The primary focus of a financial and banking company is to convince you to believe in the company to invest your money. Most of the people have wrong perception or fear of investing in financial institutions. Therefore, the banking and financial planning sector work hard to portray their positive image to the audience and a unique logo design is one of whose elements that helps in creating a positive image of the company. Logo design of such companies depicts honesty, trust and justice to the audience.

Here are the top 10 logos of financial companies:

10. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd. (ICBC) Logo

ISBC Logo

ICBC is the largest bank in the world by market capitalization. It was founded as a limited company on January 1st, 1984. In July 2007, with market capitalization of US $254 billion, it became the world’s largest bank after increase in its share price, overtaking Citigroup. The red circle in the logo symbolizes ICBC world’s prestige while the vertically formed “H” depicts the bank domination of H-shares traded to Honk Kong.

9. Banco Santander Logo

Banco Santander Logo

Banco Santander is the leading bank of Spain. It offers retail banking and consumer finance services in Spain, Portugal, UK and other parts of Europe. The current logo was formed after the merger of two equally balanced firms “Santander” and “Banco Central Hispano”. Red color background in the logo depicts the aggressiveness, passion, vitality and strength of Banco Santander.

8. The Blackstone Group

The Blackstone Group Logo

Blackstone, the world’s leading investment and advisory firm has been working hard for a long time to create its positive economic value impact and long term relationship with its investors. The Blackstone Group also works as a financial advisor to businesses and gives advice business owners for strategic developments, finances, restructuring and reorganizing. The black & white logo of the famous firm has the text “black stone” in a black background to portray its identity.

7. Credit Suisse Logo

Credit Suisse Logo

Credit Suisse was established by Alfred Escher in 1856 under the name SCHWEIZERISCHE KREDITANSTALT. The bank has 3 divisions namely Investment Banking, Private Banking and Asset Management. The logo is a result of restructuring of Credit Suisse Group with the First Boston Corporation. The typeface in the logo depicts the discretion and prestige of the bank while the Sail-like symbol portrays the pioneering spirit and heritage of the firm.

6. Visa Inc. Logo

Visa Inc Logo

Visa Inc. is a global payments technology company headquartered in San Francisco, California. Visa Inc. through visa cards connects consumers, financial institutions, businesses and governments in more than 200 countries to enable them to use digital currencies instead of cash. The logo of the Visa Inc. is text based with blue color and orange flick on the letter “V” to depict transactions.

5. Goldman Sachs Logo

Goldman Sachs Logo

Goldman Sachs, the global investment banking and securities firm was founded in 1869 with headquarter at 200 West Street, in the Lower Manhattan of New York City. The simple typographic logo of the service has a blue background with the bottom of letter “G” and the top of letter “S” joined together to justify the trustworthiness of firm.

4. JPMorgan Logo

JPMorgan Logo

JPMorgan is a leading financial services firm with assets of $2 trillion on the global scale. JPMorgan has been running its operations in 60 countries of the world. As of June 2008, the custom design JP Morgan logo with BODONI fonts has been used for Company’s Investment Banking, Asset Management and Treasury & Service units.

3. Citibank Logo

Citibank Logo

Citibank is the corporate banking branch of the Citigroup, one of the giant financial services of the world. PAULA SCHER very smartly designed the UMBRELLA logo of Citibank. The umbrella justifies the claim of the bank: “Bank on the Go”. Paula used logo to be symbolized as the marriage of the word “CITI” with “TRAVELLERS INSURANCE UMBRELLA” with letter “t” in the logo to be assumed as the handle for travel.

2. HSBC Logo

HSBC Logo

HSBC is a UK based public limited company. Now, it is world’s largest banking group and 6th largest company of the world according to Forbes Magazine. HENRY STEINER designed its logo. Hexagon symbol was adopted by its subsidiary ”The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation” in 1983 that was developed from bank’s house flag with white rectangle divided diagonally to produce shape of the hour glass.

1. American Express (Amex) Logo

American Express Logo

The old American Express was founded in 1850 in New York. It was the first company to gain recognition of the world after economic emergence in US. The American express logo has a simple blue background with simple typography. The text is highlighted in white in order to keep the focus of the audience towards the company. The blue color background in the logo portrays reliability of diversified global financial services company.

