GUEST POST – Everything flows, everything changes…Every large company from time to time have to change its logo in accordance with the current philosophy, new trends and own goals. The visual image of a company can tell us a lot of interesting about its history, as well as about global marketing and design tendencies.
Did you know the first Apple’s logo was a complex and clumsy engraving, WWF’s panda had eyes and the Starbucks logo contained a naked female? It’s impossible to explore the history of the world’s biggest brands without a smile, so enjoy tracking the chronology.
Apple
Looking at the first Apple’s logo, it’s quite easy to understand why the company did not seem promising. Not everyone knows that Apple was founded by three persons: two Steves (Jobs and Wozniak) and Ronald. The last invested in the company about $800 that was 10% of the initial capital. The first logo was twisted with almost a heraldic “Apple Computer & Co” tape. Steves and Ronald Wayne worked together for a two weeks, after which the last took the money back as he thought Apple was a too risky enterprise.
As for the Apple I, it was sold slowly, but only until Jobs decided to change the logo. Striped apple became the symbol of the brand for 23 years before changing into a monochrome and up-to-date one.
Wikipedia
Everyone knows the logo of the main Internet library – a set of puzzles-components of the planet. Each puzzle piece has one letter written on one of the world’s languages. There were all in all such 250 logos created and officially registered for each country.
But do you know the story of Wikipedia’s logo evolution? Primarily it was two-dimensional image of the planet on which there were inscriptions in different languages. In 2000 the first prototype of a modern Wikipedia’s logo was created. At that time each piece of the puzzle was painted in its own color.
As for the latest changes, in end of 2009, the Wikimedia Foundation has attempted to rectify the shortcomings of the logo, namely its poor scalability and some inappropriate symbols. The latest improvements were applied in 2010.
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WWF
Do you love pandas as much as WWF loves them? World Wide Fund for Nature logo wasn’t always so harmonious. Look at 1961 logo or at 1978 one: is it playfully falling on the front paws or just scooping the food? It took over 25 years for WWF’s panda to get rid of the clubfoot…and as the years passed, unfortunately it lost its eyes.
General Electric
The concept of General Electric’s logo remained the same for more than 120 years. The most crucial change was made in 1900 when the logo was encircled. The subsequent changes were just a matter of refining and modernizing of the floral ornament. There was also an unsuccessful attempt to fit a transcription, but it was completely abandoned as General Motors is a world-known brand.
The current logo was made in Wollf Olins by British designers that have added blue color and removed volume. GE also adopted a new slogan – “Imagination at Work”.
Nestle
You associate the name of the Swiss holding company with a bird’s nest, do you? Now it seems obvious, but not in 1866, when the brand was created by Henri Nestlé. The brand was simply called by the name of its founder and there wasn’t any background to show a nest in the logo until it was found that the word “Nestlé” is similar to English word “nest”.
As for the logo, it represented three nestlings and their mother until the researched showed that the most frequent number of children in one family is two. The unnecessary third nestling was thrown out. Quite sad story…but it’s the price logo had to pay to resonate in the hearts of far more number of mothers.
Adobe Systems
A great example of how design issues could be solved within a family circle.
In 1982, forty years old retired programmers John Warnock and Charles Geschke created a software-producing company. They named it after the creek that flows behind the Warnok’s house. Clear business that they had to save on everything they could. That was the reason they asked Warnock’s wife Marva to design a logo for their company. As time has shown, it was not the worst solution.
Not so long ago, on September 1st, 2015, there was the last update of Google’s logo. This time the designers decided to make changes not just for aesthetic purposes, but also for adaptation to a variety of gadgets and devices. Today Google’s logo looks as simple as it’s possible.
Google logos history shows the development of its creators who introduced a few of truly innovative solutions like Doodles. Few people know that the first doodle appeared on August 30, 1998, the year when the company’s founders decided to leave the message to the public about going to the Burning Man festival. The first Google Doodle was different from its modern followers by the simplicity of design. While up-to-date Doodles are complex scenarios, the first one was drawn with a ballpoint pen man standing behind one of the “O” letters.
The other historic peculiarity of the logo is that it previously had an exclamation mark in the end. The corporation refused of it in May 1999 only, when the fourth official logo was presented. The design was comparatively sophisticated, with a Catull font and volumetric letters. Over time Google simplified its logo to the one that we see today.
We could continue this list by adding more than a hundred of famous logos. Each history is unique and has the right to be heard. In future articles we will consider some other interesting stories. Stay tuned amd feel free to contact DesignContest.com to share the amazing story of your company’s logo!