100 Fun Facts About Logo

Which sportswear brand's logo is the Swoosh?

Nike began as Blue Ribbon Sports and adopted the Swoosh as its official mark in 1971.

How much was design student Carolyn Davidson paid for creating the Swoosh logo in 1971?

$35. Phil Knight later gave her a diamond Swoosh ring and 500 shares of company stock.

Which coffee chain's logo is a two-tailed siren?

Starbucks. Its 1971 siren was topless with a fully visible double fish tail, and each redesign since has cropped and simplified her.

What is hidden in the negative space between the E and the X of the FedEx logo?

Designer Lindon Leader created a custom typeface in 1994 just to make the arrow work.

The Toblerone logo mountain hides which animal, the symbol of the bar's home city of Bern?

A bear. The bar's triangles are commonly credited to the Matterhorn, but Theodor Tobler's sons said a dancers' pyramid at the Folies Bergère inspired them.

Which US TV network's logo is a peacock, first used in 1956 to promote colour broadcasts?

NBC. The 1956 original had eleven feathers to signal richness in colour, and the six-feather peacock in use today was unveiled in 1986.

Apple's very first logo, before the bitten apple, showed whom sitting under a tree?

Isaac Newton. Ron Wayne drew him sitting under an apple tree, and Rob Janoff's rainbow bitten apple replaced the design in 1977.

The Shell logo is based on which sea creature?

A giant scallop. Shell is named after the London business that imported and sold seashells, and Raymond Loewy drew today's pecten in 1971.

Ferrari's prancing horse was originally painted on the plane of which Italian flying ace?

Baracca's mother suggested Enzo adopt it for luck; the canary-yellow background is the colour of Modena.

What inspired Ferruccio Lamborghini to choose his company's famous animal emblem?

A Spanish fighting-bull ranch: in 1962 Lamborghini, a Taurus, visited Don Eduardo Miura's herd, and he later named a car after the breeder's bulls.

Which French fashion brand's logo is a green crocodile?

Lacoste. René Lacoste's nickname supposedly came from a bet over an alligator-skin suitcase, and in 1927 a friend's crocodile drawing was embroidered on his blazer.

Twitter's original cartoon mascot was named after which NBA legend?

Larry Bird, the Boston Celtics great. Within a year the cartoon bird became a solid silhouette, and the logo was retired when Twitter became X.

What is the real name of the Michelin Man?

Bibendum. A stack of tyres at the 1894 Lyon exhibition gave Édouard Michelin the idea, and cartoonist O'Galop drew the figure in 1898.

Which snack brand's moustachioed mascot got the first name Julius from a 2006 Wikipedia hoax?

Pringles. A prankster invented the name, news outlets repeated it, and after Kellogg's bought the brand, official marketing adopted Julius.

The face on the KFC logo is that of which real person?

Colonel Harland Sanders. He began selling fried chicken from his roadside restaurant in Corbin, Kentucky, and the first franchise opened in Utah in 1952.

What do the three points of the Mercedes-Benz star represent?

Engines for land, sea and air. Gottlieb Daimler devised the star, and DMG registered it as a trademark in 1909.

Despite the propeller myth, where do the blue and white quarters of the BMW roundel come from?

The flag of Bavaria, with the colours in reverse order, since the law barred private firms from using state symbols; the propeller tale likely began with a 1929 BMW advert.

What do the rings in the Audi badge stand for?

The firms that formed Auto Union: Audi, DKW, Horch and Wanderer merged in 1932, and Volkswagen revived the Audi name in 1965.

The six stars in the Subaru logo depict which group of stars?

Subaru is the Japanese name for the Pleiades; one of the Seven Sisters is traditionally invisible, hence six stars.

The Alfa Romeo badge's red cross and man-swallowing serpent come from which city?

The cross is Milan's emblem and the biscione belonged to the Visconti family who ruled the city.

Whose silhouette is the NBA logo based on?

Jerry West. Alan Siegel drew it in 1969 from a Wen Roberts photo, a year after overseeing the MLB logo, but the league has never officially confirmed it.

Which Hall of Famer is popularly, but wrongly, believed to be the batter in the MLB logo?

Harmon Killebrew. Designer Jerry Dior drew the 1968 silhouette from photos of several players, so it was never meant to be anyone in particular.

Which symbol replaced Speedee in McDonald's logo in 1962?

The Golden Arches. Before they became the logo, they were real yellow sheet-metal arches trimmed in neon on McDonald's restaurants from 1953.