You would have realized that each financial company ensures to have a unique logo in order to stand out among its audience. The feature of trust, strength and prestige is an absolute necessity of the financial logo designs. All of the preceding companies are included in the list of topmost financial companies and each of these companies has a unique logo to portray their distinctive identity.

Loads of people in this world see countless logos but don’t realize what they are all about. Every day, many of us see flags of different nations but only a few of us realize the significance of these flags. The colors, stars, pictures and symbols in the flag; each of these are meant to portray something about a country to the viewer. Countries flag communicates its national values to the viewers but only a few people are aware of this.

Flags which communicate well about their nation’s values and principles to the audience are considered to be the best. Here are the logos of the top 10 national flags:

1. Australian Flag Logo

Australia Flag Logo

The flag logo of Australia is defaced blue ensign. The flag has 3 salient features namely the Union Jack, Common Wealth Star and Crux. The Union flag (Union Jack) symbolizes history of the Australian Federation which is based on 6 British colonies i.e. New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia.

6 points in the Common Wealth Star below the emblem of Union Jack represent six colonies of the federation while the SEVENTH STAR is for the territories and future possible states of Australia. The other 5 STARS portray the constellation of Southern Cross (Crux). Crux defines the importance of Australia as a geographical region.

2. Canadian Flag Logo

Canada Flag Logo

The logo of Canada portrays a peaceful message: “All the citizens of Canada are equal without distinction of race, language, belief or opinion”. The 11 POINTED RED MAPLE LEAF emblem of Canada has no meaning except to represent the natural maple leaf IN STYLE. The colours psychology of the Canadian flag is as follow:
“White colour represents the peace and honesty while the red color is meant for hardiness, bravery and valor of the patriotic nation”.

3. Egyptian Flag Logo

Egypt Flag Logo

The 2:3 (length by height) international flag of Egypt portrays the golden eagle (EAGLE OF SALADIN) facing its hoist side above the scroll bearing the name of the country “EGYPT IN ARABIC” as its national emblem. The BLACK color in the Egyptian flag is meant to portray the DETERMINATION of the Egyptian citizens. The WHITE color in the flag depicts the honesty of the nation while the RED color depicts the STRENGTH of Egypt.

4. French Flag Logo

France Flag Logo

The tricolored flag of France appears as 3 vertical bands. The logo of France incorporates 3 colors: REFLEX BLUE, RED & WHITE. The REFLEX BLUE and RED colors are the traditional colors of Paris (Capital of France). REFLEX BLUE color symbolizes Saint Martin while RED characterizes the Saint Denis of France. Since WHITE has been the ancient color of France, therefore, the white color was added as a revolutionary color in the logo of the French flag.

5. German Flag Logo

Germany Flag Logo

Just like France, the flag of Germany is tricolored but the 3 bands in the German flag are horizontal not vertical. The colors used in the flag of Germany are BLACK, RED and GOLDEN, based upon the Uniforms of the German Soldiers who fought for the country in NAPOLEONIC WAR in uniforms with BLACK COATS, RED BRAID and GOLDEN BUTTONS.

6. Japanese Flag Logo

Japan Flag Logo

The national flag of Japan is officially known as “NISSHOKI”. The logo of Japan features a RED CIRCLE which is a symbol of SUN with WHITE background. The WHITE color in the logo is meant to depict honesty and purity of the Japanese while the RED CIRCLE characterizes the warmth of the nation. Above all, the logo of Japan justifies the meaning of Japan as: “The Land of a Rising Sun”.

7. Spanish Flag Logo

Spain Flag Logo

The Spanish flag is comprised of 3 horizontal bands of colors with RED at the top & bottom and YELLOW in the middle. The national Coat Of Arms of Spain is placed on YELLOW band. The RED & YELLOW colors for the logo are derived from the COATS OF ARM OF SPAIN. The COAT OF ARMS OF SPAIN in the shield symbolizes the Old Kingdom of Spain by featuring a crown, constitutional monarchy, supporters and the geographic situation.

