A glossary of famous brands

February 26, 2007 8:29 AM

A glossary of famous brands
posted by deern the headlice (24 comments total)

Also includes downloadable vector files for many of the logos.
posted by deern the headlice at 8:29 AM on February 26, 2007

Whoa.
posted by DU at 8:34 AM on February 26, 2007

See also.
posted by Rhomboid at 8:43 AM on February 26, 2007

Paul Rand's IBM logo is still impressive, after all these years.
posted by Pastabagel at 8:44 AM on February 26, 2007

Neat-o.
posted by amro at 8:47 AM on February 26, 2007

More downloadable vector files.
posted by sklero at 8:48 AM on February 26, 2007

I notice that while a lot of the very old American companies are represented, Ford, GE, and Sears aren't. Of those, the Ford emblem is iconic, and I think Sears's logo could do with an overhaul, something harkening back to its roots but a little more feminine than the disaster currently adorning their stores.
posted by Pastabagel at 8:54 AM on February 26, 2007

Neat link, but some stuff is totally wrong. For instance, on the BMW logo:

The black ring and the internal and external enclosing rings were used to represent the previous company "GMBH". BMW resulted from this business.

GmbH is not a company at all; it's a legal entity in Germany, something like an LLC in the US.
posted by heydanno at 8:58 AM on February 26, 2007

And let's not forget Raymond Loewy...
posted by nj_subgenius at 9:01 AM on February 26, 2007

I'm a sucker for this stuff,even though I feel guilty for liking it.
Anyone know what the very FIRST brand or logo was?
(I'd exclude Roman coins and currency in general...)
posted by Dizzy at 9:10 AM on February 26, 2007

Cool!
posted by miss lynnster at 9:22 AM on February 26, 2007

Bass beer (a red triangle) if I'm not mistaken, Dizzy. Also, was the text for this run through Babelfish or something? In addition to the GmbH thing, it also has the logo for "Hunter Master" liquor (Jagermeister, they mean). Great resource, though.
posted by Rock Steady at 9:25 AM on February 26, 2007

This is strange. On the site they have a series of essays, like this one by Robert Bringhurst. It's stolen from his Elements of Typographic Style book.

This one is taken from Emigre - it says so at the bottom. But I doubt they got permission for that one either.

And check out the lame attempt at raising their pagerank on this page.

I have serious doubts they authored the logo glossary themselves.
posted by O9scar at 9:32 AM on February 26, 2007

Rock Steady - The Bass Red Triangle was the first registered trademark in the UK (Bass got number 2 as well) but that's not the same thing as the first ever brand.
posted by twine42 at 9:40 AM on February 26, 2007

The "first" brand is surely not the same thing as the "oldest still extant" brand.

i.e., Ugluk Flint - for all your spear-point needs. Ask for it by name!
posted by yhbc at 9:57 AM on February 26, 2007

Many of these have clearly been (sometimes poorly) translated from another language, which explains references like "a Salt Lake town in America".
posted by evilcolonel at 10:04 AM on February 26, 2007

Supposedly, Carol Donaldson was paid $35 for the Nike logo. Paul Rand was paid $250,000 for his unremarkable Morningstar design.
posted by disgruntled at 10:15 AM on February 26, 2007

Supposedly, Carol Donaldson was paid $35 for the Nike logo.

That's horeshit. When has Nike ever been accused of unfair labor compensation?
posted by Peter H at 10:51 AM on February 26, 2007

Being fresh out of school with a design degree, and hungry for work, Davidson submitted her bill for $35 for the Swoosh design.
posted by disgruntled at 11:00 AM on February 26, 2007

You know who else is missing? That's right - Pepsi.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 11:40 AM on February 26, 2007

From the link disgruntled gave us:

But the Swoosh creator didn't just ride off into the sunset. Davidson got a telephone call one day in September 1983, inviting her to have lunch and touch base again with a few of the people she used to work with at Nike, including Knight. When she arrived, much to her surprise, she was greeted with a catered lunch and was presented with a gold Swoosh ring embedded with a diamond. She also received a certificate from Knight and an envelope containing Nike stock.

How much stock remains a secret between Knight and her. "The stock has split three times since I received it, so I can definitely say that I have been well compensated for my design,"

posted by JDHarper at 12:28 PM on February 26, 2007

In case there were any doubts about thievery:

Logo orange's M Page

M Page from Markenlogos (in German)
posted by O9scar at 12:59 PM on February 26, 2007

Here are some more.
posted by nj_subgenius at 1:28 PM on February 26, 2007

Funny is seeing copyright infringement accusations in a thread about registered trademarks.
posted by Peter H at 2:09 PM on February 26, 2007