Which soft drink's script logo was written by its inventor's bookkeeper?

Coca-Cola. Bookkeeper Frank Mason Robinson also named the drink, after coca leaves and kola nuts, and it first sold for five cents a glass in Atlanta.

Why did Ruth Kedar make Google's L green rather than a primary colour?

To show the company breaks the rules: Kedar used primary colours, then broke the pattern with a secondary colour on the L.

What is the Wikipedia logo?

An unfinished jigsaw globe: each piece carries a glyph from a different writing system, and the missing pieces mark a perpetual work in progress.

Which number is hidden in the Baskin-Robbins logo?

31, formed from the B and R, recalls the chain's famous idea of a different flavour for every day of the month.

Which famous artist designed the Chupa Chups lollipop logo in 1969?

Salvador Dalí. He took less than an hour to design the logo, shaping it as a yellow daisy.

The wireless standard whose logo combines two runes is named after which king, whose initials they spell?

Harald Bluetooth. Intel's Jim Kardach proposed the name because the king united Denmark's tribes, much as the technology would unite devices.

Which magazine's tuxedo bow-tied rabbit logo began as an end mark for articles in its second issue?

Playboy. Art director Art Paul sketched the rabbit in about an hour, and it has appeared in the magazine ever since.

The Rolling Stones' tongue-and-lips logo was created for what in 1970?

Their own record label, Rolling Stones Records: John Pasche designed the logo in 1970 after Mick Jagger suggested copying the Hindu goddess Kali's stuck-out tongue.

Which famous sportswear mark did Finland's Karhu sell in 1952 for cash and two bottles of whiskey?

The three stripes. Helsinki's Karhu sold the mark for about €1,600 plus the whiskey, and it did so well that the buyer's founder called his firm 'the three stripes company'.

Puma's founder Rudolf Dassler fell out with his brother, who founded which rival firm?

Adidas, from Adi Dassler's name; Rudolf first registered his own company as Ruda, from Rudolf Dassler, before renaming it Puma.

Which US retailer's logo is a red bullseye, also the name of its dog mascot?

Target. It launched as a discount chain run separately from the Dayton's department stores, and in 2000 the whole corporation took the Target name.

Which carmaker's trident badge copies the one held by the statue in Bologna's Fountain of Neptune?

Maserati. Mario, the one Maserati brother who chose art over racing, drew the trident, and Bologna was the firm's original home city.

Which Japanese company's name pairs 'three' with a word for diamond, matching its red logo?

Mitsubishi. Founder Iwasaki Yatarō picked three diamonds to echo the crest of the Tosa clan that employed him and his own family's crest of stacked rhombi.

Designer Irina Blok created which operating system's green robot logo?

Android. Blok says she drew the robot on her own initiative and made it free for anyone to reuse, and the team's enthusiasm led Google to adopt it.

Which carmaker's lion emblem was filed as a trademark in 1858 to vouch for its steel saw blades?

Peugeot. Long before cars, the lion stood for three qualities of the family's saw blades: cutting speed, hard teeth and a flexible blade.

The Porsche crest is based on the coat of arms of which former German state?

Württemberg, with Stuttgart as its capital; the state merged into Baden-Württemberg in 1952, but the old design of its arms lives on in the crest.

After a 1936 logo contest, which carmaker changed its name so it took eight lucky brush strokes to write?

Toyota. The winning design spelled Toyoda in katakana, but Toyota takes eight brush strokes, a lucky number, and looks simpler without the diacritic.

The Cadillac crest is based on the coat of arms of whom?

The French founder of Detroit: the brand borrowed both the name and the coat of arms of Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, who set up the settlement in 1701.

The Chevrolet 'bowtie' emblem may have been inspired by what?

A hotel-room wallpaper pattern is one story; others call it a stylised Swiss cross honouring Louis Chevrolet's homeland, so the truth is disputed.

Which fashion house's logo is the head of Medusa?

Gianni Versace came from Calabria, once part of Greater Greece, and chose the mythological figure for that reason.

Which brand's umbrella girl illustrates the slogan 'When it rains, it pours'?

Morton Salt. The girl and slogan made the point that its salt kept flowing freely even in damp weather.

Which snack brand's monocled mascot began as a 1916 contest drawing by schoolboy Antonio Gentile?

Planters. Antonio Gentile's winning sketch was a peanut person, and a commercial artist later added the monocle, top hat and cane.

