Clever clever logo logo

May 18, 2009 11:26 AM

You may have already noticed some of the visual tricks in these logos.Or maybe not. (I never saw the b--- in the T-------- logo before.) Or maybe you just think these are too obvious for words and there are much better examples out there. (via)
posted by maudlin (119 comments total)

Uh-oh, is it dead already?
posted by Dr-Baa at 11:28 AM on May 18

Maybe it's just as well. Once you see the g_____ in the C_____, you can never unsee it.
posted by box at 11:31 AM on May 18

There's a hidden f_____ r_____ in the MetaFilter logo.
posted by Plutor at 11:33 AM on May 18

Part of it has loaded for me. I've seen a couple of these already (Fed Ex and Amazon), but I never noticed the Toblerone logo before. Neat!
posted by Dr-Baa at 11:33 AM on May 18

Uh-oh. I think The Atlantic may have already kilt it before we came along.

Ah, well.
posted by maudlin at 11:34 AM on May 18

Atoms are mostly empty space too.

But maybe you already noticed.
posted by Joe Beese at 11:36 AM on May 18 [1 favorite has favorites]

These are neat, although I wonder how effective they are? The FedEx one in particular had been pointed out to me before as an example of cleverness in a branding effort.

You would say you have seen it thousand times but just to make you notice an arrow formed between the letters “E” and “X” conveying speed, direction and reliability of this amazing courier service.

Good for them, but I never noticed the arrow until someone else pointed it out. And how would I know it stands for all that if somebody didn't explain it? If you have to tell people what your logo conveys, it probably doesn't convey it.
posted by FishBike at 11:39 AM on May 18 [3 favorites has favorites]

And don't forget the "SEX" in the Ritz crackers.
posted by DU at 11:42 AM on May 18 [4 favorites has favorites]

That sounds like it'd leave crumbs in uncomfortable places.
posted by Spatch at 11:46 AM on May 18 [3 favorites has favorites]

FishBike: "If you have to tell people what your logo conveys, it probably doesn't convey it."

It's a three-pronged marketing effort. Liminal, subliminal, and superliminal.

Hey you! Use FedEx!
posted by Plutor at 11:50 AM on May 18 [4 favorites has favorites]

Yes, I want you all to ask your designers make your logo look more conceptual and clever using the graphic designing tricks.

Client to designer: "Hmmm... I like it, but let's make it more conceptual. Add some clever. You know, with the graphic designing tricks."

Designer (under breath): "Goddamn you to hell, Charlie B. Johnson."
posted by designbot at 11:54 AM on May 18 [8 favorites has favorites]

Obligatory link to famously-discarded logo for Asian Studies department at university in Brazil.
posted by brain_drain at 11:58 AM on May 18 [4 favorites has favorites]

Ooh, the Yoga Australia one was good.
posted by Rock Steady at 12:00 PM on May 18

The Toblerone one was neat, hadn't seen that one before. The rest... mostly meh.
posted by bjrn at 12:00 PM on May 18

Whaddayaknow, they've actually started using the new OGC logo.
posted by you at 12:04 PM on May 18 [4 favorites has favorites]

Even though I've also had the "if you don't notice it before it's pointed out, how beneficial is it?" debate about the FedEx logo, I still love the arrow.

Surprised once this page loaded that it didn't have the Baskin Robbins pink 31, which I also didn't notice until it was pointed out to me, which, since I look out my back porch seeing this sign daily made me feel ignorant.

But, unlike FedEx, it also led me to show my appreciation for their clever marketing with a purchase, ice cream being more of an impulse buy than overnight shipping.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 12:08 PM on May 18 [1 favorite has favorites]

you posted: Whaddayaknow, they've actually started using the new OGC logo.

Heh, nudge, nudge.
posted by JJ86 at 12:08 PM on May 18

How about the Jesus fish in the Jack In the Box logo.

