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The Evolution of Tech Companies Logos

neatorama.com — You’ve seen these tech logos everywhere, but have you ever wondered how they came to be? Did you know that Apple ’s original logo was Isaac Newton under an apple tree? Or that Nokia’s original logo was a fish? Let’s take a look at the origin of tech companies’ logos and how they evolved over time

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  • fstorino, on 02/07/2008, -1/+74Very nice. But I think they missed one famous Xerox logo:
    http://www.office.xerox.com/userdoc/P5500/images/x ...
  • FrequentFlyer29, on 02/07/2008, -0/+19Kwanon camera with patented 1,000 arms image stabilizer!
  • CharlesSaint, on 02/07/2008, -2/+41Yay for FIREGOOSE! http://neatorama.cachefly.net/images/2008-02/logo- ...
  • whitesaint, on 02/07/2008, -0/+17Very nice. It's cool to see IBM's logo from the late 19th/early 20th centuries.
    • norris, on 02/07/2008, -1/+8Yeah. The 1924 IBM logo is so 1924 it hurts.
  • iraq, on 02/07/2008, -12/+2You know, Google's logo is such a simple logo and very effective. Colorful, primarily uses 'eye-catching' colors and the slim font speaks to the simplicity and ease of use of Google products. I think the 2nd draft of the logo is pretty funny, it looks like the product of a college nerd playing with a pirated version of adobe photoshop. Apple's old rainbow apple logo is still pretty cool but I never liked how they looked when branded on machines. The new logo on the other hand is sexy as hell and plastered all over the Internet. IBM's 1956 logo > current one IMO.
    • anagoge, on 02/07/2008, -3/+20Google's logo is actually pretty bad. It goes against a lot of good design principles.
      • DarkDx, on 02/07/2008, -1/+4Like what? (not disagreeing with you, but I want to know)
        • zengonzo, on 02/07/2008, -2/+11. Don't make ugly logos.

          I kid, but, really, I hate it. Only Google could get away with it.
      • smackhero, on 02/07/2008, -1/+6like using a bunch of complementary colors and using a serifed font for a non-print medium.

        somehow it works because google has become such a cultural icon, and perhaps also partly because google maintains a very plain and pragmatic look to their site layout/design.

        but it does seem to go against most modern design conventions and professional intuitions.
      • BigBallistix, on 02/07/2008, -0/+1I like it, I'm actually annoyed and puzzled about it's lack of appearance on my iGoogle homepage. I'd like to see the event and holiday changes when they make them.
  • mojaam, on 02/07/2008, -1/+20These are great! I'm sure people have different tastes but I personally think most of these logos got better with time. Part of it might be because they look more simplified.
  • boomybx, on 02/07/2008, -0/+25It gets more and more simple with time.
    • SkippyDoorknob, on 02/07/2008, -0/+9Which makes it easier to render with a small number of pixels on a computer display. Can you image the original Apple logo crammed into the corner of a window or etched on the back of an iPod?
    • zengonzo, on 02/07/2008, -0/+1The more complex, the more susceptible they are to the ravages of stylistic decay. KISS
    • MOJIRA, on 05/17/2008, -0/+1That's the current trend (current as in, over the last 50 or so years). But I bet you things will get more complex again; like the Victorian era but in the future. Zeh fyoocha!
  • kahlessreborn, on 02/07/2008, -0/+50Anyone think Palm 2003 logo was the height of the Palm Logo?

