15 Most Famous Brand Logos of All Time

 

I know a lot of designers who hate famous brand logos. They see them as overused and uncreative, but the truth is we all know them, and our clients expect us to be able to recreate them from memory at a moment’s notice. With that in mind, I thought I’d get ahead of the game for you and make this list of the 15 most famous brand logos of all time.

1: Apple

Apple is one of the world's most valuable brands. The company's logo, a simple, elegant symbol of an apple with a bite taken out of it, is as memorable as any other symbol in recent memory. The fruit logo was designed by Rob Janoff in 1977 for Steve Jobs' brand new computer company.

It may seem obvious now that Apple would need to have a logo that stood out from the competition and represented what they were doing at the time—but back then there wasn't anything else like it.

2: Microsoft Logo

Microsoft was founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, who both were dropouts of Harvard University. They started working on a version of the BASIC programming language for the MITS Altair 8800 microcomputer system. This version became known as Altair BASIC, and it marked Microsoft’s first business success.

In April 1975, Bill Gates wrote to his associate from Lakeside School: “I have decided to take my advice and get into some projects that are more ambitious than anything I have done before…” The next day he flew out to Albuquerque for a meeting with MITS founder Ed Roberts on a business proposal for the use of BASIC in MITS' new Altair computer (which would become one of its greatest hits).

At this point they had been talking about writing software but not yet building computers themselves; however, by September 1975 they had come up with their logo design which featured an outline of an apple with two bites missing (representing computers) with a rainbow across them -- although this design was never used publicly until now.

3: Google Logo

Google's logo is a simple, colorful, and playful mark that has been used since the company's inception in 1998. The logo was created by Sergey Brin and Larry Page, who were Ph.D. students at Stanford University when they began working on their search engine.

The word "Google" itself is derived from a misspelling of the word "googol," which refers to 1 followed by 100 zeros. This number was chosen because it represents an unimaginably large quantity of information that can be explored through Google search technology.

4: BMW Logo

The BMW logo is the blue and white roundel, which was used as a part of the company's logo ever since 1922. The roundel symbolizes Bavaria, Germany (where BMW is headquartered), where it was first introduced in the 19th century.

These famous brand logos were designed by Franz Josef Popp, who was an employee of BMW at that time and also served as an illustrator for some of their products.

5: Nike – Just Do It

Nike is one of the most famous brands in the world, and its logo is instantly recognizable to many people. The Nike swoosh has become so iconic that it’s now used as a symbol for athleticism and exercise in general. It was created by graphic design student Carolyn Davidson in 1971.

She had been working on a project with Phil Knight (the CEO of Nike) when she realized that there was no symbol or logo for the company at all, so she came up with her design idea—a black-and-white checkerboard pattern with an arrow shape pointing towards its center. That arrow would become the Nike Swoosh we know today, representing the wings of an athlete—and also representing how fast you can run once you get active!

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