It makes it read "Jack in the B'Jesus" which is what you say 30 seconds after you eat their 99 cent taco and 2 seconds before you have a load of unnecessary laundry.
posted by Seamus at 12:09 PM on May 18 [14 favorites has favorites]

The forgot the Milwaukee Brewers logo with the "m" and "b" making up the baseball glove. Much better than the Hartford Whalers, IMHO.
posted by slogger at 12:15 PM on May 18

I knew a guy who swore that the Red Dog beer logo had top-down view of Darth Vader going down on a woman 69-style.
posted by Burhanistan at 12:16 PM on May 18 [1 favorite has favorites]

oops, Red Dog.
posted by Burhanistan at 12:18 PM on May 18

Maybe it was Batman, actually.
posted by Burhanistan at 12:18 PM on May 18

Montreal Expos (baseball).

Much better than the Milwaukee Brewers logo IMHO. Heh.
posted by mazola at 12:19 PM on May 18

Dead for me. I'll have to check it later.

But has anyone else noticed that the AT&T logo looks like a small moon? What's up with that?

And don't forget the "SEX" in the Ritz crackers.

Who could forget something like that? I've still got crumbs in places I'd prefer not to admit to publicly.
posted by quin at 12:29 PM on May 18 [1 favorite has favorites]

Writing out 'Intricate' as !N3K8 seems pretty stupid, even for an IT consulting company. Are they trying to capture the lucrative 14-year-old h4xx0r market?
posted by echo target at 12:33 PM on May 18 [2 favorites has favorites]

But has anyone else noticed that the AT&T logo looks like a small moon?

That's no moon.
posted by Who_Am_I at 12:36 PM on May 18 [6 favorites has favorites]

I knew a guy who swore that the Red Dog beer logo had top-down view of Darth Vader going down on a woman 69-style.

Well, I'll never look at *that* logo the same way again.

But see, between this one and the OGC logo, I think this illustrates a major problem with all this logo cleverness. Once we are accustomed to this search for hidden things in company logos, it's much easier for people to find and point out all kinds of imagery the designer never intended to put there.
posted by FishBike at 12:37 PM on May 18

Hey, the Amazon logo has an arrow from the a to the z, like 'a to z'!

I've never noticed that before, I think I'm graphically illiterate.
posted by Sova at 12:41 PM on May 18 [2 favorites has favorites]

Montreal Expos (baseball)

I always used to wonder what the hell an "elb" was. Actually, I still do.
posted by uncleozzy at 12:44 PM on May 18 [15 favorites has favorites]

better than the hartford whalers and not even having to leave the nhl, the minnesota wild logo has an nighttime image within the animal head.

others wanted to go to baseball. that is fine, but no one can say for sure which hand the batter on the mlb logo is.
posted by the aloha at 12:49 PM on May 18

Some of these logos are clever but whoever wrote the copy underneath them is not.
posted by Falconetti at 12:51 PM on May 18 [4 favorites has favorites]

I think Metafilter killed sportslogos.net. (Or we should give it a hug along with all of the traffic.)
posted by fijiwriter at 12:53 PM on May 18

I never noticed the A-to-Z connection on the amazon logo, but I have always noticed that it looks like a dick. And now, so will you!
posted by Mach5 at 12:55 PM on May 18

Heartbeats just doesn't work for me. When you square off musical notes, they don't read as notes at all.
posted by smackfu at 1:13 PM on May 18

gramatically, a mess.
posted by kitchenrat at 1:15 PM on May 18

Some of these logos are clever but whoever wrote the copy underneath them is not.

I've asked this before--and perhaps not in the best forum--but seriously, the author of that text makes me wonder, is there a dialect of English where the words "alphabet" and "letter" are in any way interchangeable?
posted by kittyprecious at 1:16 PM on May 18

I agree with Falconetti. Making the company's initial look in some way representative of their product is a very very standard sort of thing in logo design, and while there's some really nice examples here, there's some rather humdrum ones too, which the commenter is way too excited about. "Simply amazing!!" he/she exclaims, over the revelation that one of them uses a check-mark for a V. Well yeah, it's a nice touch, but in an otherwise uninteresting logo, and I guarantee you the designer padded the hell out of their timesheet on that one.
posted by rifflesby at 1:23 PM on May 18

You guys will never guess what I just found in the Hooters logo! I can't believe he didn't include it!

