Logos tell us lots of things. In particular, they tell us who and what a business is about. The task of every logo designer, then, is to create a design that will effectively convey this message. How each of them chooses to approach this task is a different story. While some logo designers convey a company’s message in very obvious ways, others prefer to use a bit more subtlety. Designers often do this by embedding hidden elements or messages within a logo. These hidden elements and messages can be in the form of words, numbers, icons, depictions, or some other markings.
We’ve all seen the designs below millions of times. But how many of us notice the subtle messages they deliver as well? Take a look now. You may be suprised you didn’t notice these before 🙂 .
If you look closely, you’ll see a hidden arrow between the ‘E’ and the ‘x’. The arrow was included to symbolize speed and precision, both attributes of the FedEx Corporation.
The arrow under the text represents happy, smiling customers, while pointing out that Amazon.com carries just about every product imagineable, from A to Z.
Most people don’t realize that the smiley face at the top of the logo is also a lowercase ‘g.’ Known as the “Smiling G”, it is used to represent both the company name and the smiles that come from helping people help themselves.
So what does this logo tell us? If you look closely at the negative space around the ‘T,’ you’ll see how many teams there really are in the Big Ten Conference.
If you look at the two ‘Ts’ and the ‘i’ in between, you can clearly see two people enjoying a Tostitos chip and bowl of salsa. This is what the company had to say about it in a press release from 2004. “Tostitos plays a role as a ‘social snack’, helping to create connections between friends and families, whether it’s at a party, during the ‘big game’, or at simple everyday get-togethers. The new logo brings to life this idea of making connections.”
Okay, this one doesn’t have any hidden messages, but it does have a hidden audio element. If you go to the homepage and click on the logo’s exclamation point, you’ll hear Yahoo!’s trademark yodel, made famous in those Yahoo! commercials from earlier days by western singer Wylie Gustafson of Wylie & the Wild West.
This was the hidden messages logos we were talking about.