I was in a discussion recently about hidden symbols inside of logos. Most of the time, these are not obvious to me (though maybe I'm a little thick). I think it's cool that some companies do this: it shows that they put a lot of thought into their logo design, what they want it to mean, what they want it to convey, etc. Here are some examples of logos with hidden symbols. See if you can figure them out, and then mouse over them to reveal the hidden symbol.
First up, FedEx. Maybe they want to convey speed, direction, reliability. Can you spot the hidden symbol?
Now that you've seen it, you'll it every time. Next up, the Big Ten collegiate conference. The Big Ten has eleven schools, but they didn't want to change their name. They did, however, change their logo...
The Atlanta Falcons logo. This might be really obvious, but I didn't even think about it until recently...
The Iowa Hawkeyes (a Big Ten school), have a letter hidden in their logo:
The Montreal Expos. Their logo was always an enigma to me. What is "elb"? Well, this is a matter of some contention, but everyone seems to agree that it's a large M smack dab in the middle. Stylized so much that it's really hard to picture. Think of it like an M that starts and ends in a flourish.
Finally, Goodwill. A charitible company that wants to make people smile. Behind that smile is a sinister secret symbol!
Again, maybe obvious to everyone else but I didn't really think about it being a letter. I think these are really cool; if I keep finding these, I'll post more of 'em.






Digg this article!
1
Gerbs of http://cafe-style.net
Companies don't put a lot of thought into their logos, the designers they hire do. That's what they usually pay them for.
Never thought about the Goodwill one before. I've seen the stupid FedEx arrow so many times in design class it makes me cry. ...but not really.
Posted at September 10, 2006 on 6:46pm