Smart Logos with Hidden Symbolism

Amazing article, I have seen many of these without even trying to look into their meanings/representations. Awesome stuff.

Great selection. Good job!

Fantastic list here – really great examples and things I had never seen.

Some really clever logos there – so many it’s hard to even pick favourites! That Yoga Australia one is really good. I love negative space!

I love things like this, it just makes you go ahhhhh !!

Nice article

May I add the Carrefour logo (French supermarkt chain)? Like for city direct, they put the “C” of the brand in the logo (in white) :
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9e/Carrefour.png

I actually never noticed it untill a friend told me ^^

Here’s another example of an “F” representing an elephant http://www.elefanthotel.lv/

Amazing…very creative logo.
Thanks…this post opened my creative mind

Im so tired of the FedEx, Families and Amazon Logos showing up in these showcases…everyone knows about those already. But some of the other ones were pretty cool.

Wow, so many of these are extremely good.

I can’t believe I never noticed to A to Z aspect of the Amazon logo, all I could ever see was the smiley face.

Milwaukee Brewers and Toblerone are also very clever.

great collection…thanks for sharing…

Good logo collection. Before that I had not noticed that in these logos is also a picture / symbol. This suggests a branding makes think about how it looks/means!

This is a great post!!!

My logo also has a hidden meaning but on a another level. I have a webdesignagency and webdesign and the internet is a constant changing environment therefore my logo shows a partial finished puzzle. Three pieces have been put in place, but one piece still needs to be placed but will never be. Because webdesign and internet will never finish developing.

The same goes for my company name which also has not one but several hidden meanings:-).

Albruna is the name of a germanic seeress. Someone who can see the future just like my company looks towards the future in our designwork and just like the internet keeps playing a bigger and bigger part in our future.

The other meaning is this: The name consists of two words.
Alb which is the name of a mythological creature (elf) and runa which has the meaning of secret knowledge (runes). So the company name has the meaning: “someone who has the secret knowledge of mythologocial beings”.

This points towards the whole coding part of websites and so on, which is for most folks undecipherable and rather strange.

Great list, very inspirational, thanks for sharing. There are some logos here which I have seen many times, but never picked out some of their elements. Great post.

Very useful and interesting article, thanks!

Nice collection, I actually never though about amazon’s logo before.

Baskin Robbins logo has 31 in the because they started with 31 flavors.

Excellent look into logo, best article of the day!

Wow, some I already noticed myself, but others are hidden very nice!

I’ve worked at FedEx but never in my life had repaired it. Very good!

Amazing post! I really enjoy looking at all of the hidden things people put into logo design.

Nice find some of these are really interesting. I didn’t think all of these had hidden symbols until I read it on here, I guess I overlooked a lot of them.

wait what? you’re telling me the NBC logo has a HIDDEN PEACOCK! wow, that just blew my mind… I’ve never seen this as a peacock, I just thought it was an error the multi-billion dollar company made. WOW, I’m going to have to start designing logos now, it looks both fun and easy to incorporate symbology into logology. Now where’s my box of crayons?

Brilliant showcase of logos! I love logos where they have hidden extras! Another great post!

Very interesting article. I love when logos incorporate a hidden or double meaning.

Also, as much as I’ve seen the Falcons logo and goodwill logo, I didn’t notice the subtle hidden symbolism in them. Thanks for such an interesting read.

The LG symbol isn’t supposed to be packman. It’s the letters L and G that make up the face

Another great example comes from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff Golden Lions:

http://www.sportslogos.net/images/logos/30/608/full/5265.gif

**But great post. Very cool logos

One of my favorites is the BIGTEN logo with the number 11 hidden in the negative space, since there are actually 11 teams in the Big Ten.

Thanks for the great Post!!!

I grew up in Milwaukee and only in the last year or so did I notice that the (now old) Brewers logo contained an M and a B.

Wow. This is amazing. I didn’t know there are sp many hidden meanings within these logos. Did you analyze and find out these hidden secrets yourself?

Great examples, not just of logo design but of symbolims and intelligence.

Strong symbolism in a logo shouldn’t be something scarce. All logos should tell a deep story about what they mean.

My only concern is that symbolism shouldn’t be “hidden”. A great logo should convey an idea at a glance, so all people in the target market of the company can quickly recognize the symbol and the meaning behind it.

Don’t make people think. Tell them a clear symbolic message through a well developed logo.

I may be a little biased here, but the Brewers logo has always been one of my favorites. Simply classic

Actually the LG’s is jus a guy blinking one eye… You know , the world wide gesture of ” you can trust me” ( or ” i want you” what is not the case ) I really thinks that the message of trust makes more sense over the message of ‘ Hey we like pacman’

I’m new to design and all things alike, this post has really enlightened me, i will never look at a logo the same way again! ha! great post. thanks.

