Best Logos of the Century
A good logo design can have a major effect on your brand, something so simple can reach the public easily and create a connection between the company and its clients. Every brand needs a face, a symbol that represents what they are and one that passes the right image of it. The logo is the first thing a customer will see, those first seconds are fundamental and will decide if the customer will choose to learn more or move one to the next one. That’s why a logo is so much more than a simple image! It’s a recognition point to the public and a brilliant way to give them the idea of professionalism, trust, quality, and other characteristics you want to be associated with your brand.
Throughout the years, we have seen a lot of popular brands, recognized around the world, changing their logo and getting even more success, as this is an important key to the rise of your business. Like this, when your brand logo is out there and recognized, people will look for it when in need and feel confident about your services or products. Today, I will tell you more about the history of famous brands and the changes they made to their visual identity, through the years. These are some of the best logos made in this century, but if you want one just for you, be sure to click here.
1. Twitter
Created in 2004, by Jack Dorsey, Twitter is a social media platform that quickly had a great impact on the digital world. This social platform allows its users to express freely what they are thinking or what they like, and its logo represents exactly that. Throughout the years, this company had a few different logos before the first appearance of the famous bluebird, and there’s no one who doesn’t recognize it these days. This logo, released in 2010, gave the world the opportunity of getting to know “Larry, The Bird”, inspired by the NBA player, Larry Bird. In 2012, the third twitter logo was launched, where a few details were changed in the famous bluebird, as well as its name – Twitter Bird. This logo is the perfect icon for what the company wants to represent, the perfect combination of power and unique voices are ready to pass on their thoughts to others. Simple, unique, and memorable.
2. Starbucks
To all the coffee lovers out there, it’s impossible to not know the famous coffee brand, Starbucks, conquering fans since 1971. Their brown logo is known for its mythical creature – a mermaid with two tails, or siren, and it was the first being introduced to the public. In 1992, a third edit was introduced, with shades of green and black, and the face of the known siren became the focal point, with a more modern and clean aesthetic look than the one before. A few years later, another attempt of bringing the design of the first logo was made, but it didn’t have the desired result. Because of this, in 2011, the brand introduced the logo that would become the best and most popular one, which is the current one, focusing only on the siren with the green and white colors within. Not only that, but the name was also cut and only a more precise vision of the mermaid was left. It might be the most recognized mermaid after Ariel, don’t you think?
3. Firefox
Since its beginning, in 2004, Mozilla Firefox’s logo didn’t suffer many changes. On a rivalry between the, at the time, leading Internet Explorer and Netscape, which was the first name of the company, this didn’t have much chance, but in consequence, in 2004, Firefox was released. In contradiction to what many people might think, because of the name “Firefox”, their logo was a blue planet and a red panda, not a fox. Over the years, until 2017, their logo was perfected, but only on small details and colors. However, in 2019, when released to the public, a new logo was produced, with a much more minimalistic design and leaving behind the planet and panda. It doesn’t matter how much time passes, we will always remember the strong logo with the fox, or rather saying the red panda!
4. Instagram
Probably the hottest social network at the moment, Instagram made its way into our lives, in 2010. This image-based app was the first one to reach the same popularity scale as Facebook. With a total of 3 different logos until this day, a lot of people don’t know the first one, which is usually forgotten. It was an image of a polaroid camera with extreme details and a rainbow stripe in the middle, something that currently wouldn’t have much success. In 2011, the second logo was introduced to the crowd by Kevin Systrom, the founder of this app, who not only designed the first one but also, along with its team, worked on the second one. He took inspiration from a camera from the 1950s created by Bell & Howell, which resulted in one of the most famous logos. In 2016, the last and current logo of the company was presented, however, not everyone felt the same way about this change. A lot of people criticized the company’s choice, with a minimalistic style and bright colors, as it only kept little details from the past logos, leaving behind its rainbow stripe – the reason why a lot of users felt disappointed. Nevertheless, this is still one of the most recognizable logos of all time.
5. Netflix
One of the biggest companies of entertainment and streaming was launched in 1997, but only in 2007 graphic changed from a DVD rental company to a streaming media service. In 2000, the iconic symbol, with the red background and the word Netflix in the front in white and with a black shadow behind, was released, Even though there was a logo before, this was the first to have a real impact on the brand. For 14 years this was the image that represented the company, however, in 2014 a new logo came to life, with a more modern font, leaving the shadow behind the lettering, and switching the colors of the brand’s name to read. Even though this is the current logo, another one was released with a simple N in red on the front of a black background, for easier recognition. Not everyone enjoyed the idea of the lonely “N”, but fortunately, this hasn’t replaced the classic one.
6. Airbnb
In the traveling world, there are a lot of well-known platforms and with a good reputation, but one of them has been highlighted more in the last few years – I’m talking about Airbnb, of course. This platform was launched in 2008 and focuses on renting rooms or houses from regular people, which allowed us to enjoy a new way of accommodation. Its first logo was a simple representation of the brand’s name in lowercase letters and with the shades of blue and white. In 2014, the current logo was introduced for the first time and it was a game-changer! It presents a symbol in coral red and englobes 4 different elements. A head representing people, a localization icon representing accommodation, a heart to represent sentiment, and, of course, “A” as the first letter of Airbnb. This logo is minimalistic, very attractive, and its symbol is popular, plus it represents well the image this company wants to pass to its potential clients.
7. Spotify
Launched in 2008, Spotify is one of the most famous services of video streaming, podcast, and music, plus it’s the number one choice of a lot of users. Their first logo, with a fun design, contained the company’s name with the “O” in a jumping motion, with 3 lines above it representing the waves of sound. However, in 2013, the brand decided to change directions and presented a more professional and aesthetic logo, where the sound waves left the top of the “O” and were placed inside a circle, next to the Spotify name. This logo gained fame and, till today, it’s easily recognized, so it’s not that surprising that, only in 2015, the brand decided to make some small adjustments, changing the colors to a neon shade of green, leaving behind the original light green.
At Last, Don’t Forget
There are a lot of brands that, throughout the years, took different routes, making it possible for the company itself to get different recognition and gain even more fans. A logo should always represent what you want to tell the world about your brand, the right image you want your future clients to have, and it’s the first contact anyone will have with your company. Just like some of the Businesses mentioned before, it’s important to keep updated on the changes in the world, of the audience, and even of trends. It could mean giving it a fresh new look, changing colors, or even removing details no longer needed, for a more minimalistic aesthetic look, that will capture even more attention. A lot of brands passed through different stages of changes until reaching their ideal result, but some will always be remembered. If you are considering giving your brand a fresh new look, take into consideration the trends, the targeted crowd, and what message you want your customers to have of you, and I know it can be the trick to make your brand popular, but it’s never impossible. Appreciate the time taken, and I will see you next time!
