The Power and History of Logos
Every brand features some logo, whether it takes the form of a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol. For example, you see them all around you while shopping. Furthermore, companies invest heavily in researching and designing memorable logos to capture your attention.
According to Douglas Harper’s Online Etymology Dictionary, the first surviving written record of the term ‘logo’ dates back to 1937. Harper notes that people likely shortened the word “logogram” to create the modern term. Meanwhile, the modern era of logo design began in the 1870s, when Bass Brewery introduced the first abstract logo: the famous Bass red triangle.
Today, countless corporations, products, brands, services, and agencies utilise an ideogram (sign or icon), an emblem (symbol), or a combination of both to represent themselves. As a result, consumers can recognise only a select few of the thousands of circulating ideograms without the accompanying company name.
To solve this recognition problem, an effective logo often pairs an ideogram with the company name (logotype). Designers use unique letters, colours, and additional graphic elements to emphasise the name over the graphic.
Test Your Knowledge: Logos 4
So, how well do you recall a brand name just by looking at its logo? Logos 4 will test your knowledge. Below are twenty logos. How many can you recognise?
Quiz Instructions
- Reveal the Answer: Hover your mouse pointer over the grey box beneath an image to see the correct brand.
- Enlarge the Image: Click on any image to take a closer look.
Download and Usage Guidelines
If you want to save these files to your computer, follow these steps:
- Right-click on the enlarged image you want to keep.
- Select “Save image as” to open a save dialog box.
- Save the file to your computer. Notably, the picture’s filename also serves as its answer!
These images use the SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) format, an XML-based vector image format. Therefore, you can easily insert them into almost all modern word processors, including Microsoft Word, Google Docs, WPS Office, and LibreOffice.
Finally, you may freely use any of these images for your personal quizzes, but please do not republish them in any format.