    Probably the height of the company itself
    • Ninjab3ar, on 02/07/2008, -0/+10I didn't even know they changed their logo since the 2003 version...
      • Laxaloot, on 02/08/2008, -0/+1It's because they had to break the company into 2 companies for some reason, and then they combined into one again.
  • gamerscalling, on 02/07/2008, -3/+13They have skipped over a lot of details with this, for instance the IBM logo doesn't even show the symbolic version by Paul Rand. Then the apple logo, that beveled version is used but they use many different versions of it still, it really is just the shape that is the logo. Overall I found this a sub-par analysis of the logos.
    • gamerscalling, on 02/07/2008, -2/+2Of course that is based on their presentation, the actual company information is still nice.
      • HelloNavi, on 02/07/2008, -2/+3I think you're looking WAY too far into this, man.
        • gamerscalling, on 02/09/2008, -0/+3I am a graphic designer, it interests me is all I can say.
    • Ninjab3ar, on 02/07/2008, -0/+3Paul Rand designed the current IBM logo. The symbolic one was never a logo at all, it was just put on a poster for advertisement.
      • gamerscalling, on 02/09/2008, -0/+1Mmm, I see. The logo books I have read never said that but it is understandable.
  • yatzr, on 02/07/2008, -0/+30I wonder how much research went into changing the 'G' from green to blue.
    • plbland, on 02/07/2008, -1/+12Probably ran out of yellow ink
    • smackhero, on 02/07/2008, -0/+2actually, green is a primary color, and yellow a secondary color (red + green), in additive color systems like digital displays.
      • nonnald, on 02/07/2008, -1/+6but printers handle colors differently, they use Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black as opposed to the Red, Green and Blue of displays. So you don't need to mix anything to get yellow for a printer.
    • BigBallistix, on 02/07/2008, -0/+5I reckon the darker colour is more appropriate and distinct for its capitalized initial... Green is too light, just think how annoying it can be when friends on IM applications use a light-coloured font.
    • grumpyrain, on 02/08/2008, -0/+2and it briefly spawned an exclamation mark! They must have been considering some sort of deal with Yahoo!
  • Twelve-60, on 02/07/2008, -1/+14So basically all they do is transform more and more from an image to text.
    • guibom, on 02/07/2008, -0/+1Logo comes from logotype, which is just a special typeface...
  • matt3454, on 02/07/2008, -3/+3This is sloooooow.

    Mirror?
  • Lammin, on 02/07/2008, -1/+6Website down already :/
  • ghgh1313, on 02/07/2008, -1/+3some of those older logos look pretty sweet
  • talonstriker, on 02/07/2008, -5/+1adobe's first logo with some modern pimping could look kick ass
  • JamesMorris, on 02/07/2008, -2/+17http://duggmirror.com/design/The_Evolution_of_Tech ...
    • ApokalypseNow, on 02/07/2008, -2/+7Just so you know for the future, a simple link to
      http://duggmirror.com
      will suffice - the additional text in the URL is not necessary, as DuggMirror will find out which story you want to view from the referral information.
      • DiggzDE, on 02/07/2008, -0/+2Doesn't always work for me. Sometimes I link like that and it fails to find it. Then I go and manually search off of duggmirror.com and find the proper mirror on it.
  • bullcutter, on 02/07/2008, -8/+2doesn't this story get resubmitted like every other week? i've seen that google thing at least twice before
    • santaliqueur, on 02/07/2008, -1/+10See, there is thing, when people haven't seen everything you have, it is new to them. Quiet down.
      • bullcutter, on 02/07/2008, -1/+1im just tired of seeing the same recycled or otherwise ***** stories submitted and made popular by the same handful of users, day in and day out. some people figured out how to manipulate digg and its making digg stale, if you hadn't noticed. its becoming more about the submitter and popularizer than the content.
  • shanghainobody, on 02/07/2008, -1/+8Xerox logo got uglier in 2008!
    • halsey7, on 02/07/2008, -1/+0And its a complete rip off of xbox 360.
  • NuclearBunny, on 02/07/2008, -0/+7Intel's logo was the same from the founding of the company in 1969 until 2006.
  • gutterboy, on 02/07/2008, -1/+32Dugg for Nokia's first logo. How ***** badass would that be if that ***** was all over your cellphone.
  • airj1012, on 02/07/2008, -0/+7This is actually pretty interesting. If you look over the years and through all the different companies there is one characteristic that can be said for almost every company. Their first logo was a very elaborate drawling yet the logos being used today are rather simple (some being just the company's name in a certain font). I wonder what the next generation of fonts will look like.
    • SkippyDoorknob, on 02/07/2008, -0/+3Logos will be rendered in the form of scents
      • airj1012, on 02/07/2008, -0/+2Nope, thats not a fake. Smell right here, thats a real iPhone. Gotta love the scent of Apple.
    • BigBallistix, on 02/07/2008, -0/+1Well it was probably because they were mostly on buildings and hanging signs, or letterheads etc' to begin with. It would have been suitable for the architecture and the old 'East India Trading Company mindset'. I hope future logos are holographic sharks that make you wet yourself.
  • redhotkurt, on 02/07/2008, -0/+3The author didn't mention the use of typefaces once. This article isn't nearly as informative as it looks.
  • sparced, on 02/07/2008, -6/+1Weak. They could of choose a lot more examples. Tech companies are boring, go and get yourself a book of Paul Rand's work.
    • cristianl, on 02/07/2008, -0/+0Anyway, this article is for tech companies. *Tech companies*, BRO.
  • shadowblade989, on 02/07/2008, -9/+5You can still see the original Google logo at http://www.google.com/abc
    • DarkDx, on 02/07/2008, -4/+1fail
    • SkippyDoorknob, on 02/07/2008, -2/+2I think that's supposed to go to a 404 page. Did you see the logo there?
      • shadowblade989, on 02/07/2008, -1/+2Yea, the point was any 404 page, just thought I would provide a link :/
  • Asvetic, on 02/07/2008, -1/+4Jon Hicks wasn't credited properly for the Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird Logos [http://www.hicksdesign.co.uk/journal/branding-fire ... And the "current" Adobe logo is wrong, it's the Red block A with Adobe under it.

