Charles Caleb Colton once said “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”, if this is true then the I♥NY logo is a clear favourite. Designed in 1975 by Milton Glaser, the logo has since been adopted for everything from shirts to foreign cities.

Amandine Allessandra loves Bodoni. She’s got good taste.

The city of Frankston, south of my home town of Melbourne.

This logo was previously created for an environmental campaign for Brisbane City. There was however a lot of huffing and puffing from New Yorks legal representatives over the use of the logo, I’m not sure if it was ever used.

I believe this is for a North Carolina t-shirt company.

Who doesn’t?

I Love NY in Arabic, as worn my Robin Williams at the 2003 USO show.

One for advocates of Americas east coast, San Francisco.

Now I know this is awful but I thought I’d include it for thoroughness. See more Web 2.0 logo designs compared to there originals, here.

The following are all official logos of the 2003 I Love New York campaign run by The Empire State Development Corporation. The logos design by Saatchi and Saatchi each various elements of New York City. Culture, the seasons, shopping etc.



















Last but not least, the original.

What do you think?

The original is great, obviously a popular design. I can’t say that I’d ever use the design for anything myself, but it’s interesting to see the adaptations.

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Originally sold as decorative objects by London business Marcus Samuel & Co, oriental seashells quickly became the foundation of the business, before the word shell first appeared in 1891 as their trademark for kerosene shipments destined for overseas.

The Shell transport and trading company was formed 1897 and shortly afterwards adopted the original mussel shell as its icon. Things have come a long way since then.

1901, the original mussel shell.

1904, the mussel shell is replace by that of a scallop, paving the way for the logo as we know it today. Things slowly evolved until 1971 when the current icon by designer Raymond Loewy was introduced.

On a side note, Raymond was also responsible for the earlier BP and Exxon mobile logo designs, shown above. But, I digress…

1909.

1930.

1948.

1955.

1961.

1971.

1995.

1999.

What do you think?

Other than tweak to the colour in 1995, and the eventual removal of the company name for many applications, the logo has remained unchanged and is undoubtedly one of the worlds most iconic designs.

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The weekends here and what better way to celebrate than with a collection of great logo designs seen throughout the week.

Denshu Sushi, not quite sure about the colour but love the icon.

Griffen Electric.

Mike Rock.

Innovations For Successful Societies.

Reforger Films. I love this kind of artwork, If only it suited more things in this day and age.

Schneider Custom Stitching, obviously the last line is too small, but kudos for the rest.

Serenity Resorts.

Gaucho Wine.

Sevda Jewelery.

See you next Friday.

Have fun until then.

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I must admit I’m not overly worldly when it comes to foreign cultures or finance. I assumed that every currency had a unique symbol to represent itself, apparently this is not the case.

The Union Cabinet of the Government of India is set to finalise a unique, globally recognised symbol for the Indian Rupee, a privilege previously reserved for the Dollar, Pound Sterling, Euro & Yen. Currently the abbreviated Rs used to identify the Rupee is also used for currency in Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

The apparent favourite since the project began in 2009, is a variation of the Hindi letter R, which if I haven’t got my Hindi alphabet wrong is shown above. This is of course not the final logo, but is the likely inspiration of things to come.

What do you think?

Russia too has been working on a unique symbol for the Rouble for some time, perhaps we’ll see more currency take on unique designs in the future.

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What do a bucket, a bowling ball, and a horror movie antagonist have in common? Ask 3 different people and the answer is this logo design.

We all interpret logos differently, after taking a glance at the sync logo design with a pair of friends, it’s interesting to see how wildly impressions vary.

Person one: A bucket & handle.

Person two: A strange bowling ball.

Person three: The iconic Detroit Red Wings hockey mask worn by Jason Voorhees from the horror movie series Friday the 13th.

What do you see?

Oh, and there’s probably someone wearing headphones to be seen in there too…

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I’ve always liked the Google commemorative logo designs. You’ve no doubt see them celebrating anniversaries, holidays or the lives and accomplishments of famous individuals. Today it seems that’s been knocked on the head in favour of a background image.