Which cereal does Toucan Sam advertise, telling children to 'follow your nose'?

Froot Loops. Despite the rainbow of colours, every piece has the same flavour, and Toucan Sam has advertised the cereal since 1963.

Ronald McDonald was first played on television in 1963 by which future weatherman?

Willard Scott. He had played Bozo on Washington's WRC-TV, and when Bozo went off the air, local McDonald's franchisees asked him to create a new clown.

Which brand's logo, adopted in 1877, was the first registered trademark for a breakfast cereal?

Quaker Oats. The man in Quaker garb was chosen to suggest integrity, honesty and purity, qualities the Ohio mill wanted linked to its oats.

The five Olympic rings represent what?

The inhabited continents, counting the Americas as one; with the white background, Coubertin said the colours reproduced those of every country.

Which browser's logo shows a fox curled around a globe?

Firefox began in 2002 under the codename Phoenix as a lighter alternative to the full Mozilla suite.

Designer Rob Janoff gave the Apple logo its famous bite so the fruit would not be mistaken for what?

A cherry or another round fruit is what a plain apple outline could pass for, so Janoff bit a piece out. He drew the logo in 1977, the year he joined the agency Regis McKenna.

Which basketball star's leaping silhouette, first posed for Life magazine in 1984, became the Jumpman logo?

Michael Jordan first struck the pose for a magazine shoot on his old college campus. He later repeated it in Chicago in his team uniform, and that second photo became the logo.

The Red Cross emblem, adopted to protect medics in war, was formed by reversing the colours of which country's flag?

Switzerland was honoured with the swap, a red cross on white in place of a white cross on red. The Ottoman Empire later reversed its own flag the same way, creating the Red Crescent.

The freckled girl with red braids in the Wendy's logo is based on which relative of founder Dave Thomas?

His daughter Melinda Lou, nicknamed Wendy, was eight when the first restaurant opened. Thomas later wrote that he regretted the name because it cost her some of her privacy.

The three dots on the original Domino's Pizza logo, drawn in the 1960s, stood for what?

Its first stores were meant to be only the start: founder Tom Monaghan planned to add a dot for every new shop. The chain grew far too fast for that idea to last.

Commercial artist Harvey Ball took about ten minutes in 1963 to draw which symbol for an insurance firm's staff?

The smiley face earned Ball just $45, and he never trademarked it. The insurer wanted to lift morale after a merger and put his yellow grin on lapel pins.

The peace symbol began in 1958 as the badge of a British campaign against what?

Nuclear weapons were the enemy: designer Gerald Holtom overlaid the flag-semaphore signals for N and D, for nuclear disarmament, inside a circle.

Which rock band's crest logo was drawn by its own lead singer, combining the zodiac signs of all four members?

Queen's crest was drawn by Freddie Mercury, who had studied graphic design at art college. It shows two lions, a crab and two fairies beneath an enormous phoenix.

Which rum brand's bat logo was inspired by fruit bats living in the rafters of its first distillery in Cuba?

Bacardi put the bat on its bottles at the suggestion of the founder's wife, Doña Amalia, who saw the animal as a sign of good health, good fortune and family unity.

Which NFL team, known for plain orange helmets, is the only one in the league with no helmet logo?

The Cleveland Browns treat the bare helmet itself as their official logo. The team is named after its first coach, Paul Brown, rather than after an animal or a colour.

Chi Chi, a star resident of London Zoo, inspired the first logo of which conservation organisation, founded in 1961?

World Wildlife Fund's first panda logo was drawn by one of the charity's own founders. Chi Chi was the zoo's biggest draw and became Britain's best-known zoo animal.

Which film studio's logo, scored by composer John Williams, shows a boy fishing from a crescent moon?

DreamWorks first showed the moonlit angler in 1997 on The Peacemaker, the studio's first release. Williams was already the regular composer for co-founder Steven Spielberg.

Which airline's kangaroo logo first flew in 1944 on a wartime route linking Sydney with Britain?

Qantas introduced the emblem on what it called the Kangaroo Route, flying as far as Karachi before British crews took over. The airline is popularly nicknamed The Flying Kangaroo.

Poppin' Fresh is the real name of which brand's giggling mascot, who first popped out of a dough can in 1965?

Pillsbury gave its Doughboy a scarf, a chef's hat and two big blue eyes so viewers could tell him apart from the rolls. For decades the ads ended with a finger poking his belly.

