In order to keep up with the fast paced world you need to constantly upgrade yourself. At times a company does so by increasing its current product line, exploring new ventures or by divesting etc. Same goes with a logo design. To just redesign a logo is not an issue but to design it in a way that it incorporates all its aspects i.e. company services, identity, values etc is a difficult task.
While collecting all the top companies, that have successfully redesigned their logo, I noticed that they didn’t totally change their logo but modified it in a way that not only created a fresh look but also maintained their corporate identity.
Bavarian Motor Works (BMW) Logo:
BMW, a German Company is the leading manufacturer of the automobiles and motorcycles in the world. The existing BMW logo contains a black ring containing the text “BMW”, the gap in the ring is equally divided in four parts with blue and white quarters.Dixi was the first vehicle to carry BMW logo in 1929. With minimal changes in the BMW logo, it has maintained its original look throughout the company’s history.
Coca Cola:
Coca cola, started its operations in the late 19th century is now available in more than 200 countries. Founded by the pharmacist Jhon S.Pemberton , Coca Cola has been ruling the world of soft drink for decades now.First Coca Cola logo was designed in 1885 by Frank Mason Robinson, it was also Robinson’s idea to use the unique cursive script and the prominent two Cs in the Coca Cola Logo.With minimal changes from time to time, the recent coca cola logo makeover took place in 2009 with the same old stylized “coca cola” text in red color.
Nokia:
Nokia has been ruling the telecommunication industry since 1960s.When it comes to designing a logo, Nokia Co. has made every attempt to effectively represent the company’s mission statement. First Nokia logo was designed in 1865, depicting a fish within a “Nokia” texted circle. It has only been changed three to four times since. The existing Nokia logo highlights the name “NOKIA” with its slogan “CONNECTING PEOPLE” underneath.
Yahoo!:
Yahoo!, one of the biggest online service company was founded by Stanford University graduates David Filo and Jerry Yang in January of 1994. The name Yahoo! Is the acronym for “Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle”. Over the time Yahoo logo has not been changed much. Initially the text was written in red and now it is in purple.
Google:
Google started its operations in March 1996. Its founders were Larry page and Sergey Brin.First Google logo came into existence in September 1998 when Sergey Brin created a computerized version of Google letters utilizing the free graphics program “GIMP”. Then in july 1999, an exclamation mark was added to the Google logo mimicking the Yahoo logo. It was finally removed in August 1999 and that logo is used till present.
Microsoft:
Microsoft Corporation is the biggest multinational computer technology corporation globally that creates,lincenses, manufactures and supports a range of softwares for computers. Microsoft, located in Redmond, Washington,U.S.A. has been maintaining it’s corporate identity with nominal changes in it’s logo. First Microsoft logo was designed in 1975, with a simple text “ Microsoft”. It was redesigned again in 1994 where the color, font and presentation style of the text was modified.Existing Microsoft logo is also contains the white text “Microsoft” with a sky blue background.
Palm, Inc:
Palm Computer,Inc. is the manufacturer of smartphones, located in Sunnyvale, California. First palm logo appeared on the scene in 1996 consisting of dotted “P” above the text Palm computing Platform.It was then changed in 2003 containing the text “PALM” encircled in a thick silver lining. In 2004, “One” was added next to “Palm” in the logo and again the logo was redesigned in 2005, this Palm logo consist of the white text “Palm” encircled in thick white lining.While the latest logo of palm is a simple oranged text “palm”.
Mozilla Firefox:
Mozilla Firefox is a free web browser managed by Mozila Corporation. Firefox version 1.0 was officially released in November 2004. The early firebird and pheonix releases were not upto the standard as compared to the other softwares packages, so in October 2003 it was redesigned depicting a stylized fox. Later on minor changes were made to give it the look that we see now days.
Intel:
Founded on 18th July 1968, as Integrated Electronic Corporation, Intel is the worlds biggest semiconductor chip maker. First Intel logo appeared on the scene in 1968 highlighting the name “Intel” with a bit lowering of “e”. In 2005, Intel redesigned it’s logo highlighting the name “Intel” in a stylish manner.
Pepsi:
Established in Carolina in 1898,Pepsi is considered as a Giant in World’s carbonated soft drink industry manufactured by Pepsi Co. First Pepsi logo was designed in 1898 and has been redesigned many times since.The Pepsi logo was again redesigned in 2008, consisting of an icon with same white color sandwiched between blue and red with a lower case text “pepsi” next to the icon. Only the background color has been changed from black to blue in the exisiting pepsi logo.
Thus, from all the above examples, one can say that, a logo make over gives a refreshing look to your business that indicates that you are keeping yourself up to pace with the changing global trends.