Logo Histories' Top 10 Logos

Logo Histories' top logo designs of all time and the stories behind their design.

Logo Histories has spent the last two years documenting the stories of logo design of the past, some familiar others lost to time. These stories (and our archive) now exceeds 100. And so now feels like a fitting time to share ten of our favourites. These choices reflect the pioneering efforts of the designers and studios, not strictly their recognition within established design canon, although there are a few familiar designs in the mix! We encourage debate and disagreement in the comments section! There’s some incredible logos that have been left out, but do have a look through our archive, you may find your favourites there.

Woolmark
Franco Grignani, 1964

In the designer’s signature style, a logo was created by arranging three black and white-striped bands criss-crossing into a formation similar to a mobius-strip. In the development process, he also created several variations by experimenting with the different thicknesses of the lines. In the modernity of the logo, and through Grignani’s distinct op-art style, the impression given of wool was one of softness, longevity and continued value and relevance.

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Apple
Rob Janoff, 1977

The objectives, as later recalled by Rob Janoff, the designer in charg, was to; make computers appear friendly; use colour; and appeal to non-users. After a trip to a fruit market, and after hundreds of sketches, Janoff landed on a simple memorable shape with a bite taken out of it to imply scale, and avoid it appearing like a cherry. Two versions were presented, one with and one without a bite “just in case [Jobs] thought the bite was too cute”. Further, variations on these two options were presented. These included a striped version, a solid colour version and metallic version, knowing that full colour wasn’t always a priority or just too expensive.

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Nike
Carolyn Davidson, 1971

Although the ‘wing; was Davidsons’ favourite option, there wasn’t much of an initial reaction to the idea, so she continued to present a handful of other ideas. Conversation circled back to the ‘wing’, and although Nike founder Knight had commented that he didn’t love it, felt that it might grow on him. An annotation by Davidson reveals that the Nike ‘Swoosh’ was initially described as a ‘swept-wing’, making a connection with the mythological Nike, a Greek Goddess that was typically depicted as being winged.

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Glasgow Airport
Margaret Calvert, 1964

The initial impression of the logo devised by Calvert is a white cross made of 4 diagonal arrows pointing outwards. However, the sign can be understood to have several further perceptual components. On a blue backdrop, the Scottish flag is created from the cross of the intersecting white arrows. The flag is subtly framed by the arrows’ inside corners. Then, within the negative space of the logo, four arrows can also be seen pointing inwards. Arrows are recognised internationally as a symbol of direction and movement. Glasgow Airport’s flights were mostly domestic and to nearby European countries. Therefore, the directional arrows, combined with the Saltire encapsulates the sign’s meaning: travel into and out of Scotland.

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Blue Circle
HDA International, 1967

The principle design element of the Blue Circe corporate identity system was simply a blue circle, drawing on and simplifying the logos of the corporation’s past but pioneering and progressive in its application. HDA International created four different variations of the logo to account for optical inconsistencies when the logo was scaled up and down. These variations counteracted an optical effect; the appearance of the circle’s negative space seeming bigger as the logo was made smaller.

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Expo ‘70
Takeshi Otaka, 1965

The idea for the Expo ‘70 logo was derived from the Sakura tree, more widely known as cherry blossom, the national flower of Japan. It was felt that this would be easily recognised by an international audience and clearly associated with Japan. Its five petals represented the five continents, interlinked by their circular arrangement, participating in the Japan World Expo. The circle at its centre was Japan with the surrounding space being a place in which ideas flourished between collaborative partners.

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Canadian National Railway
Allan Fleming, 1960

The flowing ‘signature logo’, later colloquially known as the CN ‘Worm’, was a departure from the railway heralds of the past. As later recounted by Perry, this was seen as a risk. “There was a lot of controversy about this bold new look and the CN red, but ultimately the company moved forward with this design because of all the strong features. The logo was a powerful moving billboard for CN’s powerful trains."

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CBS
William Golden, 1951

The ‘CBS Eye’ was designed with the help of graphic artist Kurt Weihs, and was inspired by hex symbols drawn on Shaker barns to ward off evil spirits. Kurt Weihs later recalled that the eye was specifically influenced by a piece of Shaker art included in the article ‘The Gift to Be Simple: Shaker design’. "Among the illustrations was an eye symbol. Golden picked it up and used it for a CBS sales portfolio. Then he felt there was more to it and used it for an ad. We had done eyes before. Everybody had done eyes; but this one was something that really worked. I felt the eye could have become the corporate symbol. We saw the eye as symbolizing CBS 'looking at the world'.

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Deutsche Bank
Anton Stankowski, 1972

The Deutsche Bank logo was unveiled at the annual press conference in April 1974. The design was a dramatic shift from previous letterform logos and consisted simply of an oblique beam, slanting at 53 degrees, contained in a square of bold lineweight. The tips of the oblique line are aligned with the inner corners of the square on the top right and bottom left. The width of the slanting beam is slightly thinner than the square frame with a ratio of 10:10.3.

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Swissair
Karl Gerstner, 1978

By placing the Swiss Cross within a parallelogram Gerstner emphasised the national character of Swissair, its position as the nation’s flag carrier, and represented Switzerland more plainly than any other logo could do. Further, within a parallelogram the cross gained distinction, a dynamic character and, outside the context of the aircraft tail, connected all materials produced by the airline to the image of flight.

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Did we miss your favourites? Want to see hundreds more logo stories just like these? Check out our archive or share your thoughts or memories of these logos below.