Designing logos can be a very difficult task.
When designing a logo, you want it to stand out from the crowd, yet still be really simple.
Sometimes the designer is really clever and makes the logo very simple, yet includes a hidden message within the logo that has a deeper meaning.
In today’s article, we’re going to cover 20 logos with hidden messages.
Some logos you will have seen before, and some may be completely new to you, but hopefully, you will enjoy them all.
Amazon
The Amazon logo is an extremely simple logo and while the arrow may just look like a smile it actually points from a to z.
This represents that Amazon sells everything from a to z, and the smile on the customers face when they bought a product.
Goodwill
Goodwill. The one thrift store we all know and love.
When you look at the logo, you see it’s a person smiling, probably happy that they just donated their clothes or just copped an awesome find for a great deal!
Now look at the letter ‘g’ from ‘goodwill’.
You’ll see that same smiling person in the first letter of the logo!
LG
At first glance, you might think LG’s logo may just be the winking face of a happy client.
But look closer.
You’ll see that in the winky face logo, there’s actually an L in the center, and the face is a G!
Super clever on their part.
Pinterest is one of my favorite social media apps out there.
It’s always full of great ideas and new trends that I can get inspired from, and then I can pin those images to one of my boards.
Hence, “Pin-terest”.
Duh.
Anyway, to the untrained eye, you might just see the letter “P” in the logo.
But if you really pay close attention, you’ll see that the letter “P” is actually a pin.
Michael Deal, the co-designer of this logo said, “For most of the project, I had avoided making visual reference to the image of a pin because it seemed too literal. But the “P” started to lend itself too well to the shape of a map pin.”
Toyota
Next up, we have Toyota.
This one is definitely one of the coolest of them all, and if it hasn’t received some kind of award already, well, it definitely deserves one.
If you didn’t already know, the Toyota logo has the entire word “Toyota” written in it!
Here’s a diagram to explain it better.
Isn’t that the coolest thing you’ve ever seen?
BMW
BMW just recently updated its logo and it looks amazing.
I wrote an entire piece about the new BMW logo because that’s how much I loved it.
But anyway, let’s talk about the hidden message here!
This logo actually represents a propeller in motion, with the blue part representing the sky, and the white part representing the propeller.
BMW’s logo is a tribute to the company’s history in aviation.
Baskin Robbins
The Baskin Robbins logo may look like it includes a simple BR above the name. bBt if you take another look, you will that it includes a pink number 31. This is a reference to their original and iconic 31 flavors.
Chick-fil-a
The Chick-fil-a logo incorporates a chicken into the C. Although this isn’t very hidden, it is still very clever.
Eighty20
The eighty20 logo is a bit of a geeky one to figure out, the two lines of squares represent a binary sequence with the blue squares being 1’s and the grey squares being 0’s.
Which makes 1010000 which represents eighty and 0010100 which represents 20.
F1
The F1 logo is a fairly simple one to figure out. The negative space in the middle creates the 1.
Facebook Places
If you didn’t already know Facebook Places, it is Facebook’s new geolocational product, which is in direct competition with the current leader in that area, Foursquare.
Now if you take another look at Facebook Places logo you will notice there is a 4 in a square.
Now is this a coincidence or is it a dig at Foursquare?
Fedex
The FedEx logo looks like a plain, text-based logo.
But if you take a second look, between the E and the X, you will see an arrow, that represents the speed and accuracy of the company’s deliveries.
Milwaukee Brewers
The old Milwaukee Brewers logo may look like a simple catchers mitt holding a ball, but if you take a second glance, you will see the team’s initials M and B.
Museum of London
The Museum of London logo may look like a modern logo design, but it actually represents the geographic area of London as it as grew over time.
NBC
The NBC logo has a hidden peacock above the above text which is looking to the right.
This represents the companies motto to look forward and not back, and also that they are proud of the programs they broadcast.
Northwest Airlines
The old Northwest Airlines logo may look like a simple logo, but if you take a closer look, the symbol on the left actually represents both N and W and because it is enclosed within the circle it also represents a compass pointing northwest.
Piano Forest
The Piano Forest logo may look like a simple text logo with trees above it, but if you take another look you will see that the trees actually represent keys on a piano.
Toblerone
The Toblerone logo contains the image of a bear hidden in the Matterhorn mountain, which is where Toblerone originally came from.
Tostitos
The Tostitos logo includes two people sharing a chip and a bowl of salsa, this conveys an idea of people connecting with each other over a bowl of chips.
Treacy Shoes
The Treacy Shoes logo is very cute logo with a shoe hidden between the t and s.
In Conclusion
Making a clever logo doesn’t always just come easily to you.
It can take weeks, months, and even years to come up with something mindblowing.