Nice collection and interpretation!
I really like the Eighty 20 logo concept and the Schizophrenic one :

wow some of those had me saying “how have i never noticed that….”

great post!

Hi,

Here is 29 more examples of logo with secrets (some are duplicates, but some are originals : new man, logo review…)

Piano Forest is my favorite followed closely by Gotham Books. You don’t have to look at them to long to be rewarded with what the logo consists of and what it represents. This is very important to a successful logo I feel.

You should give a look at the Carrefour logo.

Or how about how the “L” in Staples is a… well, staple.

Or how on the Tostitos chips bag, the two t’s are people holding a chip (aka the dot of the “i”)

I would add the Spartan Golf Club logo too, it’s awesome:
http://brandstack.com/gallery/brands/pictures/picture12644499135980.jpg

Nice article!

Amazing selection
But i have something to add

The Mexican Metro log is amazing, is shaped as an “M” but if you notice is also the shape of a metro wagon.
http://lobotuerto.com/blog/wp-content/gallery/misc/metro-logo.jpg

Great collection. Thanks for compiling.

Sweet

Nice logo collection and some nice examples in the comments too. Piano Forest and the Fort Worth ZOO are my favorites.

And there’s also the Prezunic logo (http://www.prezunic.com.br/, a Brazilian supermarket chain), where the “U-diaresis-below” gives it the idea of a cart, with the “N-dot-above” being a person pushing it around.

I was SO amazed when I found out about the Tostitos Corn Chips Logo.
The two “t” ’s represent people eating corn chips with a bowl of salsa (the dot for the “i”).

amazing,,, thanks for sharing

The ‘31′ in the Baskin Robbins Logo signifies the 31 flavors of ice creams they were popular for when they first started

and the pacman interpretation in the LG logo is just a internet gimmick and is no way related to the company

Here is a brief description of the LG ‘One-eyed’ logo:

The circle symbolizes the globe. The stylized image of a smiling face in the symbol conveys friendliness and approachability. The ‘One eye’ signifies Goal-oriented, focused, confident attributes of the company. The Upper right hand space is intentionally left blank and asymmetric, which represents LG’s creativity and adaptability to changes.

Thanks for the compilation

Never before seen the arrow in fedex !

I think Cantebury of New Zealand has a good logo, the three kiwis hidden in the C’s

http://www.canterburynz.com/

Interesting compilation. I’m esp surprised by the arrow in Fedex. Thanks for sharing!

Very cool. I didn’t notice some of these before till you pointed it out.

awesome… inspirational designs… FedEx and NBC are my fav… but Unilever is really coool…

very cool

Wow I have known Toblerone for ages, and eaten it, but never noticed the bear.
Thats a well hidden message.

The Toblerone bear is also a man with his mouth wide open eating a piece of chocolate (the bear’s head is the man’s nose, and the front paws are the jaw and chocolate piece).

I wouldn’t call it ‘hidden’ symbolism in most of those cases, just symbolism. Very often a logo represent more than just one thing. If you take a good look at almost any big company logo, you will soon start to pick out some carefully planned symbolism in them.

I must say I hadn’t noticed many of those until you pointed it out. Like the FedEx arrow. I also would like LG logo more as a Pac-Man. I never liked theirs. Thanks for sharing.

has any one noticed that the Milwaukee Brewers has a logo of Pepsi hidden so obviously in front of everyone??

The Pittsburgh Zoo has a few animals hidden in its logo:

http://blog.pittsburghzoo.org/2010/07/faq-hidden-animals-in-our-logo/

It’s funny how it is; I had been using FedEx a lot and had not noticed the arrow. I read about it a while back and now the arrow is the first thing I see .

i love the Schizophrenic one, very creative!

You should give a look at the Carrefour logo.

Nice article

Great selection of logos. I’ve never noticed that the Atlanta Falcons logo also forms an “F.” Thanks for sharing.

Never, ever saw the M and B in the Brewers logo before.

Another good baseball one was the Montreal Expos (now Washington Nationals).
http://www.baseballtoddsdugout.com/exposlogo.gif

There’s the red “e” for Expos, the blue “b” for baseball, the whole thing creating a stylised “M” for Montreal and vaguely reminiscent of the shape of the Montreal Olympic Stadium at which they played.

awesome..amazing, that was a great design logos..

Fantastic logo: TGV (French fast train): http://www.belrail.be/F/site/jeux/images/logo_tgv.gif

If you look at it downside, it represent a snail

This is the real logo design! Awesome creations and thinkings.

wow~nice article!!

This is so much fun and thought provoking. Thank you.

amazing representation!! we always believe that Logo should reflect the true identity of any business. At times the messages are hidden but they help to make a real relation with target market.