    This article seems interesting, but also poorly researched on some points.
    • Asvetic, on 02/07/2008, -0/+2Plus, they left out the Digital X logo for Xerox... come on now!

      from wiki: "The company was revived in the 1980s and 1990s, through improvement in quality design and realignment of its product line. Development of digital photocopiers in the 1990s and a revamp of the entire product range—essentially high-end laser printers with attached scanners which were able to be attached to computer networks—again gave Xerox a technical lead over its competitors. Xerox worked to turn its product into a service, providing a complete "document service" to companies including supply, maintenance, configuration, and user support. To reinforce this image, the company introduced a corporate signature, "The Document Company®" above its main logo and introduced a red "digital X®". The "digital X" symbolized the transition of documents between the paper and digital worlds."
  • chris9902, on 02/07/2008, -1/+2The IBM logo has a kind of retro cool about it. It never seems to look old.
  • Error601, on 02/07/2008, -1/+4It looks like redesigning a logo for Canon is easy. Just pick a different font.
    • oojamaflip2006, on 02/07/2008, -0/+1...and lose the Bodhisattva image and change the name
  • cyoung, on 02/07/2008, -0/+0The first Apple logo looks like it was designed by a tattoo artist. Now that I think about it, I'm almost certain that someone has that tattooed on them now.
  • ZBrannigan, on 02/07/2008, -0/+3If more blogs were this informational and put so much effort into their posts i would read them...
    • erikcunningham, on 02/07/2008, -0/+0I just like the pretty pictures :)
  • LeRenard, on 02/07/2008, -1/+1I think logos generally looked better in the 1950-1979 time frame.. (cleaner, simpler) but it could be that those are the ones I remember most. Newer than the mid-80s and the logos start to look "over done", perhaps because of computer editing software's effect. I still think the Apple rainbow logo is one of the most iconic of our time, and they were morons to ditch it.. or at least not to keep the horizontal lines as part of the logo.
  • Derfy, on 02/07/2008, -0/+1Excellent post - dugg.
  • veeracs, on 02/07/2008, -1/+2WOW! Canon has Hindu Goddess on it's first logo.
  • cjmal, on 02/07/2008, -1/+1damn, all of IBM's logos are horrible. even the current one.
  • Schmich, on 02/07/2008, -0/+5I find Palm's 2003 logo to be nicer than the 2005 one.
  • ebob9, on 02/07/2008, -1/+11I find this Google old logo eerily disturbing and relevant:
    http://www.google.com/logos/oldgoogle.gif
    • grumpyrain, on 02/08/2008, -0/+3Whoa, that is like someone has inserted some WordArt
  • Zedian, on 02/07/2008, -2/+0The first one makes me feel like a little dumb 4 year old.
  • Zedian, on 02/07/2008, -2/+0The first one makes me feel like I am a dumb 4 year old.
  • rumagin, on 02/07/2008, -1/+5man ignore the stuff about logos and feel thankful youre not Wayne. "In 1976, after only working for two weeks at Apple, Wayne relinquished his stock (10% of the company) for a one-time payment of $800 because he thought Apple was too risky! (Had he kept it, Wayne’s stock would be worth billions!)"