The circular Volvo badge, which doubles as the sign for the planet Mars, is an ancient symbol for which metal?

Iron is what the sign meant to alchemists. Volvo uses it to suggest the strength of the metal in its cars, because Sweden is known for the quality of its ore.

Snapchat's ghost mascot, Ghostface Chillah, takes its name from a rapper in which hip-hop group?

Wu-Tang Clan member Ghostface Killah supplied the pun. Co-founder Reggie Brown designed the ghost, one of the few things kept when the app, first launched as Picaboo, was reworked.

Designer Milton Glaser first sketched his famous 'I Love New York' logo in 1976 while riding in what?

A taxi ride produced the sketch, drawn in red crayon on scrap paper. Glaser expected the tourism campaign to last a couple of months and did the work for free.

What was the name of the dog shown listening to a gramophone in the 'His Master's Voice' trademark?

Nipper was first painted by Francis Barraud listening to a cylinder phonograph. The Gramophone Company bought the picture for £100 once he repainted the machine as one of theirs.

Which Paris fashion house's logo is two interlocked letters, facing opposite ways, that stand for its founder's name?

Chanel's mirrored Cs are read as 'Coco Chanel'. The firm filed to trademark the interlocking design in 1924, alongside its plain typeset name.

Which designer of the IBM, UPS and ABC logos was hired by Steve Jobs to create the black-box NeXT logo?

Paul Rand's simple black box split the company name over two lines, a touch that endeared it to Jobs. By then Rand was rumoured to charge $100,000 for a single design.

Which NFL team's helmets carry a logo on the right side only, an arrangement that began in 1962 as a test?

The Pittsburgh Steelers put the decal on one side to see how it looked on their gold helmets. It proved so popular that the team left it that way for good.

The interlocking NY worn by the New York Yankees was first designed by which jeweller for an 1877 police medal?

Tiffany & Co. struck the letters on a medal of valor for John McDowell, a New York City police officer shot in the line of duty. The baseball club borrowed the design later.

Which brewery's red triangle, seen on bottles in a famous Manet painting, became the UK's first registered trade mark?

Bass is said to have sent an employee to queue overnight on New Year's Eve so it would be first in line when the trade mark register opened in 1876.

Which Irish drinks company adopted a harp logo in 1862, modelled on the Trinity College harp?

Guinness registered its harp facing right in 1876. Ireland's own coat of arms shows the same instrument facing left, which lets people tell the two apart.

Which oil company's trademark since the 1930s has been Pegasus, a red winged horse from Greek myth?

Mobil gained the winged horse through its affiliation with the Magnolia Petroleum Company, and introduced its Flying Red Horse logo in 1939.

Student Gary Anderson drew the universal recycling symbol in 1970 for a contest held around the first what?

Earth Day in 1970 prompted a cardboard maker to run the contest for art and design students. It drew more than 500 entries, and Anderson, then 23, won a $2,500 scholarship.

Which Mediterranean landmark has been the symbol of American insurer Prudential since the 1890s?

The Rock of Gibraltar idea struck an advertising agent as he looked at Laurel Hill, a volcanic outcrop in New Jersey. It gave Prudential the slogan 'Get a Piece of the Rock'.

Italian car tuner Abarth uses which creature, the star sign of founder Carlo Abarth, on its badge?

A scorpion stands for Scorpio, Carlo Abarth's astrological sign. The badge sets the stylised animal on a yellow and red shield.

Which American TV network's eye logo, on air since 1951, was based on a Pennsylvania Dutch hex sign?

CBS had a replacement design in the works a season later, but network president Frank Stanton insisted on keeping the eye and using it as much as possible.

Which film studio's logo is the Torch Lady, a draped woman who personifies the United States?

Columbia Pictures takes its name from Columbia, the female figure who stands for the country. Studio boss Harry Cohn found one Torch Lady model working as an extra on his own lot.

Luxo Jr., a hopping desk lamp from a 1986 short film, is the mascot of which animation studio?

Pixar's little lamp starred in the first computer-animated film to be nominated for an Academy Award. The short was the studio's first after its founders left Lucasfilm.

The three-pronged logo of which video game pioneer, founded in 1972, is nicknamed 'Fuji' after the famous volcano?

Atari designer George Opperman meant the shape as a letter A, its prongs echoing two players and the centre line of the court in Pong. Any likeness to the mountain is a coincidence.