And count me in with those scratching their heads over the use of "alphabet" to mean "letter"; my 4 year old daughter does it but I expect her to outgrow it.
posted by TedW at 1:23 PM on May 18

ED has a logo? Bet no one uses that as a tattoo!
posted by CCBC at 1:25 PM on May 18 [1 favorite has favorites]

Or maybe you just think these are too obvious for words and there are much better examples out there.

Your post has low self-esteem. :(
posted by decagon at 1:30 PM on May 18

Some of these logos are clever but whoever wrote the copy underneath them is not.

Oh, Couintreau! Nothing better have been thought.
posted by hal9k at 1:31 PM on May 18

I've always loved the "Sun" logo. So clever to spell "Sun" with "u"


posted by milkwood at 1:33 PM on May 18 [1 favorite has favorites]

Rotate this 90 degrees clockwise - and tell me it's not an Aardvark!
posted by not_that_epiphanius at 1:38 PM on May 18 [8 favorites has favorites]

Actually, a fair number of these logos are less clever, than attempts at being clever. The Big Ten logo? Boring typeface, with the hidden '11' undercutting the name itself. Eleven schools in a division called the Big Ten is dumb.

The heartbeats one is awful; no amount of imagination is going to get me to see actual musical notes there.

Inthreecate is a dumb name for a company. Has anyone ever used 3 as 'tree' in leetspeak?

Lafayette is kind of cool, but also just looks like sloppy handwriting.

Piano Forest is neat.
posted by graventy at 1:39 PM on May 18

On closer look, the Fuga one is pretty nifty, but unfortunately, if you aren't looking at the whitespace, and you don't know what word you are supposed to be seeing, the logo as presented looks a bit like "GWAR"

Which is probably not what you want in an architectural center.

Unless you want your buildings made out of foam and covered in fake blood...
posted by quin at 1:51 PM on May 18 [5 favorites has favorites]

Hartford Whalers

.
posted by inigo2 at 1:52 PM on May 18

Wow, clever. Some of these logos really blue me away.
posted by resurrexit at 1:53 PM on May 18 [4 favorites has favorites]

I notice all of these whenever I see them, but I've done logo/logotype and corporate ID design and I'm always looking for new bits and pieces for my visual toolkit.

This is why graphic designers have shelves full of "idea books" filled with logos and layouts. Truly "new" work is either very difficult or a total accident. There's really only so many clever ways you can legibly combine a pictogram and some text, and cleverness is often a designers worst enemy.
posted by loquacious at 2:00 PM on May 18 [1 favorite has favorites]

no amount of imagination is going to get me to see actual musical notes there.

That's because the writer didn't notice that it's actually a pair of bent headphones.
posted by kittyprecious at 2:01 PM on May 18 [1 favorite has favorites]

Inthreecate is a dumb name for a company. Has anyone ever used 3 as 'tree' in leetspeak?

I think that's supposed to be in-tri-cat(e). But I don't believe that I've ever experienced anyone using 'tri' by itself, l33t or not.
posted by ArgentCorvid at 2:02 PM on May 18

Is Heart Beats even a real thing? Can anyone find the web page?
posted by smackfu at 2:07 PM on May 18

The South Carolina Federal Credit Union logo clearly depicts the destruction of Alderaan.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 2:09 PM on May 18 [7 favorites has favorites]

TedW: You guys will never guess what I just found in the Hooters logo! I can't believe he didn't include it!

