Logo and logo design play a vital role in the branding and marketing of products and companies. This is the reason why choosing a logo is a rigorous process to be able to create something that will represent your company or products well.
Wherever we go, we will always come across a few famous logos and immediately recognize the brand. But did you know that these logos sometimes has a hidden message buried in them? It’s surprising, but it’s true!
Check out these 10 incredibly clever logos with hidden meanings.
1. VAIO
VAIO, Sony’s brand line for its laptops has a logo that refers to integrating the ideas of analog and digital technology into one. ‘V’ and ‘A’ are used to represent analog waves and ‘I’ and ‘O’ to represent binary from the digital world.
2. Baskin Robins
Notice how the BR of the Baskin Robins logo is made up of 2 different colors. Did you see the numbers 3 and 1? These numbers represents Baskin Robbins’ 31 flavors of ice-cream.
3. Mitsubishi
“Mitsubishi” is a combination of the words “mitsu” and “hishi.” “Mitsu” means three. “Hishi” means water chestnut, and the word is used to denote a rhombus or diamond shape.
4. Northwest Airlines
The Northwest Airlines logo has the letters N and W in positive and negative spaces.
5. Amazon
Amazon’s logo design is quite simple. But the arrow in Amazon’s logo has another meaning behind it. It is a representation of the wide range of items available for retail by Amazon, from A to Z.
6. McDonald’s
Originally, the golden arches in the logo it really means “M” for McDonald’s and no other meaning is intended for it. In the 1960s, McDonald’s was retooling its image, which included discussing a possible new logo. Louis Cheskin, a psychologist and design consultant hired by McDonald’s urged them to keep the current logo. He said it’s because customers unconsciously recognize the logo as “symbolism of a pair of nourishing breasts” (via BBC).
7. Wendy’s
If you take a closer look at Wendy’s collar and you might just see the word “mom.” “This is something you may not notice consciously for years, but unconsciously it will leave an imprint on your brain and you will associate it with the brand,” stocklogos.com wrote.
8. The Bronx Zoo
If you take a look between the legs of the giraffes, you can see New York’s iconic skyline of tall buildings.
9. Coca Cola
This one is many of the unintentional hidden gems in logos. Hidden in the ‘o’ of Cola is the Denmark flag. Once Coca Cola discovered that part of its logo looks like the Danish flag, they setup a media stunt at Denmark’s biggest airport welcoming customers with flags.
10. FedEx
If you take a look between the “E” and the “X,” the negative space forms an arrow. “The arrow could connote forward direction, speed and precision, and if it remained hidden, there might be an element of surprise, that aha moment,” says Lindon Leader. The design has won over 40 awards and was ranked as one of the eight best logos in the last 35 years by Rolling Stone magazine.
These are only 10 of the many logos with hidden meanings. Stay tuned for more!