Corporate Logo Secrets
August 27, 2010 at 1:10 am Chad Upton 23 comments
By Chad Upton | Editor
A well designed logo is simple, easy to identify and conveys important information about the brand it represents.
Some logos do that by looking the part: cool, stylish, funky, formal, casual…etc. Logos may also represent the brand with meaningful imagery.
Although you may have seen these logos hundreds of times, you may have have missed some of the meaning.
Apple
With the cachet of this brand, it’s hard to believe it was nearly bankrupt ten years ago. Now, it’s one of the most valuable consumer electronics brands.
There are many stories floating around about how the Apple logo got its bite mark (or “byte” mark). The ad agency that created it, claims it is a biblical reference that symbolizes a bite from the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge. In the story, a serpent promises Eve that eating the fruit would make one wise.
BMW
Bayerische Motoren Werke (BMW) originally made airplane engines and there is a popular theory that the logo shape represents a spinning airplane propeller. Although that makes a lot of sense, the design is actually based on the colors of the checkered Bavarian flag, the German State where the automaker started.
Fedex
See the arrow between the “E” and the “x”?
Toblerone
Look at the white space in the mountain. It’s a bear, a symbol of the town where Toblerone started.
Tostitos
Two of the letters are sharing a Tostito and a bowl of salsa, which happens to be the dot on the “i.” That’s a legal double dip.
Baskin Robbins
They have 31 flavors and the number is right in the logo.
Milwaukee Brewers
In the old Milwaukee Brewers logo, the letters “m” and “b” form a baseball glove.
Cisco
You may not have seen cisco’s products, but chances are good that some of them are responsible for letting you view this web page — they make telecommunications equipment. The company was named after the city of San Francisco. The waveform bars in the logo represent the Golden Gate Bridge, a well known San Francisco landmark.
Sun Microsystems
The letters “U” and “N” are arranged to create the letter “S”, spelling “sun.”
Amazon
They have everything, from A to Z.
Broken Secrets
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Sources: Logo Blog, Wikipedia (Apple Logo), Kelly Advertising, Wallet Pop, CorporateLogos.ws, NY Times
Entry filed under: Demystified. Tags: amazon, apple, cisco, hidden, logo, meaning, message, secrets.
Broken Secrets 
1.
Boaz | August 27, 2010 at 1:55 am
Very nice! 10X
2.
Brian | August 27, 2010 at 2:30 am
“The design was not in any way connected with aircraft engines or propellers. The idea that the blue and white had anything to do with spinning propellers comes from a 1929 advertisement, which featured aircraft with the image of the roundel in the rotating propellers.”
http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/07/bmw-roundel-not-born-from-planes/#mor%20e-37637
3.
Daniel | August 27, 2010 at 3:12 am
A cache is something hidden, or kept. You meant ‘cachet’ when referring to Apple.
4.
Sara | August 27, 2010 at 4:39 am
my fave: the arrow in fedex! :)
5.
Mack | August 27, 2010 at 6:24 am
One of my favorites is an older logo of the Illinois Central railroad, where the designer formed a lower-case “i c” into the cross-section of a rail.
Here is a page of their logos. The 1967-1972 version is the one I mean.
6.
Dot | September 1, 2010 at 3:55 pm
very cool
7.
jen@vickyandjen.com | August 27, 2010 at 8:11 am
AWESOME! I love this stuff!
8.
Autumn | August 27, 2010 at 9:37 am
I don’t know if it’s true, but a friend once told me there’s further symbolism in the FedEx logo — the F represents a loading dock, and if I remember correctly, the lowercase e, the d and the upper-case E are supposed to represent a truck or part of one.
9.
Brett | August 27, 2010 at 11:02 am
I always knew BMW was from Bavaria. After all, the company started and is still based in Munich, which is in Bavaria. And it turns out I was right about BMW being short for Bavarian Motor Works, the English translation.
I noticed the arrow in FedEx a long time ago, but never noticed the bear in the Toblerone logo until now!
10.
Shannon | August 30, 2010 at 7:46 am
Very cool. I love tips like this. You know anything about the Starbucks logo? What’s with the mermaid?
11.
Ian | August 31, 2010 at 9:38 pm
It’s a siren, like in the Odyssey and Greek myth. They lured sailors to crash on their shores with music and their voices. Wikipedia says that the original symbol (the brown one, not green) was a 17th century “norse” woodcut that is now located at Starbucks headquarters.
Interesting that a company that sells an addictive drug would use a siren. They lure you in and you crash?
12.
Chris M | August 30, 2010 at 11:09 am
A designer friend just mentioned to me that the Amazon logo has a smile too. Looking at it again, I think he’s right!
13.
Skoole | August 30, 2010 at 1:18 pm
I’m sure you are aware of hidden mickey’s inside the Disney parks
But also Disney’s Touchstone Pictures Logo, the lightening bolt is actually a stretched out mickey profile.
14.
Ian | August 31, 2010 at 9:40 pm
I really enjoyed this post! Well done!
15.
Dot | September 1, 2010 at 3:54 pm
Wow – it took me a while before I was able to focus on that arrow in the FedEx logo — of course, now I’ll be pointing it out to my co-workers like Ms. Smarty Pants!!!
16.
Piter | September 24, 2010 at 5:13 am
The Brewers one was the only one that really got me.
I’ve even wondered why they had that as their logo before…
17.
Phil | September 24, 2010 at 7:23 am
If you’re doing sports logos too such as the Milwaukee Brewers you should take a look at the Hartford Whalers logo. It was formed my a whale tail on top of the letter W. The empty space in between cleverly formed an “H”. Long live the Whale.
18.
Chad Upton | September 24, 2010 at 8:14 am
You’re right, that’s a great one. I thought about putting that one and the old Northwest Airlines logo in but I ultimately decided to leave those two out since they’re not really around anymore.
19.
classicViralVids | September 25, 2010 at 2:56 am
the tostitos is the best.
20.
azmom22 | August 30, 2022 at 9:20 am
I’ve looked at that logo so many times and never saw the chip or the bowl of salsa. Very clever.
21.
vutraguy | March 15, 2011 at 4:36 am
TOSTITOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! POZDRAV IZ GORAZDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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