8. Swedish Flag Logo

Sweden Flag Logo

The Swedish flag represents a yellow colored SCANDINAVIAN CROSS with blue background. The flag colors were adopted from the Swedish Coat Of Arms and the SCANDINAVIAN CROSS design was modeled on the basis of Danish Flag. The YELLOW color in the flag is meant for generosity while the blue color depicts loyalty of the Swedish nation.

9. Turkish Flag Logo

Turkey Flag Logo

The Turkish flag represents a white crescent moon and star in RED background. Since the flag is derived from OTTOMAN EMPIRE which ruled over Turkey in the past; the traditional color of the OTTOMAN EMPIRE was red, hence, the flag represents a RED background. The crescent moon & star have been adopted in the flag logo because they are the Ancient Symbols of Islam.

10. American Flag Logo

USA Flag Logo

USA flag is also known by the nickname “Stars and Stripes”, “Old Glory” and “The Star-Spangled Banner”. The national flag of USA comprises of 13 HORIZONTAL STRIPES in red & white that portrays the 13 colonies that rebelled Against the British Monarchy and became the first states of the US. The 50 STARS in the flag logo portray the 50 states of United States of America.

In a nutshell, the national flags logos serve to portray their customs, principles, beliefs and values to the world in style.

There are only few shoe companies in the world whose brands have made an everlasting impression in the minds of the customers for so long whereas majority has fallen flat. Why is that so? Quality, lifestyle and creativity are not the only elements these brands bring in their products; they also consider one of the most essential factors of corporate branding i.e. the exclusivity of their logos. Here are the top 10 logos of famous shoe brands:

10. PONY INTERNATIONAL LOGO

Pony Logo

Pony International, the designer, distributer and marketer of high performance footwear was founded in 1972. Sport personalities like Pele, Muhammad Ali, Spud Webb and many other famous athletes have worn Pony shoes. The SIGNATURE CHEVRON logo of Pony International was designed as a rebranding strategy to highlight the 3 main divisions of company, namely; PERFORMANCE, VINTAGE and PLAY with the tag line “Back in the Game”.

9. LUGZ LOGO

lugz Logo

The brand, LUGZ was established in 1993. LUGZ was first endorsed by key players from the world of hip-hop. “The Green Eyed Bandit” was the first to endorse the brand, LUGZ. Previously, the brand manufactured boots only but now the brand has extended its production from casual shoes, sandals to atheletic shoes. LUGZ use FULL GRAIN LEATHER in their boots to design and produce DURABLE shoes; LUGZ logo also reflects the CREATIVE element of the brand.

8. FILA LOGO

Fila Logo

FILA, the innovative athletic shoe brand of Italy established in 1911 has a bold, passionate and stylish logo. FILA logo justifies the origin of this brand. The letter “F” in the logo of Fila depicts all about its logo. The upper part of the letter”F” takes the shape of a sole with lower portion resembling socks to categorize the unique shoe company. Analyzing critically, you can see that each letter of the logo symbolizes the brand image in style.

7. NEW BALANCE LOGO

New Balance Logo

The footwear manufacturer New Balance is based in Boston. It was established in 1906 as the New Balance Arch Support Company. The company is famous for its RUNNING SHOES. New Balance outlets offer a sufficient discount that invokes the customer to buy these exclusive shoes. The logo of the company fits well with the name that portrays balanced spikes moving from the letter “N” to “B” since the shoes give a great balance to runners.

6. STARBURY LOGO

Starbury Logo

The American brand, STARBURY was founded by the NBA players; STEPHON MARBURY and BELL WALLACE in 2006 as a pair of $14.98 basket ball shoes to compete with the athletic shoes already available in the market. STARBURY shoes are also available online today. The logo has a buried star and takes on the shape of a number”3” that was also the number of the shirt that STARBURY used to wear in NBA.