No kidding! I was stunned to see there was an owl in their logo!
posted by atbash at 2:11 PM on May 18

Re: Hooters. Is it bad of me to have seen the same thing in the body wisdom logo?
posted by maxwelton at 2:19 PM on May 18

An autistic child pointed out the FedEx arrow to me. I had never seen it before, and now I can't un-see it. I've yet to meet anyone in person that know it's there.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 2:22 PM on May 18

That's because the writer didn't notice that it's actually a pair of bent headphones.

"Two musical notes are bent in a way to make a heart and and headphns."
posted by Night_owl at 2:27 PM on May 18

New Pepsi Logo
posted by toroi at 2:48 PM on May 18 [3 favorites has favorites]

My son was obsessed with the Expos logo last year, to the point where we had to buy him a damn hat.

Dear AskMetafiler: Why can't I post a link to the Expos logo?
posted by maryh at 2:58 PM on May 18

I continue to be impressed by the logo for the Sony Vaio, and the analog-to-digital imagery.
posted by specialagentwebb at 3:02 PM on May 18 [4 favorites has favorites]

I love captain obvious coming to our rescue with such explanations as ZOMG THE TREES ARE PIANO KEYS and THE I IS A ZIPPER!!! Is that site a primer?
posted by GavinR at 3:04 PM on May 18

In a similar vein, I remember grinning the day I realized the Lufthansa logo contains the eagle from the German coat of arms taking flight.
posted by The Tensor at 3:05 PM on May 18

The logo for french high speed rail TGV is either pretty clever design or an ironic coincidence.
posted by robinhoudt at 3:07 PM on May 18

Just looked at this more recent post from that blog and it seems that they are taking images from sites such as Worth1000 and cropping to remove the watermark as noted in the comments.

http://penflare.com/2009/01/the-secret-messages-of-logos/

Then I found this: http://penflare.com/2009/01/the-secret-messages-of-logos/

This is a rip off splog.
posted by GavinR at 3:10 PM on May 18

Oops, messed that up by hitting early too soon, I was refering to this post were they removed the logos and then this site where they stole some of the logo stuff. No real graphic designer worth a damn would stoop so low.
posted by GavinR at 3:11 PM on May 18 [2 favorites has favorites]

from link: Marriage Logo What better logo can be used to symbolize a marriage with two mirrored “R” in the middle. No frills, no shadows, still so powerful and meaningful.

Especially powerful and meaningful to those like myself who are part of a marriage that does have two mirrored Rs in the middle. We always promised nothing would come between us, but a little r and r never did anybody much harm. And I am glad to see that, after all these years as an incorporated entity, marriage has finally gone and gotten itself a logo. As a shareholder, I would have thought after our IPO a few years ago that there would be an increase in our general professionalism and attention to appearance, but getting a good logo is the first I've seen of it.
posted by koeselitz at 3:13 PM on May 18

Designer - Sean Farrell Logo Design:
When you take off a piece of the “v” in the word “review” it forms a check mark (for review). Simply amazing!!

What
posted by Acey at 3:26 PM on May 18 [2 favorites has favorites]

Also, there's an incredible collection of amazing photoshopped photos on the front page of that Graphic Design Blog right now. I mean, I'm still trying to figure out how they did this one. I can't think of any of the filters that would do this kind of thing, although I guess maybe I'm not the top expert on Photoshop. The only thing I can think is that there must be some kind of trick they pulled with the camera; maybe if they took the camera apart and turned the lens 90° or something.
posted by koeselitz at 3:26 PM on May 18 [2 favorites has favorites]

The only thing I can think is that there must be some kind of trick they pulled with the camera; maybe if they took the camera apart and turned the lens 90° or something.

I'm no expert either, but I think it has to do with the chemicals used in the darkroom when developing the picture.
posted by mrnutty at 3:32 PM on May 18 [1 favorite has favorites]

The logo for french high speed rail TGV is either pretty clever design or an ironic coincidence.

what am I missing?
posted by milestogo at 3:33 PM on May 18

Oh... I thought the Amazon logo was doing an epic fail at a smiley face.
posted by spec80 at 3:33 PM on May 18

At first, I thought the hyperbolic language was a bit overblown, i.e.: THIS! THIS IS THE GREATEST! ALL HUMAN ENDEAVOR IS INFERIOR TO USING NUMBERS IN PLACE OF LETTERS THAT SOUND LIKE THEM! TO TASTE THE EFFLUVIUM OF THE MIND THAT CREATED THIS IS TO KNOW THE LEAVINGS OF GODS!

