15 Logos With Hidden Messages
Designing logos can be very difficult. When designing a logo you want it to stand out from the crowd yet still be really simple. Sometimes the designer is really clever and makes the logo very simple yet includes a hidden message within the logo that has deeper meaning. In this article we have 15 logos with hidden messages, some of which you will have heard of before and some maybe new to you but hopefully you will enjoy them all.
Amazon
The Amazon logo is an extremely simple logo and while the arrow may just look like a smile it actually points from a to z. This represents that Amazon sell everything from a to z and the smile on the customers face when they bought a product.
Baskin Robbins
The Baskin Robbins logo may look like it includes a simple BR above the name but if you take another look you will that it includes a pink number 31. This is a reference to the original 31 flavors.
Chick-fil-a
The Chick-fil-a logo incorporates a chicken into the C. Although this isn’t very hidden, it is still very clever.
Eighty20
The eighty20 logo is a bit of a geeky one to figure out, the two lines of squares represent a binary sequence with the blue squares being 1′s and the grey squares being 0′s. Which makes 1010000 which represents eighty and 0010100 which represents 20.
F1
The F1 logo is a fairly simple one to figure out. The negative space in the middle creates the 1.
Facebook Places
If you didn’t already know Facebook Places, is Facebooks new geolocational product. Which is in direct competition with the current leader in that area Foursquare. Now if you take another look at Facebook Places logo you will notice it is a 4 in a square now is this a coincidence or a dig at Foursquare?
Fedex
The FedEx logo look like a plain text based logo but if you take a second look between the E and the x you will see an arrows which represents the speed and accuracy of the companies deliveries.
Milwaukee Brewers
The old Milwaukee Brewers logo may look like a simple catchers mitt holding a ball, but if you take a second you will see the team’s initials M and B.
Museum of London
The Museum of London logo may look like a modern logo design but it actually represents the geographic area of london as it as grew over time.
NBC
The NBC logo has a hidden peacock above the above text which is looking to the right, this represents the companies motto to look forward and not back, and also that they are proud of the programs they broadcast.
Northwest Airlines
The old Northwest Airlines logo may look like a simple logo but if you take a closer look the symbol on the left actually represent both N and W and because it is enclosed within the circle it also represents a compass pointing northwest.
Piano Forest
The Piano Forest logo may look like a simple text logo with trees above it, but if you take another look you will see that the trees actually represent keys on a piano.
Toblerone
The Toblerone logo contains the image of a bear hidden in the Matterhorn mountain, which is where Toblerone originally came from.
Tostitos
The Tostitos logo includes two people sharing a chip and a bowl of salsa, this conveys an idea of people connecting with each other over a bowl of chips.
Treacy Shoes
The Treacy Shoes logo is very cute logo with a shoe hidden between the t and s.
About the Author
Thomas Hardy is a freelance web designer from Newcastle upon Tyne (UK), here is his portfolio. He founded Design-Heaven and Work-Killer, where he regularly blogs. You will also find him on Twitter and Facebook.
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63 comments
Yorrany Braga
August 24, 2010Genial, great insight.
Thanks for sharing.
Matthew
August 24, 2010Thanks for sharing mate, this was such an interesting read.
Thouroughly enjoyed this article. Cheers!
Rozi
August 24, 2010What could I say? Creative! This is how logo should be. Simple, beatiful and meaningful.
Lovely
August 24, 2010Superb, aside from the obvious “popular topic” shoehorning in of the Facebook Places logo. If that’s how you draw the number 4, you need to go back to school. It just isn’t there.
Bret Juliano
August 24, 2010There’s a rough version without the map indicator on it (Some colors have been changed for visibility)
http://tinypic.com/r/16kyk44/4
Jakob Birgersson
August 24, 2010Designers with brains. I like that!
2experts
August 25, 2010me too
Erjon Mehmeti
August 24, 2010These guys should go bowling with Leonardo Da Vinci
))
Thanks for the article, I will never view the logos the same anymore.
Warren Jerzyszek
August 24, 2010Great list… I have to be totally honest and say that I never noticed the connections and hidden meanings behind the logo designs you’ve shared with us. I really enjoy logo design and also try to include little secrets here and there but like you mentioned the simpler the logo gets the harder it is to incorporate hidden meanings. This was a really good read. Thanks for sharing.
Simon Willans
August 24, 2010Doesn’t the eighty20 one only work backwards.
- It should be 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, not the other way around?
Brian Altenhofel
August 24, 2010The eighty20 logo is correct. Binary is written with the lowest number to the right, just like hexadecimal and decimal notation.
Webrunner
August 24, 2010I don’t think Facebook places logo is related to 4square, it’s only Facebook’s F rotated 90°CCW…
Ben
August 24, 2010Whether or not the 4 / square was intentional is debatable, but I bet whoever designed it, even if they meant for it to appear like the facebook lowercase “f”, must have realized it at some point, smirked, and left it like that on purpose.
kropped
August 24, 2010Cool collection
Nico Kunz
August 24, 2010To be honest, your post is just a rehash of about a million other blog posts out there that showcase hidden messages in logos. If you had found a new one then that would have been cool.
