Technology companies' logos: 10 interesting stories

Ishan Bhatkoti, TOI Tech Sep 17, 2012,

NEW DELHI: Logos of top tech companies are among the most easily recognisable in the world. But, ever wondered how did they evolve to be in such exalted status? Be it the Apple's Newton's apple logo or IBM's globe, most of them have had really interesting etymology associated with them. Read on to know the tales behind the origin of logos of some of the biggest tech companies. Microsoft Microsoft, after 25 years, revamped its corporate logo in August 2012. But this is not the first time Microsoft went for a change. In fact, this is the fifth logo in 37 years of company's history. Microsoft now spells its name in bold instead of italics, thus symbolizing "simplicity, commitment and loyalty". It is also for the first time that Microsoft's logo is accompanied by a design. The iconic four brightly coloured boxes (orange, green, yellow, blue) which earlier were in a wave form, now appear as simple square boxes. The history of other four logos is more interesting. The 70s and 80s were famously known as the Disco era and its impression could be seen on Microsoft's first logo which spelled Microsoft in two lines with "Micro" in the upper line and "Soft" below it. All the characters had a "groovy" texture. The second logo that came was green in colour and spelled the word Microsoft in one line with all characters in upper case. The "O" of the Micro had lines on it and employees nicknamed the logo as Bibbet. In fact, after 12 years when Microsoft wanted to change the logo, employees protested and even ran campaigns to save it, but it was destined to go and made space for a new logo. The new logo which came in 1987 was called the Pacman logo and was designed by Scott Baker. This logo gets its name from the wedge-shaped cut

made on the "O" of the Microsoft. Except the letter "M", all other letters were in lowercase and italicized. In 1994, a tagline was added to the logo which was later changed in 2006. Apple One of the most easily identifiable logo is that of Apple, a company that in past one decade has changed the very definition of personal computing as we know it today. Just like the company, including its late co-founder Steve Jobs, Apple's logos too have an unusual history. Here's the history behind the famous 'bite': The first Apple logo might seem like a sticker on a wine bottle, but it is not. During 1970s, the first logo was nowhere close to an Apple. However, it still had something to do with apple. The logo was Issac Newton. The image appears to be on a papyrus showing the popular anecdote from Newton's life when an Apple fell on his head. Of course, the associated message was a quote from Wordsworth, "Newton... a mind forever voyaging through strange seas of thought." This Newton logo didn't last for long and was replaced by a multi-coloured Apple logo bitten on the right side. This logo was designed by Rob Janoff and there are several stories that try to explain the idea behind this Apple logo. But the most popular is the one which says that it is a tribute to Alan Turning, the father of modern computing who committed suicide by taking a bite from a cyanide- laced Apple. Then, in 1998, Apple introduced its monochrome logo. Though in the current design, the outline remains the same, but it now features only two colours: white and aluminium. Google Another most easily recognisable logo is that of the internet giant Google. The company has changed its logo a number of times ever since BackRub, a search engine designed by Sergy Brin and Larry Page, was renamed as Google. Sometimes, to celebrate special events like birthdays of famous people, International Days etc., Google temporarily makes exciting changes to its logo which is commonly known as the doodle. Google's first logo was somewhat like Yahoo's logo with an exclamation mark. It was designed in 1998 by Sergey Brin himself using the free programme GIMP. But, unlike Yahoo's logo, which was all red, Google's logo had primary colours.

After a year, on May 31 1999, Google introduced its new logo that spelled Google in three primary colours and one secondary colour. The font or the typeface was changed, exclamation mark was dropped, the logo now had a shadow, and the letter "o" got dark yellow colour. This was used until May 2010. The current logo was designed by Ruth Kedar. In the new logo again, the font was changed, the shadow was dropped, colours were enhanced and appear brighter and "O" is now in Chrome yellow. According to the designer Ruth Kedar, the "L" of the Google was given a secondary colour to upfront the idea that Google doesn't follow the rules. Yahoo Yahoo was founded by Jerry Yang and David Filo in January 1994 and was incorporated on March 1, 1995. This internet mammoth of the yesteryears has a very interesting fact associated with its name. It began functioning under the name "Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web". Later on, it was renamed as Yahoo which is an acronym that stands for "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle". The word "Hierarchical" indicated the arrangement of data, "Officious" meant for people who would be using the Yahoo data from offices via internet and "Oracle" meant truth. In simple words, it was a service that aimed to provide correct and true information to people who accessed internet from their offices from its database. However, the founders of the company say that they chose Yahoo because of its slang definition: rude, unsophisticated, and uncouth. Yahoo's first logo that came in the year 1995 was in red with three icons on each side. The logo on the homepage used to have a black outline shadow which went well with the uncouth definition. Yahoo's philosophy at that time was to offer information as quickly as possible. Hence, the logo went well with the idea. After a decade, Yahoo's logo was changed to purple with no outline or shadow, and it is simply identical to the original logo. This consistency in Yahoo's logo is indicative of the fact that the company is determined, stable and promises to deliver the "best" to its users. The other variant of Yahoo's logo are "Y!" and the Yahoo messenger logo. Samsung Unlike Apple and Microsoft, Samsung was not a technology giant when it was founded in 1938. It came up as a small trading company in Seoul, South Korea.

