March 18, 2024

20 Logos With Hidden Messages – 2020 Update

Designing logos can be a very difficult task.

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 a deeper meaning.

In today’s article, we’re going to cover 20 logos with hidden messages.

Some logos you will have seen before, and some may be completely new to you, but hopefully, you will enjoy them all.

Amazon

Amazon logo hidden message

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 sells everything from a to z, and the smile on the customers face when they bought a product.

Goodwill

goodwill logo hidden mesages

Goodwill. The one thrift store we all know and love.

When you look at the logo, you see it’s a person smiling, probably happy that they just donated their clothes or just copped an awesome find for a great deal!

Now look at the letter ‘g’ from ‘goodwill’.

You’ll see that same smiling person in the first letter of the logo!

LG

LG logo with hidden message

At first glance, you might think LG’s logo may just be the winking face of a happy client.

But look closer.

You’ll see that in the winky face logo, there’s actually an L in the center, and the face is a G!

Super clever on their part.

Pinterest

Pinterest logo hidden message

Pinterest is one of my favorite social media apps out there.

It’s always full of great ideas and new trends that I can get inspired from, and then I can pin those images to one of my boards.

Hence, “Pin-terest”.

Duh.

Anyway, to the untrained eye, you might just see the letter “P” in the logo.

But if you really pay close attention, you’ll see that the letter “P” is actually a pin.

Michael Deal, the co-designer of this logo said, “For most of the project, I had avoided making visual reference to the image of a pin because it seemed too literal. But the “P” started to lend itself too well to the shape of a map pin.”

Toyota

toyota logo hidden message

Next up, we have Toyota.

This one is definitely one of the coolest of them all, and if it hasn’t received some kind of award already, well, it definitely deserves one.

If you didn’t already know, the Toyota logo has the entire word “Toyota” written in it!

Here’s a diagram to explain it better.

toyota logo explained

Isn’t that the coolest thing you’ve ever seen?

BMW

new logo bmw

BMW just recently updated its logo and it looks amazing.

I wrote an entire piece about the new BMW logo because that’s how much I loved it.

But anyway, let’s talk about the hidden message here!

This logo actually represents a propeller in motion, with the blue part representing the sky, and the white part representing the propeller.

BMW’s logo is a tribute to the company’s history in aviation.

Baskin Robbins

Baskin robbins hidden logo

The Baskin Robbins logo may look like it includes a simple BR above the name. bBt if you take another look, you will that it includes a pink number 31. This is a reference to their original and iconic 31 flavors.

Chick-fil-a

hidden logos chickfila

The Chick-fil-a logo incorporates a chicken into the C. Although this isn’t very hidden, it is still very clever.

Eighty20

eighty 20 logo

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

formula 1 logo hidden message

The F1 logo is a fairly simple one to figure out. The negative space in the middle creates the 1.

Facebook Places

facebook places logo hidden message

If you didn’t already know Facebook Places, it is Facebook’s 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 there is a 4 in a square.

Now is this a coincidence or is it a dig at Foursquare?

Fedex

fedex logo with hidden message

The FedEx logo looks like a plain, text-based logo.

But if you take a second look, between the E and the X, you will see an arrow, that represents the speed and accuracy of the company’s deliveries.

Milwaukee Brewers

Milwaukee Brewers logo hidden message

The old Milwaukee Brewers logo may look like a simple catchers mitt holding a ball, but if you take a second glance, you will see the team’s initials M and B.

Museum of London

museum of london logo

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

NBC logo hidden peacock

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 represents both N and W and because it is enclosed within the circle it also represents a compass pointing northwest.

Piano Forest

piano forest logo

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

Toblerone Logo

The Toblerone logo contains the image of a bear hidden in the Matterhorn mountain, which is where Toblerone originally came from.

Tostitos

tostitoss logo hidden message

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

treacy shoes hidden logo

The Treacy Shoes logo is very cute logo with a shoe hidden between the t and s.

In Conclusion

Making a clever logo doesn’t always just come easily to you.

It can take weeks, months, and even years to come up with something mindblowing.

Other times, the idea comes to the forefront of your brain and you can see it clear as day.

Gather inspiration from these amazing logos with hidden messages and start making your own!

You could design the next big logo.

Did I miss any other big logos that have hidden messages within them?

Let me know in the comments!

Until next time,

Stay creative, folks!

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.

69 Comments

  1. Lovely Reply

    Superb, 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.

  2. Warren Jerzyszek Reply

    Great 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.

    1. Ben Reply

      Whether 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.

  3. Nico Kunz Reply

    To 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.

  4. Thomas Røst Stenerud Reply

    Brilliant 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!

    1. Mark Reply

      Their slogan at the time was that they were “proud as a peacock” to have their station transmit full color.

  5. Brian Altenhofel Reply

    The 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.

  6. Rob Dyson Reply

    Bar 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 😉

  7. Dave Reply

    Check out the Big Ten Conference logo.
    The task was to create a logo for a conference that actually has eleven teams. Great.

  8. Dawid Deja Reply

    Lots of interesting stuff.
    This was the first time I was looking at most of this logos differently.

    Cheers for this article.

  9. Hey Reply

    Most 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.

  10. skaizun Reply

    What 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!

  11. Rett Reply

    Nice job choosing the most obvious hidden messages. And I think your the 1000th designer to write about the fed ex arrow.

  12. Jen Teichert Reply

    These are brilliant! I’m from Milwaukee, and never saw the hidden initials in the Brewers logo until you pointed them out! I was here looking for some inspiration, as I have a brain-block right now trying to design a logo for a new company. These were very inspiring and got my brain moving again. 🙂

  13. Tony Reply

    You guys forgot to mention that in the NBC logo there is also the hidden acronym for NBC which stands for Nothing But Commercials.

  14. John Alex Reply

    John Alex ·
    Harvard University
    Hi,
    I am working in designhill.com as designer.
    We are working on same kind of stuff. I hope you and your readers will like our interactive guide too.
    http://www.designhill.com/…/famous-logos-hidden-meanings

  15. Wolfgang Goldsworthy Reply

    Amazon continues to be viewed as a logo-design master with its a-z and smile integrated into their brandmark. But, has anyone else noticed that the arrow actually looks like male genitalia? I really think Amazon should address the issue, and consider a change.

  16. sgorno Reply

    The Northwest Airlines logo actually shows a compass shows a compass pointing northeast … because the orientating arrow always points north.

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