Evolution of Logo Design

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When somebody drives through a town, what might they see? Buildings, billboards, and signs may come to mind. What might they see on the buildings, billboards, and signs? Most of them would probably contain a logo. A logo is a symbol or other design adopted by an organization to identify itself. Designs for logos and thoughts of logos have always been evolving and changing throughout time and many companies choose to modernize themselves in the culture of the time period they are in by changing and tweaking their logo to be more appealing. There is plenty of evidence to back these statements as many famous companies have had logos that have changed and developed over time. Something one can notice when researching logo evolution is that companies either tend to shine up their logos to look more futuristic or they can simplify the logos. 3 famous companies can come to mind. Apple, Volkswagen, and Pepsi.
When one is asked about top computer companies one of the first companies that comes to mind is Apple. A lot of people can easily recognize the iconic logo that is known today. Believe it or not, the iconic apple with a bite missing out of it was not always the logo for Steve Jobs’ computer conglomerate. The original logo was designed by Apple co-founder Ronald Wayne and it depicts Isaac Newton sitting under an apple tree which is supposedly how Newton thought of the theory of gravity when an apple fell from the tree and struck him in the head. That logo only lasted a year from when it was created in 1975. In 1976 Steve Jobs hired a graphic designer to create a more “modern” logo. Thus, the apple logo was born. The designer, Rob Janoff created the iconic “rainbow apple” logo that stood from 1976-1998. It is the apple ...

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...he bold faced, large text is replaced by simple lower cased text. Pepsi followed a different route then Apple and Volkswagen. As stated above companies tend to modernize and shine their logos (Volkswagen, Apple) or they tend to take the route Pepsi took by dumbing the logo down, if you will, with simple line art.
Many different companies on top of the three discussed above change their logos from time to time. Re-branding is a natural part of running a company and many different people do it. You can also see the two tendencies that companies have when rebranding of shining the logo to look futuristic, or making the logo into simple line art to make it more of a simple shape. The three companies mentioned above clearly show those two re-branding tendencies when somebody looks at the logo evolutions. Logos, like the companies they represent, evolve and change.

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