But then I realized how much fun that enthusiasm would be in real life, but I hope that they never see a Saul Bass retrospective, because I don't think there are enough adjectives in the thesaurus to adequately describe how blown their mind will be.

I do have to say that most of the good logos on that list are pretty famous already. Most of the ones unique to this list were derivative, or not very good.
posted by theclaw at 3:38 PM on May 18 [4 favorites has favorites]

Here's some recent desing work by the guy this article was stolen from.
posted by GavinR at 3:40 PM on May 18

The only thing I can think is that there must be some kind of trick they pulled with the camera; maybe if they took the camera apart and turned the lens 90° or something.

Nah, this is an easy but time consuming trick; you find a wall, paint the silhouettes onto it, then you suspend the people with harnesses from the roof to pose in the correct positions, and then you go in and digitally remove the wires later.

Rotating the camera lens is clever, but it would change the shape of the pixels too much.
posted by quin at 3:42 PM on May 18 [1 favorite has favorites]

The Toblerone one was neat. The rest, eh. I also didn't realize the Amazon one wasn't just a smile.
posted by cmgonzalez at 4:04 PM on May 18

>> The logo for french high speed rail TGV is either pretty clever design or an ironic coincidence.

> what am I missing?

I stared at that for quite awhile before deciding that, upside-down, the TGV looks like "roi", which is french for "king". Not very obvious. Or, for that matter, ironic; but it's all I could come up with.

Can you enlighten us, robinhoudt ?
posted by mrnutty at 4:12 PM on May 18

quin: On(THIS WAS MADE)ly if you have a camera th(BY THECLAW)at doesn't have over-square pixel((C) 2009)s.

'am4zing1photoshipz' style-b(ALL RIGHTS RESERVED)logs are why eve(DON'T STEAL MY SHIT)rything I distribute o(SERIOUSLY)n the inte(NOT COOL)rnet is more waterm(REALLY)ark than conten(YOU ASSHOLES)t.
posted by theclaw at 4:24 PM on May 18

Someone woke up in a good mood

Simply amazing!!
C’est magnificique!
this amazing courier service
so powerful and meaningful
yummy!!
The designer has amazingly used the negative space
Nothing better have been thought.
simply brilliant
posted by mattoxic at 4:43 PM on May 18

maudlin: (I never saw the b--- in the T-------- logo before.)

Wait, what? Where's the bitch in the twatwaffle?
posted by Pronoiac at 4:46 PM on May 18 [2 favorites has favorites]

I think the TGV logo upside-down looks like AOL.
posted by Pronoiac at 4:47 PM on May 18

theclaw, i come from the other direction. i only put my crappiest of crap online for free with a creative commons and hope that someone reincorporates it and makes it better while i still get some credit.

to that end, i would like to allow anyone the ability to remix this single comment. share it with your loved ones so long as you let them know the aloha wrote it. i can think of no greater gift to give. you are welcome.
posted by the aloha at 4:47 PM on May 18

Unfortunately, someone pointed out to me a year back that the much maligned London 2012 Olympics logo looks like Lisa Simpson going down on a dude. Some things, you can't un-see.
posted by Happy Dave at 4:52 PM on May 18 [5 favorites has favorites]

i would like to allow anyone the ability to remix this single comment. share it with your loved ones so long as you let them know the aloha wrote it.


