Logo: Your company icon

A logo is an inseparable part of a company that remains stuck with its name for all the good reasons. One may call a logo the nickname of the organization; a small icon, intelligently designed, serves to draw public attention to the company. It is more about innovative design so the visual element has to be there in a logo to make it stand out and be memorable. We still remember the logos of many companies seen for the first time decades ago. But the strongest representation of a logo is seen on the flags of a country. The logo on a flag tells the tale of its heroic past, like it does on Bangladesh’s flag. The stars on the US flag represent the states that together make the United States of America.       

  A logo is the first identity of the organization. It speaks volumes for it so it has to be designed in such a way that identification of the company and its products or services can be easy. A complicated logo may work negatively. A customer will not have to read the full name of the company because one look at the logo and he will know he has come to the right office. Even if an illiterate person cannot read the name of the company, he/she will be able to recognize the logo which has become popular over the years. A child will run to the McDonalds shop by recognizing the enticing logo. Children also immediately recognize KFC or Coca Cola in any country as the logos are well known there. A sportsman will easily know which pair of boots was made by ADIDAS and which by Nike. Similarly, customers can identify a Rolls Royce, a Mercedes Benz, an Audi or a Toyota car only by taking a look at the logo. The logo of a man on a horse playing polo or a crocodile on t-shirts helps the customers select the brand they want. The logos on expensive perfumes are easily identifiable to the connoisseurs.                

 Some scholars say logos are modern phenomena while others argue that logos were present even in the days of antiquity, like during the days of the Pharaohs. So, the sun became a symbolic icon of the Pharaoh Akhenaten as he had introduced the new religion of worshipping the sun. The piercing eye is also another iconic image from ancient Egypt.

The serpent around the staff is the logo of Greek god of medicine Aesculapius. It is found on medicine bottles, books and journals and the logo is still venerated by the medical practitioners in every country. In India the dancing Shiva inside a circle is found in temples or shops. Hitler selected the Swastika as his favourite logo on the uniform of his officers and soldiers though Swastika is of Indian origin. The Cross is the revered logo of the Christians while the lotus flower is that of the Buddhists. Red Cross is the logo used on  ambulances in Christian countries while red crescent in Muslim countries.      

In the medieval times kings used logos on the army shields and on the doors of the palaces to announce their identity. This continues even today as we see the army, air force, navy, police or coast guards in every country have their separate logos or symbols to differentiate between different units. Universities, cricket clubs, football clubs, debate clubs, film clubs and film studios have their individual logos. One remembers the roaring lion of MGM and the lady with the shining lamp of Columbia Pictures, two major studios of Hollywood. The logo of RK Studios in India, showing a man holding a violin in one hand and a lady in another, became as popular as the films made there.

Logo designing is a complex creative work done by people having the artistic endowments they are born with. It may take months to create a logo and it may go through many changes before finalization. Some logos are made with two or three English letters entwined with one another in a clever way, like calligraphy. Other companies use graphics to intrigue the people. The symbol of a half-eaten apple on an apple product like the iPhone makes people wonder why. It may not be great aesthetically to many customers but the image has become too powerful by now.  

People also wonder why there is the image of a pyramid with the all-seeing eye on the one dollar bill. Why a pyramid on the American currency? What is the purpose of the eye at the top of the pyramid? The questions have been going around since the introduction of the bill and answers are buried with the designers of the logo or image.     

It is said that the Chinese and the Japanese letters are in fact each a symbol or logo. These are also known as pictography almost like the Egyptian hieroglyphs of the ancient era.     

 The conspiracy theorists spin many stories around some logos. They find secret symbols in an otherwise innocent logo. The stories start to have a snowball effect and often become absurd. In the half-eaten apple symbol they discovered the secret image of aliens. But secrets in other company logos are not that uncanny. For example, the arrow hidden in the logo of FedEx is interestingly designed. It is said to have won many awards. Innovation is also noticed in the logos of Baskin Robbins, Hershey’s, Toblerone, LG,  Chicago Bulls, Toyota and many others.

History of the Olympic logo is also interesting. It is said that the “interlocking rings of the Olympic flag was created by Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the co-founder of the modern Olympic games.  The five rings represent the five participating continents of the time: Africa, Asia, America, Europe, and Oceania.  While the colors of the five rings, blue, yellow, black, green, and red together with the white background of the flag could compose the colors of every nation’s flag at the time of its inception as the official Olympic symbol in 1915.”

The writer is Associate Editor of The Business Post