Moz
August 24, 2010I agree – disappointing collection, and rather limited observations too, compared with what’s gone before.
Thomas Røst Stenerud
August 24, 2010Brilliant post, indeed. Wasn’t a part of the idea behind the NBC Peacock to highlight the vibrant colours of the colour TV set? Can’t remember where I picked that up, though. Nevertheless; thanks for sharing!
Mark
May 8, 2011Their slogan at the time was that they were “proud as a peacock” to have their station transmit full color.
web designer leicester
August 24, 2010Nice post, i never noticed the amazon logo points from A-Z before…
Brian Altenhofel
August 24, 2010The Big Ten Conference logo (American college football) also has a good one. A few years back, they expanded to 11 teams, but Big Eleven doesn’t have the same ring to it. So, they put some 1′s on either side of the T in negative space.
Rob Dyson
August 24, 2010Bar the Eighty 20 logo, I don’t think any of these were particularly designed to be ‘hidden’- rather they all represent the ingenuity of good designers (I would have said they were all quite overt). But seeing them altogether is a great celebration of what makes a memorable brand design, so thanks for sharing
Lara
August 24, 2010I never noticed the arrow in FEDEX! I feel so ashamed.
Ivan Tsankov
August 24, 2010Simply brilliant!What could I say?
The NortWest Airlines,Fedex and Amazon logo are
created by real,creative designers!
This is how it should be done!
Brad Morse
August 24, 2010Another one I’ve always liked is the Safe Auto logo. There is a rear view mirror in between the “S” and “A” in the logo.
http://www.safeauto.com/
Austin Pickett
August 24, 2010Now I want a toblerone…!
Scott
September 5, 2010I know it’s an old joke, but it’s near impossible to eat a Toblerone without hurting yourself.
Online Printing Services
August 24, 2010Didn’t know that the bear was in the Toblerone logo.
Johnny Deeze
August 24, 2010Abuse of the word “hidden”.
Eko
August 25, 2010Amazing, very creative logo design…
Thanks…
Dave
August 25, 2010Check out the Big Ten Conference logo.
The task was to create a logo for a conference that actually has eleven teams. Great.
Grzegorz
August 25, 2010Great article. That’s amazing pice of art!
Craig
August 25, 2010Creative and well thought out Logos, Thanks for the share.
Dawid Deja
August 25, 2010Lots of interesting stuff.
This was the first time I was looking at most of this logos differently.
Cheers for this article.
Jeff
August 25, 2010Creative, yes. Hidden, no.
Arslan
August 25, 2010Nice Collection
Kartlos Tchavelachvili
August 25, 2010…very interesting stories behind those logo designs, especially Amazon & NBC.
TH4NK5 : )
Mauricio González
August 25, 2010“The xx logo may look like a simple logo but if you take a closer look …”
mimwow
August 26, 2010good article, thank u.
guys who made those logos are pure genies.
Hey
August 29, 2010Most of these are pretty obvious. Come on- Baskin Robbins? The “hidden” element is highlighted in pink.
I feel like the only one that will always truly shine is the FedEx one. That is because it works and reads exactly the same weather you see the negative space or not.
Hey
August 29, 2010whether*
thesebb
August 29, 2010Very interesting article! I really like Amazon and Fedex. All of them are very good though.
Lisa Thomason
August 31, 2010Amazing, very original logo designs. LT
Amanda Smit
September 1, 2010Brilliant, and loved the explanations too!
rickwebz
September 1, 2010Not sure if I should be amazed or feel shameful. Most of those logos have been in front of me for years and I never saw the hidden elements in them.
inspirationfeed
September 1, 2010Fedex logo is classic!
Azim Khatri
September 3, 2010Brillian job…quite interesting
Jeff
September 3, 2010Interesting information on how some of these logo designs came about, Cheers
blogwebdesigner
September 12, 2010Very interesting article! I really like Fedex.
Fabian Lujan
September 14, 2010Carrefour logo?
There’s a “C” in the white neutral space.
skaizun
September 14, 2010What might be a coincidence, the blue area of the letter ‘m’ in the baseball Milwaukee Brewers logo appear to be three mugs of beer, and the yellow part could be the foam! Brewers and Beer!
Rett
October 1, 2010Nice job choosing the most obvious hidden messages. And I think your the 1000th designer to write about the fed ex arrow.
Simon Hall
October 8, 2010Never noticed the bear in the Toblerone logo before. I’ll sleep better for that.
Jason Bones
November 7, 2010This Facebook Groups thing…turned sideways represents an f.
Felipe Spina
November 16, 2010Maybe you could see the Carrefour supermarket logo, it’s a good example as well
Miguel
November 16, 2010Fantastic article.
Thanks
Achim
November 21, 2010Wow, that Fedex and Toblerone thing really got me – seeing it for years but never REALLY seeing it. Thanks for sharing and opening eyes.
web design hull
December 7, 2010Nice collection, there were plenty of hidden elements that I’ve never noticed… I can’t believe I’ve missed the fedex arrow.