"i like to share it with your loved ones"
-- the aloha
posted by inigo2 at 5:00 PM on May 18 [2 favorites has favorites]

A funny thing - an Australian colloquialism is to refer to a woman's pubic hair as a "map of Tasmania" (look at a map to work out why). That Yoga Australia logo, which fails to include Tasmania, would place her map of tassie in about the right spot!
posted by wilful at 5:02 PM on May 18 [1 favorite has favorites]

inigo2, how'd they like it?
(trick question! i know they LOVED it and were begging for more.)
posted by the aloha at 5:10 PM on May 18

specialagentwebb: I can't believe I never made the A/D connection in the Vaio logo before. Having it leap out at me like that is better than all the other clever clever logos put together.
posted by zhwj at 5:21 PM on May 18

i would like to allow anyone the ability to remix this single comment. share it with your loved ones so long as you let them know the aloha wrote it.

"your loved ones are the crappiest of crap. you are no better."
--the aloha
posted by Rock Steady at 5:25 PM on May 18 [1 favorite has favorites]

If ya like logos - I recommend 'Brand New' = great logo-rebrand site.
posted by jettloe at 5:28 PM on May 18 [2 favorites has favorites]

I think the reversed TGV logo is supposed to look like a snail (get it, high speed rail... snail...?)
posted by desjardins at 5:40 PM on May 18

I think the reversed TGV logo is supposed to look like a snail (get it, high speed rail... snail...?)

Ah, I see it now!
posted by mrnutty at 5:44 PM on May 18

It's a snail!

The TGV slogan is "take the time to go faster", so I suppose this isn't a coincidence. Unless I'm the only one seeing a snail there.

On preview: Ah, I'm not crazy.
posted by robinhoudt at 5:45 PM on May 18

I've always been impressed with A-Style, a brand that I'd never heard of until I saw them advertising at MotoGP races. Who knew an entire business could grow around two circles and a serif A?
posted by argh at 5:53 PM on May 18

I think Metafilter killed sportslogos.net. (Or we should give it a hug along with all of the traffic.)

You've inspired me to send a note to Chris Creamer of Chris Creamer's sportslogos.net, who I went to high school with and who is on my facebook and who I haven't talked to in years. He is a very nice guy by the way. I said hi and asked him if he knows what the 'elb' stands for. Hope he replies...
posted by PercussivePaul at 6:41 PM on May 18

Meh, this is newsworthy? Mashing letters together doesn't make things clever. And they're sure not "hidden" messages.

Writing out 'Intricate' as !N3K8 seems pretty stupid

That's getting my Worst Logo of the Week award for sure. Hilariously bad.
posted by rokusan at 7:04 PM on May 18

There's a hidden f_____ r_____ in the MetaFilter logo.

I'm the hidden f'r in MetaFilter.
posted by rokusan at 7:04 PM on May 18 [1 favorite has favorites]

ELB is Expansion League Baseball, which doesn't make any sense, but neither did the 'Spos. I don't think we broke Creamer's site, I think he does not allow deeplinking to his images.
posted by Rock Steady at 7:05 PM on May 18

I had no idea that the Expos logo was such an enduring mystery. When I was a kid, I always saw it as a typically ugly 70s style "M".

This page features several variations on the same theory: there is no "elb", just an e and a b stuck on top of an M.

"1. The answer, as I was repeatedly informed, is that it's not "elb", it's that I'm a blind and/or drunk idiot and it's a stylized "M" with an "e" on the left part and a "b" on the right part. They stand for "Expos de Montréal Baseball" and they're also the initials of the team's original owner, Edgar M. Bronfman."

2. "Edgar was not the team's original owner. It was his brother Charles."

3. "As I mentioned, the description of the M, e, and b comes from the Expos media guide that the team published every year (though it was absent from later editions). Here is the text from the 1990 media guide: 'The Expos logo is composed of three letters, the largest of which is the overall stylized "M" for Montreal. Represented in the lower left of the logo is a lower case "e" for expos and on the right hand side of the logo, in blue, is the letter "b" for baseball.'"

