50 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 Nike Swoosh in 1971?

Phil Knight later gave her a diamond Swoosh ring and 500 shares of Nike stock, now worth a fortune.

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

The 1971 original was topless with a fully visible double fish tail; it has been cropped and simplified ever since.

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?

The triangular bar itself was inspired by the Matterhorn, and Theodor Tobler designed the shape in Bern.

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

The original had eleven feathers to signal 'richness in color'; the modern six-feather bird dates from 1986.

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

Ron Wayne drew it; Rob Janoff's rainbow bitten apple replaced it in 1977.

The Shell logo is based on which sea creature?

It is called the pecten after Pecten maximus; Raymond Loewy drew the current version 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?

He was born under Taurus and later named cars after Miura's famous bulls.

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

Tennis star René Lacoste was nicknamed 'the Crocodile' after a bet with his team captain over a crocodile-skin suitcase.

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

The cartoon version was replaced by a solid silhouette in 2010, and the bird was retired when Twitter became X.

What is the real name of the Michelin Man?

He was introduced at the Lyon Exhibition of 1894 as a stack of white tyres, and is one of the oldest trademarks still in use.

The moustachioed man on Pringles cans is called Julius. Where did that name come from?

An editor inserted the name in 2006, news outlets repeated it, and the company eventually went along.

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

He started selling fried chicken from a 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?

Gottlieb Daimler devised the symbol; DMG registered the three-pointed star as a trademark in 1909.

The blue and white quarters of the BMW roundel come from where?

The propeller story is a myth; the roundel evolved from the black ring of the Rapp Motorenwerke logo.

What do the rings in the Audi badge stand for?

Audi, DKW, Horch and Wanderer merged in 1932; Volkswagen revived the Audi name in 1965.

The six stars in the Subaru logo depict which star cluster?

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?

Alan Siegel designed it in 1969 from a Wen Roberts photograph, a year after doing the MLB logo; the league has never officially confirmed it.

Contrary to legend, the batter in the MLB logo was NOT modelled on which Hall of Famer?

Jerry Dior drew it in 1968 from several photographs, deliberately ambiguous so it could be any player.

In which year did the Golden Arches replace Speedee as McDonald's universal mascot?

The arches themselves were introduced as building architecture in 1953.

Which soft drink's script logo was written by the bookkeeper of its inventor in 1886?

Frank Mason Robinson chose the Spencerian script and the name; the drink first sold for five cents at Jacob's Pharmacy in Atlanta.

In Ruth Kedar's 1999 search-engine logo, why is the L green rather than a primary colour?

Designer Ruth Kedar built the 1999 logo on the Catull typeface; the 2015 redesign switched to a sans-serif.

What is the Wikipedia logo?

Each piece carries a glyph from a different writing system, and the missing pieces symbolise a perpetual work in progress.

Which number is hidden in the Baskin-Robbins logo?

One flavour for every day of the month; the company has introduced more than 1,400 flavours since 1945.

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

He put the name inside a daisy shape and insisted it go on top of the wrapper where it would always be seen.

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

The 10th-century Danish king united the tribes; the technology's namers hoped it would unite communication protocols.

Who designed the Playboy bunny logo?

The tuxedo-bow-tied rabbit first appeared as an endnote in the second issue in 1953 and never left.

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

Rolling Stones Records launched in 1970 and the logo became the band's general emblem.

The three-stripes mark was bought in 1952 from a Finnish company for cash and what else?

Karhu sold it for about €1,600 plus the whiskey; Adi Dassler then called Adidas 'the three stripes company'.

Puma's founder Rudolf Dassler fell out with his brother Adi, who founded which rival firm in 1949?

Rudolf first registered his company as 'Ruda', a play on his own name.

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

The first store opened in Roseville, Minnesota in 1962 for the Dayton Company.

Nintendo was founded in 1889 to make what?

Fusajiro Yamauchi's Kyoto workshop made hanafuda cards; the name's meaning is genuinely uncertain.

The name Instagram is a portmanteau of which two words?

The app's original icon was a Polaroid-style camera, replaced by a flat gradient design in 2016.

The Android robot logo, nicknamed Bugdroid, was designed by whom?

She created it on 5 November 2007, the day Android was announced.

The Peugeot lion was first registered as a trademark in 1858 for which product?

The walking lion on an arrow stood for the speed, strength and flexibility of the family's steel saws.

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

The arms of Stuttgart, with its prancing horse, sit in the middle of the shield.

Toyota's 1936 logo competition drew 27,000 entries. What did the winning design show?

The three-oval logo everyone knows today came much later, in 1989.

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

Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac founded Detroit in 1701; the brand borrowed his name and his arms.

The Chevrolet 'bowtie' emblem, first used in 1914, may have been inspired by what?

Company co-founder William C. Durant told the wallpaper story; 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.

The Morton Salt girl with her umbrella dates from which year's ad campaign?

The slogan 'When it rains, it pours' made the point that Morton's salt flowed even in damp weather.

Mr. Peanut was drawn in 1916 by whom?

Antonio Gentile's sketch won; a commercial artist added the monocle, top hat and cane.

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

He has been sniffing out hidden bowls since 1963.

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

He had previously played Bozo the Clown on Washington's WRC-TV.

Which oat brand's logo shows a man in 17th-century dress, one of America's oldest food trademarks?

The Quaker Mill Company was founded in Ravenna, Ohio in 1877.

The five Olympic rings represent what?

Coubertin's 1914 flag counts the Americas as one continent; the colours were chosen so every national flag contained at least one.

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.