The current Samsung logo is the fifth design since 1938 and it signifies simplicity and flexibility. The ellipse is symbolic of dynamism. Within the ellipse is spelt Samsung in bold, block letters that convey the message of commitment, leadership and innovation. The "S" and "G" are located at both the ends of ellipse which convey that Samsung is a company that is always eager to serve its customers globally and interact with them. The "A" in the current logo looks like inverted "V". The blue colour of the ellipse is symbolic to stability and reliability. The very first logo also known as the Samsung Byeolpyo noodles logo had a circle in centre with three stars and the name of the company was spelled out within the circle in Korean. The logo which replaced the first one had three stars placed in a white circular area enclosed in a square. The name of the company was spelled in the same line. This logo was used until 1979. In 1980, Samsung logo got colour and it was red. The three stars were placed in a triangular form and the name of the company was suffixed. Nokia Nokia, the Finnish handset maker which ruled the smartphone market for long, has a very interesting history. Nokia's current head office is in Keilaniemi, Espoo. Nokia was first established in 1865 by Fredrik Idestam in the town of Tampere on the banks of the river Tammerkoski and it was incorporated in town of Nokia. This small municipal district gets its name from the river Nokianvirta that flows through this town. In 1966, Nokia designed its first logo which was a fish. The famous belief is that the logo was inspired by the salmon fish of Nokianvirta river upon the banks of which Nokia is situated. Prior to 1966, Nokia was primarily a Finnish rubber company with two other businesses focusing on electrical and paper. During that time, Nokia's logo was an inverted diamond outline in which the name of the company was spelled in red colour with the date of its foundation. In 1967, the three businesses were merged to form Nokia Corporation and the new logo was a simple black circle with a bent line in between on which Nokia was spelled in white. The circle was actually symbolic of the globe and the word Nokia which was spelt on the central band was indicating that the company intends to expand its reach beyond Finland and Europe.

Nokia's telecom business evolved with the 1967 merger itself. During 1970s and 80s, when Nokia was progressing in the phone business, it adapted a new logo which was quite similar to the current one. Nokia was spelled in aqua (light blue) colour and on top of "A" were three arrows that symbolized Nokia's progress in the telecom sector. In 1993, Nokia adapted the current logo which spelled Nokia in bold blue characters and had a tagline "Connecting people" which was given by Ove Strandberg. The arrows were dropped. Later in 1997, the iconic image of two hands holding each other was introduced. The tagline "Connecting people" underlines Nokia's mission of "building customer relationship upon trust and offering best services which is above all barriers and distances". In fact, Nokia went on to become the top phone company and stayed so until 2009. The first dent in its fortunes came in form of the first smartphone launched by Apple in 2007. Motorola Founded on September 25, 1928, Motorola began its operations as Galvin Manufacturing Corporation and later in 1947, it changed the name to Motorola. It was split into two companies Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions in 2008. Motorola Mobility was later acquired by Google in 2011 for $12.5 billion. Motorola's first logo was simply its name spelled in black colour in a cursive running font. In June 1955, Motorola got its current logo that features a modified "M" in white colour on a round black background. The triangular peaks that form the "M" in the logo are symbolic of "leadership, progression and intentions to stay at the top of the domain". Under the logo, Motorola is spelt in black bold letters. IBM IBM was founded in 1911 through the merger of three companies and was named as Computing Tabulating Recording Company (CTR). IBM is sometimes also referred to as the Big Blue. In 1914, Thomas J Watson Sr, was appointed to lead CTR and that was the time when he introduced the famous motto "THINK." The CTR logo at that time was a simple circle in which the abbreviation CTRCo was spelled in black colour and somewhat similar to Gothic font. On the Valentines Day of 1924, CTR was renamed to International Business Machines Corporation, or IBM Corp. And with it was unveiled a new logo. The new IBM logo took the shape of the globe, girdled by the word "International"

in white on a black band. The logo indicated IBM's intention to expand globally. However, it failed to show "friendly and caring" side of IBM which forced the company to adapt a new logo on January 1, 1947. The 'globe' was replaced by simple letters which indicated that the company believes in "simplicity and building friendly relationship with customers based on trust". The typeface of the font is Beton Bold. In May 1956, IBM made subtle changes to its existing logo. The new logo was created by the famous graphic designer, Paul Rand. That new logo used the typeface known as City Medium that provided the logo and the company a bolder and balanced look. Finally, in 1972, Paul Rand designed a completely new logo for IBM. The bold letters in black were replaced by white horizontal stripes on black background, indicating "speed, dynamism and progress". The bold block letters were used to indicate "authority" and the stripes are symbolic of "equality". Adobe In 1982 Adobe was a two-man army and its soldiers were John Warnock and Chuck Geschke. The designer of Adobe's first logo was none other than John Warnock's wife Marva Warnock, who was a graphic designer herself. Company's first logo had its full name, Adobe Systems Incorporated, printed on bluish-grey background in a running font. Letter "A" was modified in form of a triangle. The old logo conveyed "professionalism" of the company. The current Adobe logo has letter "A", slightly modified from the original, on a red background. In the new logo, only Adobe is spelled with "A" in upper case. The current logo is a symbol of success, efficiency and innovation and harmony. Canon Canon is a Japanese company that specializes in manufacture of imaging and optical products. Canon began in 1934 under the name Kwanon with the production a prototype for Japan's first-ever 35 mm camera with a focal plane shutter. In 1947, the company's name was changed to Canon. In Buddhism, Kwanon is the name of the goddess of mercy and its first logo showed the goddess with thousand hands sitting on a lotus with a ring of fire around it. The name Kwanon was spelled under the image in a very unique typeface which appeared more like flames. On the top of the image, the word "camera" was spelled.

However, this logo failed badly in the international market since Buddhism wasn't widely spread in the West at that time. People in Europe and the US did not understand the meaning of Kwanon and hence in 1935, the image was dropped and the word Canon was used. Canon was initially spelt using thin black lines which was modified over the years, and a unified version released in 1956 in dark, bold letters. The logo since then has remained unchanged for over half a century. Currently, Canon is spelled in bold red colour, which represents "dynamism, innovation, determination and business responsibility".

Source: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-09-17/computing/33901973_1_new-logo-rob-janoff-microsoft-microsoft