4. [Special double-header theory] "We went to a game up there in August of 2004 against the Astros. Great time in a great city. We were able to walk up and purchase tickets right behind home plate and stayed downtown cheaply (didn't even realize until morning that the Astros were there as well). The hotel had put out a Montreal booklet for sports fans that were staying there.

I finally found that dumb thing. It states: "It has been debated what the original Expo emblem signified. The Expos have only ever offered one explination. There are three component that are derived from the French tradition of Blue, Blanc, and Rouge. Those components work together to form a stylized M for Montreal."

It then goes on about the team history for a little bit before it reaches 1992 in the team history. There it adds that "many have been able to identify the letter e in red just as they can usually identify a blue letter b. There is great debate as to what the white accomplishes. Some see it with e to form a d while others see it it simply as filler as the whole forms the letter M."

This page of Expo information continues on. Near the bottom it concludes that "There may never be a consensus as to the true meaning behind the original logo; but it certainly couldn't have been, as one man suggested while standing on his head in front of the stadium during a personal protest against the team leaving. He contends that he saw the true meaning as people were walking past him with the Expos hats and shirts. The emblem is an inverted representation of the reproduction organs; either internal for the females or external for the males".

Wikipedia supports the eMb theory, but not the genitals theory. Pity.
posted by maudlin at 7:06 PM on May 18

hm, because I totally saw a dick there.
posted by desjardins at 7:31 PM on May 18

This sort of counts in the reverse:

I have never associated the big yellow blob in 'The Bay' logo as being a 'B' even though it is the first letter in 'Bay'.

I have no idea what I thought it was.
posted by mazola at 7:41 PM on May 18

I thought it was "JB" for "Jouers de baseball". Which I thought in turn was derived from the Habs' "CH" logo, for which I've heard two explanations: (1) Club de Hockey, which I think is the favoured one, and (2) "Canadiens Habitants", from a cherished insult in which the team was compared to a bunch of farmers.
posted by Turtles all the way down at 8:40 PM on May 18

*joueurs*
posted by Turtles all the way down at 8:44 PM on May 18

I have never associated the big yellow blob in 'The Bay' logo as being a 'B' even though it is the first letter in 'Bay'.

When I was a kid, before I could read, I saw a lot of train cars with the CN logo on the side and I interpreted it in purely graphic terms--like a bent paper clip lying on its side. I still have trouble seeing at as a combination of two letters.

And when my mother looks at the Batman logo all she sees is yellow teeth in a black mouth.
posted by Turtles all the way down at 8:49 PM on May 18

I've also always liked the Sun logo.

I used to think the Cisco logo was a clever allusion to the spectrum of a BPSK/Manchester encoded signal, but it turns out it's just the Golden Gate Bridge.
posted by hattifattener at 9:12 PM on May 18

Sometimes the corporation seems to lose the memory of the cleverness of their own logo. International Harvestor's old logo was designed to look like a tractor coming towards you. In updating it they put it on a slant, which kinda misses the point (but sure looks post-modern, eh?)
posted by spock at 9:22 PM on May 18 [1 favorite has favorites]

Normally, I wouldn't even bother but this got under my skin so I even sent a letter to The Atlantic pointing out that this linked to article is pure plagiarism.
posted by GavinR at 9:29 PM on May 18 [1 favorite has favorites]

And, I still can't believe that many people marked this as favorite.

The linked to article is pure plagiarism

The linked to article is pure plagiarism

The linked to article is pure plagiarism

The linked to article is pure plagiarism

The linked to article is pure plagiarism

The linked to article is pure plagiarism

The linked to article is pure plagiarism

The linked to article is pure plagiarism

The linked to article is pure plagiarism

The linked to article is pure plagiarism

The linked to article is pure plagiarism

The linked to article is pure plagiarism

The linked to article is pure plagiarism

The linked to article is pure plagiarism

Can I say it enough people? Don't visit that site.

This is where he stole the post from

Does this look familiar at all?