This isn’t really something I’ve followed, though I recall the feature having been around for a while. Up until now it has been optional, while today a background image is displayed by default. Though your able to select or upload your own image there is no way ( that I could see… ) to revert to the default background.

Constantly changing logos draped over a photographic background obviously isn’t going to look great, so presumably this is a short term endeavour for a little publicity. I certainly hope so. I’d much prefer the parade of Google Doodles over a pretty but otherwise stagnant background.

What do you think?

Come back logos!

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To celebrate Penguin Books 75th anniversary, New York based graphic designer Amy Fleisher has re-vamped their logo design in a series of dedications to Penguins most popular classic books, such as Frankenstein and Dracula, to be more “Penguin-Centric” as she puts it.

More to see…

There are plush toys and USB keys of the logos too, over at Amy’s site.

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With a career spanning over 60 years Paul Rand is best known for his corporate identity design, including the logos for Westinghouse, IBM, UPS, ABC, and many more, as well as his contributions to the International Typographic Style.

Showcased here are 60+ logos from his extensive portfolio.

The American Broadcasting Company.

Accent Software.

Adstar.

AIGA.

Atlas Crankshaft.

Benjamin Franklin 200th Anniversary Celebration.

Borzoi Books.

Cabbages and Kings catering.

The Consolidated Cigar Corporation.

The El Producto Cigar Company.

Colorforms.

Columbus Indiana Visitors’ Center.

Computer Impressions.

Connecticut Art Director’s Club.

Coronet Brandy (original design).

Coronet Brandy.

Creative Media.

Cresta Blanca Wine Company.

Cummins.

Doug Evans & Partners.

Dunhill Clothiers.

English First.

Eliot Noyes & Associates.

Eliot Noyes & Associates.

Enron.

Esquire Magazine.

An unused Ford logo concept.

Gentry Living Colour.

The Gibson Diamond Company.

Harcourt Brace and Company.

Helbros Watch Company.

Hub TV.

The 1956, 1967 and 1972 IBM logo designs, respectively.

IBM’s OS/2 software.

IBM’s XGA display technology.

Country Club Ice Cream.

IDEO Design.

IIT Research Institute.

The U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The Irwin Financial Corporation.

John David Stores.

Kaiser-Frazer Service Station.

An unused logo concept for The Limited.

USSB.

Monell Chemical Senses Center.

Morningstar.

Mossberg & Company.

NeXT Computers.

Norwalk Cancer Centre.

Okansan Securities.

Pastore DePamphilis Rampone.

Portfolio Magazine.

Robeson Cutlery.

Servador.

Smith, Kline and French Laboratories.

Stafford Fabrics.

Theatrical Architectural Television.

Tipton Lakes.

A Twenty-Four Page Book Logotype for the Type Directors Club.

United Postal Service.

Wallace Puppets.

Westinghouse.

Yale University Press.

Zebra Press.

And more…

Plenty more to see including identity presentations, corporate standards manuals and philosophies on design at Paul-Rand.com.

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Founded in 1899 by a group of investors, most noticeably Giovanni Agnelli, Fiat manufactures automobile and railroad vehicles and also made tanks and aircraft during WWII.

With factories in Italy, Brazil, Argentina and Poland, as well as joint ventures in half a dozen other countries Fiat is currently the 6th largest car maker in the world.

Having sported more than a dozen distinct logo designs over the last century, the only consistent feature through has been their signature “A”. Show here is a brief history of the Fiat logos evolution.

1899.

1901.

1904.

1921.

1925.

1929.

1931.

1932.

1938.

1959.

1968.

1999.

2001.

2006.

What do you think?

I’ve never been a fan of the Fiat typography, I know the “A” is a key characteristic of the logo, but when viewed at a distance ( like while driving for instance… ) it always struck me as FIRT.

Thanks to Wikipedia for the Fiat company history.

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Pac-man!

I new it all along, Waka waka waka.

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