In the 1950’s, Dunkin’ Donuts’ first logo consisted of “Dunkie” which was a cheerful character serving coffee and donuts with the brand name “Dunkin’ Donuts” next to it. The road signs logo, at the time, consisted of the brand name stacked. In 1965, they redesigned the logo with the brand name stacked, and coffee cup with the words “Dunkin’ Donuts” formed in a circle as if being “dunked” in the cup. Each element of this design were meant to be able to be standalone if necessary. A few years later they took away the text within the circular design but kept the layout of it. Still something seemed to be missing. In the 80’s, a woman named Lucia N. DeRespinis, who worked at Sangren & Murtha, suggested that the colors were too “toasted” and that since donuts are meant to be fun, so should the brand and logo design. She suggested keep the design, but adding in her daughter’s favorite colors, pink and orange. Later on a to go coffee cup was added with steam coming out because the Vice President, Ken Kimmel said that “While coffee and donuts are core to our business. Neither stands alone.” The last logo design is still the same except that the coffee was simplified with “DD” on the cup, and they added in the coffee color inside the cup.
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The very first logo for 7UP was a “winged” design on the 7UP logo. It was black and white and used a 3D font. In the 1930’s they removed the wings and added a red background to the design and implemented a few bubbles. This designed remained for a few decades until they launched the “Uncola” in 1967. From here they removed the 3D type and gave it a flat dimension. Later on they added a Red Dot which they started to animate and called it “Spot.” It became a mascot of the brand, and later on when they changed the background from red to green, in 1990, the Red Dot started to become iconic of the brand itself. As graphic design started to become more popular, we can see their design change quite frequently over the next few years playing around with drop shadows, 3D effects, and different designs. Around 2011, they brand decided to bring it back to the simple fact that their product contains 7 simple ingredients and began playing around with green and yellow circles to signify “Lemon and Lime.” They latest design actually has the circles looking like a Lemon and Lime slice. With a big number 7 and two green and yellow circles, the red dot remains at the center of the logo with “up” written inside.
Watching the tutorial I have learned that anything you can imagine can be made from just about anything. The use of negative space allows for much more creativity and a more in-depth design. A simple letter can become something more than just a letter. Once you begin playing with negative space you can add something more dynamic such as the letter “a” becoming an apple, or the letter “g” become a sprouting bean. One must be able to see the potential in order to bring out the design that lies within. I aim to take what I have learned from this tutorial and apply it to my last logo design.
Burger King was founded in 1954 in Florida, and their first logo design, which could be seen on top of their first store was a King sitting on top of a burger above the sign “Burger King, Home of the Whopper.” This design remained until about 1969 where they created a burger in the design. There were two buns and in between the buns was “Burger King” in a red bubbly font to represent the meat. Although the King was removed from the logo, he continued to play a key role in the commercials and ads. In 1994, they slimmed the font down a little in the design, but not much changed. It wasn’t until 1998 that they made the buns a little shiner, titled it slightly to the left and added and blue swirl around it to give it a global feel.
The original name of Pepsi used to actually be “Brad’s Drink” named after the founder, Caleb Bradham, but he changed the name to Pepsi Cola in 1898. Bradham’s neighbor helped him design the very first logo which had a very interesting font and design to it. The logos stayed pretty simple for many years until about the 1940’s when CEO Walter Mack suggested to implement the bottle top design into the logo. The colors Red, White and Blue were used to help support the war efforts at the time, and just stuck with the brand ever since. Another big change came in the 1960’s when they went from Pepsi Cola to just Cola and steered away from the curly scrip in order to better differentiate themselves from Coca Cola. Eventually the cap would disappear and a globe shape took its place. The company continued to play around with the blue and red added boxes here and there and shifting them around until in 1996 the company decided to take on “Project Blue.” Everything rolling out with Pepsi on it would have an all blue background, White font, and the globe with both (red, white and blue colors). This was the best decision they could have done since Coca Cola was predominantly Red, they were able to claim “Blue” as their own. The newest logo, introduced in 2008, has grabbed pieces of the old designs. They took away the “wave” within the globe and moved the “wave” to the letter “e” and now the globe is supposed to have a shape within it to resemble a “smile.” Different types of Pepsi drinks used to have a varying smile within the globe, but they wound up simplifying it and using the same on for each drink in the future.