All you had to do was put the captions into Google with quotes to find where they stole the material from.
posted by GavinR at 9:34 PM on May 18 [4 favorites has favorites]

I think there is a hidden message in GavinR's post but I can't quite put my finger on it...
posted by mazola at 9:37 PM on May 18

Well I've tried to point this trash out before but everyone seems to be ignoring it. I can't stand lazy plagiarism such as this. They didn't change the captions they stole...when I was in middle school I had at least enough sense to slightly change the passages I swiped from Encyclopedias so that the wording was somewhat different. This guy isn't even that smart.
posted by GavinR at 9:39 PM on May 18

adultshop.com is better than the "Forkwire Logo" if you use the same judging criteria. IMHO, of course.

I'd like to add that I find both logos a bit "meh." The whole bastardised @ and iPaq iPod iinet thang have been well and truly done to death.
posted by uncanny hengeman at 10:04 PM on May 18

I think there is a hidden message in GavinR's post but I can't quite put my finger on it...

The trick is to look in the negative space between the lines.
posted by kirkaracha at 10:07 PM on May 18

kittyprecious: is there a dialect of English where the words "alphabet" and "letter" are in any way interchangeable

Singaporeans do it all.the.time. It drives me crazy.
posted by Alnedra at 12:09 AM on May 19

The trick is to look in the negative space between the lines.

fn@rd
posted by athenian at 1:10 AM on May 19

GavinR, thanks for the research. I posted this because I thought there were enough logos with surprises in them to be worth starting a thread over, especially if people found some others as part of the discussion. If this guy has a habit of this bullshit -- deleting Worth1000 logos and not giving them credit? Seriously, guy? -- he deserves a kick in the ass.

If enough people flag this post because of the original source's plagiarism, or because the logos are mostly boring, or for whatever reason, then it can get dumped.
posted by maudlin at 2:43 AM on May 19

In updating it they put it on a slant, which kinda misses the point (but sure looks post-modern, eh?)

It's still coming towards you, it's just drifting around a corner!
posted by doobiedoo at 4:08 AM on May 19 [1 favorite has favorites]

Interestingly enough, this is what the producer of the original link had to say in the comments of the second link GavinR posted:

You have added theses logos very convinently without giving credit to the link you took it from.

My blog shows this post titled as "25 Logos with hidden messages" and I am recieving great response on it.

I have compiled all these logos after researching the net well and till some silly peopl like you claimed me for stealing these.

I think you are the right person to be blamed.


Looking at the dates on the blog entries it seems like the graphicdesignblog guy may have stolen it from the penflare guy, and the sikufital guy then stole it from one of them. Anyway, there are obviously some shenanigans going on here. Glad you pointed it out.
posted by TedW at 5:15 AM on May 19

It wasn't the misuse of "alphabets" for "letters" that took me aback, it was the substitution of "watch" for "look" in the commentary about the Australian yoga logo: if you watch it carefully the body posture is creating the Australia Map. I'm watching! I'm watching! When is it going to move?
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 6:31 AM on May 19

[replaced link with one to the original blog]
posted by jessamyn at 6:45 AM on May 19 [4 favorites has favorites]

Ahhh, the blog format. Which some people think requires that you posted something every single day. Even if you have no original thoughts that day. But you must post! You must! So, quick, go out and steal content from another site.
posted by asfuller at 10:05 AM on May 19

I blame a purely profit motive. Google ads drive the thieves, along with reddit etc that dump users to a site based solely on a link.
posted by smackfu at 10:10 AM on May 19

Chris Creamer (of sportslogos.net) wrote back. Here's what he says about the expos logo:

"The Expos logo isn't an elb, as most people think it is. It's actually an eMb, the e in red, the M half white, half blue and the b in blue... it stands for Expos (de) Montréal Baseball."

He also mentioned that he's had that site going since about 1995. I sent him a link to the Mefi post from a while back about sportslogos.net and he's eager to read it, he always likes to see what other people are saying about his site.
posted by PercussivePaul at 8:02 PM on May 25 [1 favorite has favorites]