5. SKECHERS LOGO

Skechers Logo

SKECHERS Shoe Company was formed by Robert Greenberg in 1992 with his son as the distributor of Doc Martens (DMs). The company focuses towards shoes based on girls lifestyle. Pop stars like Britney Spears, Ashlee Simpson and Christiana Aguilera have promoted SKECHERS in past. The fonts in SKECHERS logo are Serpentine Bold Italic while the stylish S in the logo has been slanted to portray the target market of SKECHERS i.e. 10-30 years old.

4. REEBOK LOGO

Reebok Logo

Reebok is a subsidiary of German sports wear Adidas. The company was formed in 1958 by the grand children of Joseph William Fosters who made the FIRST RUNNING SHOE .The name Reebok comes from the South African antelope “RHEBOK”. Several outlets of Reebok are spread throughout the world. CRUZEIRO is the font style that Reebok has adopted in its logo.

3. PUMA LOGO

Puma Logo

In 1948, RUDOPH DASSLER founded the company Puma. The company manufactures high end athletic shoes. Puma also offers online stores facility to customers for shopping. The brand identity of the company is unique and the logo features the brand in style with a PUMA JUMPING over the letters “PUMA”. The red background in the logo portrays the prestige of the brand for years. MY PUMA are the type fonts used in the logo.

2. ADIDAS LOGO

Adidas Logo

Adidas is a well recognized name in the category of shoe manufacturing companies. 2 brothers ADOLPH & RUDOLPH DASSLER founded the company but Rudolph left his brother due to the rising rift between them and opened his own company in 1948 i.e. now known as Puma .The logo of Adidas symbolizes 3 PARALLEL BARS that take shape of a mountain to carry on the MOTIF of the company i.e. to carry out the goals that lies ahead of the company.

1. NIKE LOGO

Nike Logo

Nike was founded on Jan 25th, 1964 as “Blue Ribbon Sports” by BILL BOWERMAN and PHILLIPS KNIGHT that became Nike in 1978. Nike logo was designed by the designer Carolyn Davidson in 1971. The brand has chosen the name from “GREEK GODDESS OF VICTORY”. The swoosh mark represents the wings of the Greek Goddess of Victory.

In short, every great shoe company has a logo i.e. either based on company’s history, athletic skills or stylish type fonts. If the logo of the company is able to grab the attention of the customer then there is no way that your brand won’t be remembered. Having a unique logo as your business identity wouldn’t just generate you the revenues that you desire but also boost up the benchmark of your business.

The world of entertainment compels audience towards it by coming up with cool and great ideas to inspire audience. Most of the business owners acknowledge the worth of entertainment businesses and invest money in there since they know that investing in it would give them big turnovers. That’s why; these entertainment businesses have inspirational logos. Here are the top 10 popular logos of the best entertainment businesses:

10. WWE LOGO

World Wrestling Entertainment Logo

World Wrestling Entertainment is the integrated media and sports entertainment company that deals in professional wrestling. The 2 Ws in the logo stand for World Wrestling. The black background is meant for entertainment. The red mark in the logo below reflects the attitude and violence of this entertaining sport.

9. ACTIVISION BLIZZARD LOGO

Activision Blizzard Logo

Activision Blizzard Inc. was established by the merger of Activision and Vivendi Games as announced on Dec 2nd, 2007. The vertical bar in the logo depicts the partnership between the 2 gaming giants (Activision & Blizzard). Both Activision and Blizzard have custom design fonts with exclusive typography.

8. MGM LOGO

Metro Goldwyn Mayer Logo

MGM Studios is an American media company that deals in production and distribution of films and TV programs. The logo of the studio was created by Howard Dietz in 1916 and updated in 1924. The famous roaring lion, “Leo the Lion” logo of MGM studios features the motto of company i.e. “ARS GRATIA ARTIS” meaning “ARTS FOR ART’S SAKE”.

7. WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT INC LOGO

Warner Brothers Logo

Warner Bros. is an American producer of film and television. It’s a subsidiary of the biggest entertainment company of 2009, Time Warner. Corporate name Warner Bros. stands for the 4 Warner brothers Harry, Albert, Sam and Jack. The shield in the logo depicts strength, supremacy and passion of the incorporation since 1918.

