Logo Quiz
The logos you see every day hide clever tricks and odd origins that most shoppers walk straight past.
A logo quiz with answers about the stories behind famous brand symbols: who designed them, what hides in their shapes and why they look the way they do. Guess the logo from its story, no images needed.
Did you know?
- The Coca-Cola script logo was written in 1886 by Frank Mason Robinson, the bookkeeper and partner of the drink's inventor, who also suggested the name. He used Spencerian script, a flowing style of handwriting common in American business letters at the time.
- The Mercedes-Benz three-pointed star stands for the company's early ambition to power vehicles on land, at sea and in the air. The idea is linked to Gottlieb Daimler, who had once marked his home with a star on a postcard, and the star was registered as a trademark in 1909.
- Shell has used a seashell in its logo since 1904, a nod to the business of the founders' father, who sold decorative seashells in London. The modern red and yellow version was designed in 1971 by Raymond Loewy, the industrial designer who also shaped famous trains and cars.
What makes a logo work
A logo is a small image asked to do a big job: be recognised in a fraction of a second, work at any size and carry the character of a company. Designers aim for simple shapes, a limited number of colours and a mark that still reads clearly in black and white. Many famous logos began as detailed drawings and were simplified over decades, as printing, screens and app icons demanded ever cleaner designs.
Hidden meanings
Hidden details reward attention and make a logo memorable. The Amazon logo's arrow runs from the a to the z, suggesting the company sells everything from A to Z, and it also forms a smile. The Baskin-Robbins logo hides the number 31 in its initials, a nod to its original promise of 31 ice cream flavours, one for every day of a month. Such tricks work best when the logo still looks clean to people who never notice them.
Myths about logos
Some logo stories are more legend than fact. BMW's blue and white roundel is often said to show a spinning propeller, but the company has explained that it was based on the colours of Bavaria; the propeller idea came from a 1929 advertisement. Apple's bitten apple is sometimes linked to the computer scientist Alan Turing, yet its designer, Rob Janoff, has said the bite simply made the fruit read as an apple rather than a cherry.
Colour and recognition
Colour does much of a logo's work. Research on brand recognition suggests that people link particular shades strongly to particular companies, and some firms have registered colours as trademarks in certain markets. When brands redesign their logos, they often keep the colour and simplify the shape, because customers notice a new colour far more quickly than a slightly different outline. This is why many logos from the 1970s are still recognisable after several redesigns.