This company was founded by Frederick W. Smith in 1971 with the name of Federal Express at the time. He chose “Federal” in the name in emphasize that his company delivered nationwide. It began only using airplanes out of Memphis International Airport, and continued to do so for many years. The first logo was all caps “Federal Express” using the colors red, purple, and white placed diagonally in a rectangle. In 1994, the company had a chance to rebrand and decided to adopt the name FedEx since that was what people had nicknamed the company. They strategically placed a hidden arrow in between the “E” and “x” hinting that they were moving in the “right” direction. Around 1998, the company was able to branch out in logistics after acquiring the Caliber System Inc. forming the FDX Corporation. From here they kept the same logo design, but added a different color “Ex” depending on the business unit. Express (purple), Ground (green), Freight (red), Custom Critical (blue)… etc. The only difference from 2000 to 2006 is the font used for their business units.
Target derived from the Dayton Dry Goods Company and was first opened in 1962. The director at the time, Stewart K. Widdess and his staff quickly came up with the name a few month before the store actually opened, and from the beginning the bulleyes logo was envisioned for the company. The original logo, from 1962, was 3, red, open rings and “Target” written in black centered within the rings. To improve readability “TARGET” was moved to the side of the logo and put in all-caps. The rings were eventually narrowed down from 3 to just a single red dot and one open ring. In 2000 they decided to just use the color red, and as the brand itself became iconic with the bulleyes, “TARGET” was eventually dropped altogether.
When creating a logo you need to take into account many different things. You need to think about who you are creating this logo for. Who are they? What do they represent? What is going to be appropriate for their brand? Will the logo work in a small scale? Will it work on a large scale? This are important questions because this logo may have to be versatile, and what you have in mind might not work for who the brand is. Once you start the design phase you need to play around with many forms and methods. Try writing the name out and start looking at it in different ways. One example in the video was from Kelli Anderson when she design “Off Book.” She wrote the name out on paper and just began folding it and photocopying it. After playing around for a while the final image emerged and from there they just played around some more with color and opacity. You can’t always use pen and paper to try and generate ideas. At the end of the video they talk about timelessness. What makes a logo timeless? Timeless is something that can transcend through generations and still feel like it belongs. Coca-Cola was an example because throughout the years even though the logo has changed, the font has always remained the same. Not all logos are timeless, but if you want a logo you design to be, you have to think about how it could potentially be viewed in the future.
Interesting fact: the predecessor to Google was known as “Backrub” and the logo was just an image of Larry Page’s own hand… The name “Google” apparently derived from the mathematical term “googol” which is the number that is represented by the numeral one followed by 100 zeros. This was meant to represent the amount of information a person could find using “Google.” The very first versions of Google’s logo were created by Sergey Brin using an editing program called GIMP. The logo really hasn’t changed much over time, but one variation did include and exclamation mark which was supposedly inspired by Yahoo!. The colors have all stayed the same and only the shading and shapes of the letters have changed over time. Naturally, from time to time, as we all have seen, Google has created “Google Doodle Logos” which are decoration and typically created for special occasions, birthdays, and holidays. There have apparently been over 1,000 of these Google Doodle Logos!
Levi, also known as Levi Strauss & Company, is a brand that has been around since 1860’s formed by Levi Strauss and his brother-in-law. At first, the company only sold Overalls, but in the 1920’s the company began selling their iconic jeans. The very first logo they came up with was a very detailed image of two horses being driven in opposite directions which are both pulling on a pair of jeans meant to show durability. That logo can still be seen today on Levi jeans. Since the original logo was so complex the company needed to derive a more simplified logo for branding purposes. Over the course of a few decades the company went from LEVI’S written in all black, to LEVI’S written in white on a red background (the E slightly slanted). Eventually they changed the red rectangle and modeled the outline to the stitching in their jeans, still with the white writing. It wasn’t until recently they decided to remove the brand name altogether on the Curve ID product line. I personally feel the logo isn’t iconic enough to be left without the brand name because the image doesn’t resemble much, but I could definitely be wrong. I feel as though they should continue with the logo from 2000.
Hewlett Packard Co. was founded back in 1939 by Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard. They began their company in a small garage and chose the order of the names based on a coin toss. Packard-Hewlett would have been a little weird, so thankfully it was the other way around. From the beginning the company had already adopted “hp” as a part of their brand image and logo which was extremely simple, only containing their brand name “Hewlett-Packard” with “hp” above or in the middle. It wasn’t until 1967 that they decided to reimage their logo to be a little more contemporary. It was simplified to a rectangle with “hp” in the center. Sadly, this design did not fit most of their products and they had to redesign once again. The updated design kept a smaller version of the “hp” rectangle, but they incorporated Hewlett Packward (stacked) on the side. This design worked really well, but in 1999 the company split into two companies. From then on they dropped “Hewlett Packard” and just kept “hp.” For a little while they incorporated “invent” into the logo since they were innovating technology, but in 2008 they dropped that as well. The latest design pulls inspiration from their original design which had “hp” in a circle, and is the design we know today.
Nike is a brand that we all know and can easily recognize. The name Nike was derived from a Greek Goddess of victory, expressing ambition and a strong will to win. The company was founded in 1964 by Bill Bowerman and Philip Knight and was introduced in 1971. Ironically, when the “swoosh” was created by Carolyn Davidson, inspired by the winged goddess, Philip Knight “Okayed” the design because he was rushed to make a decision. He said, “I don’t love it, but it will grow on me.” Little did he know how symbolic this “swoosh” was going to be! The original logo, in 1971, was the “swoosh” with Nike written overtop of the design in a lowercase font. Later on in 1978 they placed the “swoosh” at a different angle to highlight the new All-Cap “NIKE.” After over 25 years of use, the image itself defines NIKE, and it instantly recognizable. From 1995 on, the NIKE name has been removed from the logo.
What I learned watching the video is that when creating or designing a new logo, you have to just write, draw, and endlessly play around with shapes and letters. The more you do this the more options you will be able to choose from in an effort to generate an awesome design. Just by writing things out you may help spark and idea or see something you didn't see before that can easily relate back to the brand. After that just keep sketching!! Once you find a design or two or three that you think have true potential, go into illustrator and start mocking them out. Illustrator is key because you can make the images bigger or smaller without losing the quality of your design. Aaron makes a good point about always making a copy so that you always have something to revert back to if one of the designs starts to fall apart. In this program you can easily play around with colors and fonts. The most important things is to remember to have fun. Try to spark inspiration from old books of logo designs, and never give up. It's okay to step away in order to clear your head. Sometimes we get so wrapped into the design we are working on that we have a hard time seeing other possibilities. Stepping away helps clear your head so you can come back a little more refreshed. Just remember to keep at it, and soon you will have an amazing design!!
Coca-Cola is such an iconic brand which I personally love because they started with an idea and they haven’t steered too far off from the original idea. One of the fonts they used from the beginning is still used to this day. Frank Mason Robinson is the creator behind the design using a Spencerian Script. The only variations we have seen over the years were taglines being incorporated (to stay relevant with the times) and the Red background with the white type to help improve readability. Other than that, the brand’s logo has remained the same, and the brand is one of the most, if not the most, well-known brands in the world.
“American Messenger Company” was founded in 1907 which later changed its name to “United Parcel Service” in 1919. Every logo, from the beginning, always incorporated a shield to ensure safety of their product. The very first logo was a shield with an eagle carrying a package with a label reading “Safe, Swift, Sure.” The trucks carrying their packages were painted brown although the original idea was to paint them yellow, but that idea was quickly turned down. In 1937, they decided to simplify the logo to the shield with UPS in the center with a message reading “the delivery system for stores of quality.” They also added “Since 1907” to enhance their experience. To simplify it more, they redesigned in 1961 to just a shield with UPS in the center and a rectangular package with a bow right above it. They wanted to try to create a logo that most people could identify with, so that is why they incorporated a gift package. Later on in 2003, the logo was redesigned once again to just the shield with UPS in the middle. They incorporated brown and yellow into the design as well as a curve within the shield to suggest world-wide service within the company.
The Brand name Lego derived from a Danish saying “Leg Godt” which means “Play Well.” The company had many variations of its logo from 1934-1950 before it started to take shape into the logo we know today. The original variations contained “Billund, Denmark” which is where the Lego headquarters is located. In 1953 we began to see the logo take shape with the bulky lettering with the red background and the two dots with the black line connecting them. All the way up until 1964 the logo also contained “System” underneath the brand name. In 1973, they removed “system” which was written in yellow, and decided to outline “Lego” in yellow which helped it stand out against the red background. The Logo we know today is slightly slimmer and closer together. Legos is definitely an iconic brand which has been around for many years.