6. NFL LOGO

NFL Logo

NFL (National Football League) is the highest level of American professional football. The league consists of 32 teams from US. The red color fonts and the blue color shield with stars have been incorporated in the designing of the logo to resemble the US flag. The Wilson made football in the logo symbolizes the pastime of “NFL”.

5. DREAMWORKS LOGO

Dreamworks Animation Logo

DreamWorks, the American film studio develops, produces and distributes films, video games and TV programming. The logo of DreamWorks was the result of an exclusive effort made by Robert Hunt. The logo fits with the name of company by featuring a boy sitting on the moon doing fishing.

4. PARAMOUNT PICTURES LOGO

Paramount Pictures Logo

Paramount Pictures, the American motion picture producer and distribution house is based in Hollywood. Pyramidal Mountain logo of the studio is assumed to be based on the theme of the doodle made by W.W. HODKINSON (Inventor of Hollywood) in a meeting with ADOLPH ZUKOR (founder) while some say that it is based on HODKINSON’S childhood memories.

3. THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY LOGO

Walt Disney Logo

The Walt Disney Company is one of the richest companies in world of entertainment. Its logo is one of the most recognized logos of the world. The logo features WALTOGRAPH fonts (signature of Walt Disney). The logo was first used when its CEO changed the name of company from “Walt Disney Productions” to “The Walt Disney Company”.

2. NEWS CORP. LOGO

News Corporation Logo

News Corp. was formed by Rupert Murdoch in 1980 as a holding company for the News Limited. Today, News Corp. has become the second largest media corporation of the world. The iconic logo features the globe as a mesh with horizontal and vertical lines to portray brand’s success throughout the world.

1. TIME WARNER LOGO

Time Warner Logo

Time Warner, the biggest entertainment business company came in to being as a result of a merger between the two companies Warner Communications Inc. and Time Inc. Film, television and advertising are major operations of the company. The logo of Time Warner is based on simple and serif-based font design in blue text to show its royalty over others.

What did you learn from the preceding discussion? You would have understood that entertainment businesses usually have a logo based on a visualized image so that you can easily grasp the idea to realize the significance and purpose for which the entertainment logos stand.

One of the things that people frequently ask me is about the logo design process. They want to know how the logos are made in a step by step manner. So I decided to take you to one of the logo design processes that I went through. The logo design process I am going to show you today is of “THE PEACE FOUNDATION”.

To begin the logo design process, I ran Adobe Photoshop which is the most smashing graphics design software of all times. However, some designers prefer Adobe illustrator but it depends on everybody’s wish and convenience. Anyhow; you can see how the blank canvas looks like in figure A.

Figure A

Before we move on, it’s really imperative to mention that layers play a very vital, in fact the most important part in any logo design or graphics design process. Layers are the option that enables us to create each and every single element separately to avoid all the future tribulations. Therefore logo designer prefer to use multiple layers to easily re-edit the logo elements without damaging other things which are the part of the logo design. Look at figure B.

Figure B

Step 1: I started off with a new layer. (Figure#1)

Figure.1

Step 2: To give the message of peace and harmony I decided to make a dove. So I drew the wing of a bird. (Figure#2)

Figure.2

Step 3: Continued drawing the bird’s head. (Figure#3)

Figure.3

Step 4: Continued drawing the bird’s torso. (Figure#4)

Figure.4

Step 5: Completed the dove. (Figure# 5)

Figure.5

Step 6: Added spikes to show bird’s movement to different directions. (Figure#6, #7 and #8)

Figure.6

Figure.7

Figure.8

Step 7: Added background color. (Figure#9)

Figure.9

Step 8: Added a glow effect in bird’s background to show that the bird is coming with a new light of hope. (Figure#10)

Figure.10

Step 9: Added text by using the text tool. I picked 2 fonts for this logo; Franklin Gothic Demi & Eurofurence regular. (Figure#11 and 12)

Figure.11

Figure.12

Step 10: Looked at the logo by the eye of a keen viewer and saved the image in JPEG format when felt satisfied.

FINAL LOGO

So, there you go! This is how a logo is made. You can get your own logo designed here. And yeah, don’t forget to drop your comments if you like this logo design process article.