Other times, the idea comes to the forefront of your brain and you can see it clear as day.
Gather inspiration from these amazing logos with hidden messages and start making your own!
You could design the next big logo.
Did I miss any other big logos that have hidden messages within them?
Let me know in the comments!
Until next time,
Stay creative, folks!
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Gary Thomas – (9swords) he tweets cool stuff for web designers.
Aaron Irizarry – (aaroni268) is a User Experience Designer for Harte-Hanks/PennySaver.
Angie Bowen – (angbowen) is a web designer/developer from Colorado.
Adam Smith – (atsmith) is the president and creative director of Advent Creative.
Andrew Wilkinson – (awilkinson) runs the interface design agency MetaLab.
Barry Madden – (BarryMadden) is a freelance web/GUI/graphic designer.
Brian Gardner – (bgardner) is the founder and CEO of StudioPress.
Brian K. McDaniel – (bkmacdaddy) is a web and graphic designer from San Francisco.
Paul Boag – (boagworld) founded web design agency Headscape and runs boagworld.
Brad Colbow – (bradcolbow) is a freelance web designer who also creates a weekly comic strip.
Brian Cray – (briancray) is a Colombus based web entrepreneur and consultant.
Rachael Furn – (calmbanana) is a web developer based in Northants, UK.
Chetan R – (cheth) is an indian based web/graphic designer.
Chris Spooner – (chrisspooner) is a blogger based in Sheffield, UK.
Liz Andrade – (cmdshiftdesign) is a web/graphic designer and a regular blogger.
Collis – (collis) is CEO/Co-Founder of Envato.
Walter Apai – (DesignerDepot) is a web designer who runs Web Designer Depot.
Emma Taylor – (emtaylor) is a freelance web designer based in Cyprus.
Hannah – (ErisDS) is PHP developer based in Northampton, UK.
Mike Rundle – (flyosity) is software developer based in Raleigh.
Glenn Hilton – (glennhilton) is a web designer/developer based in Vancouver.
Gopal Raju – (gopalraju) is an indian based web designer/developer and blogger.
Grace Smith – (gracesmith) is a freelance web designer/developer who also runs thefreelancefeed.com.
Janko Jovanovic – (jankowarpspeed) is a UI designer, software engineer, blogger, speaker and artist.
Dainis Graveris – (1stwebdesigner) is a web designer who runs www.1stwebdesigner.com.
Jason Walz – (jasonwalz) is Milwaukee based web designer.
Jeff Croft – (jcroft) is a Seattle based web designer/developer who has also authored books.
John O’Nolan – (JohnONolan) is a UK based web designer who regularly blogs on many different sites.
Jon Phillips – (jophillips) is a web designer who runs Sprye Studios.
Liam McKay – (liammckay) is a UK based web designer who is currently working on WPBundle.
Mark Jardine – (markjardine) is a San Jose based who designer who works for Tapbots.
Marko Prljic – (markoprljic) is a croatian based web designer who founded Twinkle Tap.
Meagan Fisher – (meaganfisher) is a Salem based web designer who works at SimpleBits.
Mike Lane – (mlane) is a Minneapolis based UX designer.
Ronald Bien – (naldzgraphics) is a Philippines based graphic designer and also founder of Naldz Graphics.
Nishan Joomun – (nishanjoomun) is a Montreal based web designer.
nourayehia – (nourayehia) is web designer who also founded Noupe and Bundle Hunt
David Perel – (obox) is a South Africa based web designer and co-founder of Obox.
Amélie Husson – (othella) is a web designer from France but currently based in Germany.
https://www.twitter.com/paddydonnelly is an Irish web designer currently based in Belgium.
Rob Hawkes – (robhawkes) is a UK based web developer.
Rogie – (rogieking) is a Montant based web designer and founder of Komodomedia.
Veronica Domeier – (ronicadesign) is a San Antonio based freelance web designer.
Sarah Parmenter – (sazzy) is a UK based web designer and founder of You Know Who.
Thomas Ulbricht – (sharebrain) is a web deigner based in Germany, he also founded Sharebrain.
Jacob Gube – (sixrevisions) is a web developer/designer, he also founded Six Revisions and co-founded Design Instruct.
Luca Soffici – (Soffici) is an Italy based web & graphic designer.
Tom Kenny – (tkenny) is a UK based web designer/developer and he founded Inspect Element.
Tony Chester – (tonychester) is a web designer from Cary and owner of OnWired.
Umut Muhaddisoglu – (umutm) is a web developer and blogger from Turkey.
This list was just a small section of the web design community there are 100’s if not 1000’s of more designers worth following so feel free to leave a comment with a link to your link twitter profile if you think your worth following!
]]>Design Instruct
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