Around the 1890’s a man named Marcus Samuel worked in a trading company that specialized in antiques and seashells. As he branched off from his current company he created his own with the name “Shell” Transport & Trading Company, and thus the brand name originated! The very first logo was a realistic depiction of a mussel shell, and later changed to a scallop shell. Around 1907 the company merged with the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company and became the Royal Dutch Shell Group. They chose to stick with the scallop shell and dubbed “Shell” as their brand name. Overtime they steered away from the realistic look of the shell and adopted Red and Yellow as their colors. Reasons behind the colors vary depending on who you ask. One theory is that they represent the colors of Scotland which happened to be one of the founder’s heritage. The other theory is that the colors represent Spanish heritage which many Californians originated. Neither theory have been confirmed, so it remains a mystery. As the company started to gain popularity in the 1940’s, they incorporated the brand name into the Logo. The logo changed slightly over the next few decades; mostly the brand name moved from inside the shell to underneath the shell. As of 2000 the company has become so widely known that the brand name has been removed because it has become one of the most recognized logos in the world.
Based on the 3 Quasi-Easy steps, the first step is to Immerse yourself in the product of the company you are working for. That means going out and buying the product, wearing the product, eating the product, whatever the product may be. Learn about the history of the company. Why did they get started? Have they had any hardships? When you immerse yourself in the brand you can start to see what they are all about and what type of logo will best suit them. Sometimes all a logo takes is just a really awesome design to become iconic, but in reality the odds aren’t necessarily in our favor. Not to say it couldn’t happen! By immersing yourself, you will become knowledgeable about the brand and you will have a lasting impact on your client. You will be able to speak about them and your logo and relate the two together.
The next step is Creative Copying. The type of font you use in your logo can easily change its entire appearance. Sometimes we get stuck, and we keep using the same thing over and over. We need to break away from doing this by using reference material. Look through the Yellow Pages, old books, newspaper ads, etc. “Borrow” ideas from different sources, never steal the whole idea or copy text verbatim. Play around with color along with everything else, and you should soon be on the right track. Lastly, after research and referencing, you will go into the Thumbnail and Comp phase. This is where you will begin sketching out your logo designs. Play around with the knowledge you gained to help you figure out what images (if any) will go into your design. Try using a few different font types that you found during your research. Scale them up or scale them down. You can cut them apart to further play around with the layout. Sketch as many as you can so that you have more ideas to choose from. Eventually these will be what you will show you client, so make sure your design makes sense! Volkswagen’s first logo was created thanks to an internal competition in 1938, by Franz Xaver Reimspiess. Out of all the designs, his was deemed the best. It was a simple yet effective and the logo we know today still derives from his original design. It began as a simple V and W interlocked within each other and outlined with a Gear and surrounded with a Radient Garland. Through WWII, the company only produced military vehicles. Once the war was over, they began production again, and the vehicle was officially named the “Volkswagen” vs KdF-Wagen. During 1945 they went through multiple designs, including a black circle with VW in the middle and a white circle outlined in black with VW in the middle. In 1948, they even attempted a square logo which was unsuccessful. Finally in 1978 they revamped the logo with a little blue color using one of the designs from 1946, and gave it an outline. During the 1980’s they added a 3D effect to modernize the design, and it is still the logo we see today. Only slight changes have been made since then.
Believe it or not, but Apple's very first logo was way more complex than what it is today. It began as a boy sitting under an apple tree! Since the design was difficult to reproduce on a massive scale, they simplified the design to a rainbow colored apple with the brand name "apple" coming out of the side. The rainbow design was a way for Apple to show that their monitors came in many various colors which was very appealing to the younger generation at the time. After a few years they dropped the "apple" altogether once it became iconic enough. Surprisingly the reason behind the "bite" in the apple design was meant to help distinguish it from a cherry. From 1998 and on Apple's design became more monochromatic and less colorful as their iMac's were released and their computer designs became more refined.
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AuthorMy name is Erin and I am currently a student at Virginia Commonwealth University Archives
November 2015
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