technology giant was founded 17 years ago in 1998 (seventh if we take in account the pre-launch 1997 variant).
The 2015 update of the Google logo is the biggest overhaul in Google’s logo history.
Google had last tweaked its logo in 2013 when it did away with with the embossment and shadows. The change prior to that in 2010 had made the Google logo “lighter, brighter and simpler.”

IBM
The merging of two companies’ logos (International Time Recording Company and Computing Scale Company) resulted in the first official IBM logo in 1911. It was not until in 1947 that IBM created its well-known typeface logo. After a little modification in 1956, and another final change in 1972, IBM finally settled down with its current blue horizontally-striped logo.

Kodak

The Kodak logo evolution shows how in the early 1900s an EKC monogram was in place (Eastman Kodak Company). In the 1930s the focus moved to the Kodak name with the red and yellow palette. In the ’60s the relatively short-lived corner curl was designed, then in ’71 the ubiquitous “K” symbol was introduced. The ’80s saw a removal of the serifs on the Kodak name for a more contemporary type design within the existing logo. In 2006 the boxed symbol was dropped altogether to produce a simplified wordmark.

LG
Other than its company tagline ‘Life’s Good’, LG is also an abbreviation of its two previous companies prior merger, ‘Lucky’ and ‘Goldstar’. By 1995, ‘Lucky Goldstar’ changed its name to ‘LG Electronics’, with its current trademark logo.

Mastercard
MasterCard used to be recognized as an interbank federation in 1966, hence its first logo. Subsequently, it adopted its prominent two overlapping red and orange circles and the name ‘Master’. In the 1990s, the colors of the circles were made brighter and hence more visible. There were no updates to the logo by far since 1996.

Mercedes Benz
The three-pointed star symbol was only incorporated into Mercedes-Benz’s logo in 1909, after two previous logos. In 1933, a circle was included that enclosed the star. Then, the logo pretty much remained the same as the one we identify today.

Pepsi
Pepsi’s original logo was red script on white. Pepsi introduced a red, white and blue round bottle cap to their design in 1950. They swapped the fancy script for clean black lettering in 1962. The bottlecap stylized into a circle with colored stripes by 1972 and as of 2011, the striped circle stands alone as Pepsi’s logo.

Shell
The Shell gas station brand logo started out in 1900 as a literal inked clamshell drawing but has gradually become a smooth red and yellow stylized shell. The colors and shape are so distinct, Shell doesn’t even write its name on the logo anymore.

Volkswagen
The original VW logo from 1939 featured bumped teeth around the circle to make it look like a gear, with long arms rotating around the circle. The arms and gear bumps were eliminated by the time WWII ended and in 2000, VW colored the logo blue and silver.

Walmart
In 1962, Walmart began its business with a simple logo that consisted of its brand name in a font that is available to its printer. Over the years, the logo remained almost the same except for the use of different fonts and colors. It was until 2008, which was the last time they altered the logo, that Walmart used both caps and small caps to spell out its brand name, included its company tagline as well as placed a yellow star-like symbol on the side of its name.

Xerox
The history of Xerox’s logo began in 1937 when the company was known as Haloid Company. The name was replaced in 1961, following a highly acclaimed copier they developed, the Haloid Xerox 914. Since then, the ‘Xerox’ typeface became the only feature of the logo until 2008. This time, they put in a red ball-like symbol with the white letter ‘X’ painted on it, something that might allow people to recognize the company better.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *