The “Before and After” of 10 International Famous Logos

1. McDonald’s Who doesn’t know the big yellow M?! Famously known as the Golden Arches that symbolize this most prominent fast food chain. The McDonald’s logo is symbolic of the arches that were the substance of the newly-constructed architecture of the first franchised restaurant in 1952. The logo used two colors: the yellow and red; yellow représente the Golden Arches while the red represents the food industry.

2. Royal Dutch Shell is one of the oldest brands, and its logo is among the oldest brand identities in the world. The Shell logo looks like a crown which is modified from the earlier shape of a mollusc shell. The shape of the Shell logo informs about its industry as oil and gas, and the logo uses red and yellow as primary colours in its brand. They were chosen for their connection with the Spanish flag since many people settled in California from Spain, and California was the central business area of Shell during its years of foundation.

3. Apple: It’s worth mentioning that Apple’s first logo did not represent the physical shape of an apple. The first Apple logo created by Ronald Wayne depicts Isaac Newton under an apple tree. Today, the world-renowned logo of the bitten apple was created by designer Rob Janoff. According to Janoff, the “bite” in the Apple logo was originally implemented so that people would know that it represented an apple, and not a cherry tomato. It also played on words (bite/byte), a fitting reference for a tech company.

4. Microsoft : Microsoft’s first logo was chosen by Bill Gates and Paul Allen and it was inspired by a programming language. It used a sans serif font and represented the 70s era. The recent one took place in 2012. This logo, still used today, is the creation of Microsoft employees after several meetings. The added the colorful symbol for the 1st time which made it so different from the other logos. Four squares of different colors form a window obviously a reminder of Windows–one of the important products of the company. According to some, the red square represents PowerPoint, the blue square Word, the green square for Excel and the yellow square for Outlook.

5. Google: The search engine's very first logo actually predates the name "Google." Larry Page and Sergey Brin originally called their web crawler "BackRub." Brin and Page chose this name because the engine's main function was to search through the internet's back links. In 1997 they changed the name to Google, and the first official logo “Google!” was created in 1998. In 2015, designers from across Google met in New York City for a full week to produce a new logo and identity family" designed to work across multiple devices. This changed Google's logo dramatically. The company preserved its distinctive blue-red-orange-blue-green-red pattern, but changed the typeface to a modern, geometric sans-serif one called Product Sans, created in-house at Google. They also added the rainbow "G" used for smartphone app icon. The new logo was meant to look young, cool and dynamic.

6. Toyota: Although Toyota has been one of the largest auto manufacturers in the world, the beginning of this empire was in the textile industry and was known as "Toyoda". In 1939, the first emblem of Toyota came as a result of a public competition. During this competition, the name "Toyota" was proposed to replace "Toyoda". The recent Toyota logo may appear relatively simple at first glance, however, it contains interesting and unique design elements. “The two perpendicular ovals inside the larger oval represent the heart of the customer and the heart of the company. They are overlapped to represent a mutually beneficial relationship and trust between each other. The overlapping of the two perpendicular ovals inside the outer oval symbolize “T” for Toyota, as well as a steering wheel, representing the vehicle itself. The outer oval symbolizes the world embracing Toyota. Each oval is contoured with different stroke thicknesses, similar to the “brush” art known in Japanese culture.”

7. Nissan : Nissan inherited its first logo from its parent company, Datsun, known for its blue and red colors in 1984. In 1988 blue was replaced by gray and the red circle turned silver. Today, the Nissan logo has changed completely! Nissan has transformed its logo to make it more compatible with the digital number on the Nissan Ariya EV 2022. Nissan announced its change of logo in the wake of similar decisions from Volkswagen and BMW. The new logo has an incomplete circle with a small gap where the Nissan name bisects it, contrary to the old logo's outer solid ring, it also has additional spacing of the lettering.

8. Lacoste : A love for the game, a passion for innovation and a certain French elegance. Since 1933, the story of Lacoste has mirrored that of its founder, René Lacoste, the French tennis legend who revolutionized the everyday wardrobe. After a Davis Cup match in Boston, an American journalist baptizes René Lacoste “The Alligator” in reference to a bet between the tennis player and his coach over a crocodile suitcase. Artist Robert George brought the crocodile logo to life in 1927.

9. Boeing : The original logo of the company was designed in the 1920s and was composed of three different badges. The first one was a detailed image of the bird, flying to the East, with an arrow above it, where the wordmark was located. It was a symbol of speed and freedom. In 1997 Boeing merged with McDonnell Douglas company and the logo was redesigned, combining visual identities of both companies. The strong logotype adopted an elegant and unique emblem, a circle with a stylized wing on its right and a ring around it. The current logo is executed in a blue and gray color palette, where the blue is used for the lettering and gray for the emblem, the combination of colors perfectly reflects the company’s essence and nature, symbolizing air, speed, and safety.

10. Samsung: Samsung's first logo had a distinctive three star pattern which reflected the origin of the brand’s name, which means “tri-star” in the Korean language. The latter version of the logo which was created in 1993 replaced it with the now-familiar bold sans serif letters inside a blue ellipse that reads Samsung. The three stars have disappeared, but connection with space still remains, as the oval symbolizes shape of our universe, top of letter “S” is designed as if it is spilling to the outer space, and the same holds true for bottom part of “G” which symbolizes Samsung as something open to the whole world with confident blue color which is the color of ocean and sky. The iconic “A” without the horizontal bar, it was left transparent against any bright background. In 2005, they removed the ellipse, but both logos are still being used.