    opps!
  • emt1451, on 02/07/2008, -1/+1The "current" Apple logo is incorrect.
    • supersteve, on 02/08/2008, -0/+1it is the one they use on OS 10.5
  • squidreturns, on 02/07/2008, -0/+0Yeah, it sucks for Wayne to have missed out on the "dream". But what about all those dot commers who watched their paper net worth turn into nothing because they held on too long? There are thousands of people who goofed worse than Wayne, the one in a billion dude.

    I've got two friends who cashed out their dot-com options when they were worth something and they managed to buy mid to high 6-figure homes outright, and they've been living without a mortgage for the last decade, investing their money along the way. Their counterparts told them that they were stupid, were missing the boat, and would regret it. Now their counterparts have worthless pieces of paper, and they've got a ton of money in the bank, 401ks that will let them retire before age 60, and they live a pretty nice, if not flashy, life with nice vacations and no credit card debt or subprime mortgage fallout woes.

    You never hear anyone glamorizing their choices, but I tell you I envy them more than the 0.001% of super-entrepreneurs.
  • falafelkiosken, on 02/07/2008, -0/+1interesting, coincidentally I've recently rented a book at the library which also shows the history of famous logos
  • Prepressology, on 02/07/2008, -0/+1Very interesting to see how all these logos have changed so dramatically over the years. Definitely laughed at the first Google doodle for burning man.
  • seanof, on 02/07/2008, -0/+3The bite in the Apple logo is there to fit with the a character of the Motter Tektura font Apple used on it's first products.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typography_of_Apple_I ...
  • MacDevyn, on 02/07/2008, -0/+1Some of those like Apple's original and Cannon's original are pretty bad ass!
  • erikcunningham, on 02/07/2008, -0/+0It's evident that the old school branding mentality of not messing with your logo is being challenged everyday. Name recognition may hold more weight than logo or image recognition.
  • Ksilebo, on 02/07/2008, -0/+2Interesting stuff.
  • flarn2006, on 02/07/2008, -1/+1I almost forgot about that rainbow Apple logo!
  • Ireland, on 02/08/2008, -0/+1What about Kodak: http://www.kodak.com/US/images/en/corp/kodakHistor ...
  • madbadger, on 02/08/2008, -0/+1I like how Google tried to copy Yahoo and changed their logo to Google! at one point.
  • DeleteFF, on 02/08/2008, -2/+1Warning: unlink(/apps/webhotels/www.neatorama.com/www/wp-content/cache/wp-cache-5df25ad033946f69e4a70cfd1b302662.html) [function.unlink]: No such file or directory in /apps/webhotels/www.neatorama.com/www/wp-content/plugins/wp-cache/wp-cache-phase2.php on line 297

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