Ann Turner Cook, later a mystery novelist and English teacher, was the infant model for which brand's logo?

Gerber chose her portrait, a rough charcoal sketch by artist Dorothy Hope Smith, in a 1928 contest to find an image for its new baby food.

The first Google Doodle in 1998 told users that the founders were away at which Nevada desert festival?

Burning Man was where the search engine's two founders were heading, so they drew the doodle as an out-of-office note in case the servers crashed while they were away.

NASA's round blue insignia, restored in 1992 after years of the 'worm' logotype, is nicknamed after which food?

A meatball is what staff call the starry blue sphere. It was brought back to lift morale among employees who had never accepted the plain lettering that replaced it in 1975.

The curved lines of The North Face logo, created for a climbing supplier, depict which rock formation in Yosemite?

Half Dome rises more than 8,700 feet above sea level. The North Face began by supplying climbers, the people most likely to recognise that outline.

Which German liqueur's bottle shows a stag with a glowing cross between its antlers?

Jägermeister means 'master hunter'. Saints Hubert and Eustace are both said to have converted to Christianity after a vision of a cross between a stag's antlers.

Which French baron, who proposed the Olympic motto 'Faster, Higher, Stronger', also drew the five-ring symbol in 1913?

Pierre de Coubertin borrowed the idea from the two interlaced rings of a French sports federation he had led. His design first flew on a flag at the 1920 Antwerp Games.

Tux, a plump penguin first drawn in 1996 for a logo contest, is the mascot of which operating system?

Linux creator Linus Torvalds chose the animal, and jokes that he caught 'penguinitis' after one nibbled him at a zoo in Canberra.

A rooster mascot has crowed since 1957 on boxes of which Kellogg's breakfast cereal?

Corn Flakes is said to owe Cornelius the rooster to a Welsh harpist, a family friend who noticed that ceiliog, the Welsh word for rooster, sounds like Kellogg.

Which Hollywood studio's logo, ringed by stars, was reportedly first sketched on a napkin by W. W. Hodkinson in 1914?

Paramount's peak is thought to be Ben Lomond in Utah, drawn from memory by Hodkinson, who grew up nearby. It is the oldest surviving Hollywood film logo.

What is the official name of the Rolls-Royce bonnet mascot, a woman leaning forward with arms stretched out behind her?

Spirit of Ecstasy was sculpted by Charles Sykes and presented to the carmaker in 1911. His model, Eleanor Thornton, is said to have been the secret love of a motoring peer.

Which British tennis champion's clothing brand uses a laurel wreath logo based on an old Wimbledon symbol?

Fred Perry had a fractious relationship with the All England Club, yet it still gave permission for the wreath. His tennis shirt launched at the tournament in 1952.

Which London tea merchant's logo, created in 1787, is described as the world's oldest in continuous use?

Twinings has also occupied the same premises on the Strand since 1706, where its founder opened Britain's first known tea room.

Citroën's double-chevron badge is traced to which V-toothed product, made by André Citroën's first business?

Helical gears with chevron-shaped teeth caught André Citroën's eye on a trip to Poland at 22. He bought the patent cheaply and set up a gear-making firm before turning to cars.

The muscular arm in the Arm & Hammer baking soda logo is said by the company to belong to which mythological figure?

Vulcan was the Roman god of fire and metalworking. The emblem dates back to the 1860s, and a member of the founding Church family had run a spice business called Vulcan Spice Mills.

The H in the Montreal Canadiens' 'CH' logo is wrongly thought to mean 'Habitants'; which word does it stand for?

Hockey is the word, from 'Club de Hockey Canadien', the name the team adopted for the 1917–18 season. Before that it had been the Club Athlétique Canadien.

Which British syrup brand's tin shows a dead lion and a swarm of bees, an image taken from the Bible's Samson story?

Lyle's founder Abram Lyle chose the slogan 'Out of the strong came forth sweetness', from the riddle Samson told after finding honey in the carcass. The tins first sold in 1885.

The top-hatted mascot of which board game, first seen on its cards in 1936, is also known as Rich Uncle Pennybags?

Monopoly's tycoon wears a morning suit, bow tie and top hat. His first outing beyond the board came in 1940 in Dig, another Parker Brothers game.

The United Nations emblem surrounds a world map centred on the North Pole with two branches of which tree?

Olive branches are a symbol of peace, and the map stands for all the people and countries of the world. The emblem was officially adopted in December 1946.