Muy Logos

Annie and I were driving back from Georgia last weekend, where we had celebrated our grandson, Richard’s, sixth birthday.  As we cruised along the highway, we listened to an audiobook by Dan Brown, the author most famous for The Davinci Code.  Brown’s main protagonist is Robert Langdon (played by Tom Hanks in the movies), a professor of symbology at Harvard.

Just about the time Professor Langdon was explaining what he does, a FedEx truck drove by and I asked my wife, “Have you ever noticed the hidden symbology on a Fed Ex truck?”

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Lots and lots of business have hidden symbols in their logos.  Some are so well hidden that we can see them virtually every day, yet never notice them…like FedEx.

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When is the last time you drove by a Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop and looked at their sign…I mean, REALLY looked at it.  Baskin Robbins is famous for the 31 different flavors of ice cream they serve.  They’re so proud of the fact that they included it in their name.  I didn’t say, “On their sign.”  Nope, I said, “In their name,” although, in reality, it is both.

On their 60^th anniversary, they celebrated with a new logo, which you probably see often but, have you ever noticed the big 31 in the letters B and R?  It kind of jumps out at you when you really look, doesn’t it?

Do you like Tostitos?  I do.  Those little, salty, chips of corn are like putting a party in my mouth.  You may not agree with that but, if you look closely at their logo you may notice that there’s a party on there at least.  Notice that the second T and the third one look like people celebrating a Tostito chip over the i between them, which looks like a little table holding a bowl of salsa.  It’s a little fiesta for sure.

I saw a commercial for Le Tour de France a while back and noticed that the lettering, which looks like it is a little active and free at first, actually forms a stylized person crouching over a rather uncomfortable looking seat, racing on a bicycle.  So, the most famous bicycle race in the world includes a bike racer in their logo. 

You may wonder why Goodwill has a half of a smiling face on their logo.  I mean, they do accept donations of used clothes and such, which anyone can buy for a small fee, and I guess that makes people happy, but why only half of a face?  Look again.  That half face actually forms the letter G…for Goodwill, get it?

As a diabetic, I’m not supposed to enjoy the delightful flavor of Swiss chocolate with honey and almond nougat in Toblerone candy bars, but I can still look at them with desire in my heart.  I was looking at one and noticed something interesting.  The crags on the left side of the mountain form the shape of a bear leaping forward.  That’s an interesting addition for a company which originated in Bern, Switzerland, a city said to have been named for a bear.

When I find out about a book I’d like to read, I sometimes shop for it on Amazon, a company which now seems to have everything from A to Z.  It seems appropriate then, that the famous Amazon Smile on their logo rests under the name in such a way that the smile’s “dimple” on the right side resembles an arrowhead, making the smile an arrow pointing from the A to the Z in Amazon.

If you’ve ever noticed the logo for Sony’s Visual Audio Intelligent Organizer (VAIO), you probably thought somebody got creative and made a little art with the name but, did you notice that the V and A form a symbolic analog wave and the I and O remind one of the binary numbers 1 and 0?  Yup, in case you didn’t already know the advantage of VAIO, the logo represents the integration of both analog and digital technologies in the product.

The London Symphony Orchestra is renowned worldwide.  As if listening to the music isn’t amazing enough, watch the intensity with which the conductor leads the symphony, keeping time and directing the orchestra with his baton.  It adds another level of fascination.  Their logo combines the L, S, and O so that the swooping lines form a symbolic conductor waving his baton for the orchestra.

Unless you are a computer geek, you’ve probably just scanned past when you’ve seen the logo for Sun Microsystems, maybe feeling mild interest in the little square figure, but did you notice that all those “U”s and “N”s that seem to be turned every which-a-way actually read SUN, no matter which direction you look at them from?  Really.  Each U and N form a stylized S.  Look at the S upright and the next U and N finish the word.

As if the smooth chocolatiness of Hershey’s Kisses wasn’t entertaining enough, their logo includes two big foil covered chocolate kisses on it, and one little, chocolaty kiss, unwrapped and ready-to-eat and tucked sideways between the K and the I.

I loved my Hyundai Elantra, which served me proudly for several years and well over 100,000 miles before moving on to my son, Travis, who is likewise happy with it.  When I had it, other than routine maintenance, I only had it in the shop once or twice.  I’d buy another one if the dealership was closer; I respect the brand that much.  It seems appropriate, then, that Hyundai’s “H” symbol is leaning to represent two people shaking hands in mutual respect.

Wendy’s fast-food restaurant has a fantastic frozen milkshake which they call a Frosty and some delicious burgers almost as good as what Mom used to make.  Their logo includes a little redheaded girl who symbolizes Wendy, founder Dave Thomas‘s daughter and just in case you don’t think of Mom while you’re eating their food, look at Wendy’s collar, which has folds and pleats that form the word MOM.

Annie is always checking on Pinterest when she’s looking for some new recipe or idea for something she wants to make.  If she finds something she really likes, she doesn’t have to write it down, she can just “pin” it.  So, it kind of makes sense that Pinterest’s logo is a capital letter P, stylized to resemble a pushpin.

Speaking of Annie, she seemed surprised when I told her there was hidden symbology on a FedEx truck.  I showed her how the bottom half of the uppercase E and the lowercase x form an arrow in the negative space. 

“See how the arrow points forward?  That symbolizes the forward movement of the company.”

My love cocked an eyebrow and said, “Not on the other side of the truck.  That one points backwards.”

I started to try to explain that the logo was not dependent on being applied to the side of a truck for its meaning, when I paused for a second and simply said, “I can explain it to you, but I can’t understand it for you.”

The look she gave me and my acerbic wit was a symbology no one should need help to understand.

Goodness knows I’ve seen that one enough.

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