Logo designs

PAUL RAND

Paul Rand, born Peretz Rosenbaum, August 15, 1914-November 26, 1996 was a well-known American graphic designer, best known for his corporate logo designs. His logos are so simple but timeless.Even after his death in 1996, Paul Rand remains one of the most famous graphic designers in the world.

ABC

Designed 1962

The ABC logo, developed by Paul Rand, has been in use since 1962 and remains unmodified to this day. Rand said that he designed it for durability, function, usefulness, rightness, and beauty. The typeface used for the famous logo is a simple geometric design inspired by the Bauhaus school of the 1920s. 

“Should a logo be self-explanatory? It is only by association with a product, a service, a business, or a corporation that a logo takes on any real meaning. It derives its meaning and usefulness from the quality of that which it symbolizes. If a company is second rate, the logo will eventually be perceived as second rate. It is foolhardy to believe that a logo will do its job immediately, before an audience has been properly conditioned.”

IBM

Designed 1962

IBM has one of the world’s most recognizable logos. It is simple yet very appealing and a prefect visual representation of the brand/multinational. The IBM logo has been changed and improved many times over the years of the company's existence. Over the years, the Company has used a series of IBM logos on products. Originally the IBM logo was in solid block capitals and developed so that the solid letters were replaced by horizontal stripes, suggesting speed and dynamism. The graphic development of IBM logo shows that the IBM logo is an example of a company that uses capitalized block lettering to establish authority and the company's size in the market share. The use of the parallel lines generates a message of equality as it is highlighting the shape of an equals sign.

“A logo does not sell (directly), it identifies.”

UPS

Designed 1961

Paul Rand, designed the third version of the UPS logo in 1961. The newly renovated UPS logo was more simplified and featured a bow-tied package above the familiar shield to express the mission of the company which was offering package delivery as its sole service.

“I do not use humour consciously, I just go that way naturally. A well known example is my identity for United Parcels Service: to take an escutcheon – a medieval symbol which inevitably seems pompous today – and then stick a package on top of it, that is funny.”

APPLE 

The first Apple logo was designed by Ron Wayne which features a man sitting under an apple tree. It was not long before the logo was replaced by a new simpler version. The second Apple logo was designed in 1976 by Rob Janoff. The first version of this logo was colored by rainbow stripes. It was one of the most typical computer symbols of the 80s. The reason for the use of the stripes was because the Apple II was the first home or personal computer that could reproduce images on the monitor in colour, so it represents colour bars on the screen. It was also an attempt to make the logo visually accessible to everyone, especially to young people so that they would be used in schools. In 1998 the new iMac was released and Apple discontinued the rainbow theme and began to use monochromatic theme which was more sophisticated. Since 2003 a glass themed logo has been used which gives the logo a 3D effect and symbolising the development of Apple technology.

 "One of the deep mysteries to me is our logo, the symbol of lust and knowledge, bitten into, all crossed with the colours of the rainbow in the wrong order. You couldn't dream of a more appropriate logo: lust, knowledge, hope, and anarchy." 

Coca-Cola 

The Coca-Cola logo, like the product itself, is rated among the most recognized logo design and brands in the world. The first Coca-Cola logo was created by Frank Mason Robinson, in 1885, John Pemberton's partner and bookkeeper. The typeface used, known as Spencerian script, was developed in the mid 19th century and was the dominant form of formal handwriting in the United States during that period. The red and white colored scheme in the Coca-Cola logo was kept simple and distinctive to lure young minds.A Coca-Cola dispenser with the popular logo design was later created by Raymond Loewy. The Coca-Cola logo got registered as a trademark in 1887 and has since then become the brand’s corporate identity.

NIKE

Nike's first logo design was designed by Carolyn Davidson in 1971 for just $35. The Nike SWOOSH logo represents the wing in the famous statue of the Greek Goddess of victory, Nike, who was the source of inspiration for many great and courageous warriorsOriginally, the mark was referred to as ‘the strip’ but was later changed to ‘Swoosh’ to describe the fibers used in Nike shoes. In the spring of 1972, the first shoe with the Nike SWOOSH Logo was introduced. Later, Nike's effectve logo design got registered as a trademark in 1995 and has become the corporate identity of Nike Inc. Apart from that, the Nike logo has been a sole contributor in the overall success of the brand.

Tessellation

Tessellation or tiling is a pattern of plane figures that fills a space with no overlaps and no gaps. Tessellations are also known as parts of the space or of other surfaces. Tessellations frequently appeared in the art of M. C. Escher, who was inspired by studying the Moorish use of symmetry in the Alhambra tiles during a visit in 1922. Tessellations are seen throughout art history, from ancient architecture to modern art.

Maurits Cornelis Estcher (1898-1972) is one of the worlds most famous graphic artists. His art is known to millions of people worldwide. As a dutch graphic artist, he is best known for his often mathematically inspired woodcuts, lithographs and mezzo tints. These feature impossible constructions, explorations or infinity, architecture and tessellation. .

Negative Space

Negative space is the area that the design leaves around the image that conveys the meaning of the logo. Because our eyes only seem to focus on the positive space, the negative space is often ignored or not seen. It could also be an optical illusion when you think about it.

Negative Space is also called white space. These are spaces without content although they are called white space, “Negative Space” doesn’t have to be white. It can be any color, it just doesn’t have any content. Negative space is also a design factor although it is not easily recognizable, the use of negative space is to add symmetry to a layout.

Negative space is often seen in logo designs. Here are some logos that use negative space effectively.

The FedEx logo is one of the most recognizeable logo's worldwide. It was designed 1994, by Lindon kindly who was at the time, Senior Design Director at Landor Associates, San Francisco. The logo is a good example of using negative space as there is a hidden arrow between the E and X. Below I have selected information that was gained from the designer after he was asked a series of questions about the logo design.

"If you put a lower-case x to the right of a capital E (Ex) you can begin to see a hint of an arrow, though it is clumsy and extremely abstract. I thought that, if I could develop this concept of an arrow it could be promoted as a symbol for speed and precision, both FedEx communicative attributes. And, by the way, different kinds of arrows were utilized with some of the other semi-final candidates, though none of those were hidden.

Once I decided to refine the concept of the embedded arrow, I found that, to make the arrow more legitimate and identifiable, one needed to actually reconstruct the letterforms in order to make the arrow happen. The power of the hidden arrow is simply that it is a hidden bonus. It is a positive-reverse optical kind of thing: either you see it or you dont. Importantly, not getting the punch line by not seeing the arrow, does not reduce the impact of the logo's essential communication. The power of the logo and the FedEx marketing supporting the logo is strong enough to convey clearly FedEx brand positioning. On the other hand, if you do see the arrow, or someone points it out to you, you wont forget it."