The Complete Journey of Tech Company Logos

A company's corporate logo is something that becomes a symbol of the company and the company starts getting identified by that logo. It is this power of identity that makes us instantly recognize a brand by just glimpsing at its logo. Corporate logos of almost every technology company have changed over the course of years and that is what we are going to have a look at today.

IBM

IBM as a company was formed in 1911 as the Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation (CTR) because it was actually a merger of four companies: the Tabulating Machine Company, the International Time Recording Company, the Computing Scale Corporation and the Bundy Manufacturing Company and hence such a complicated and long name. Therefore, the early logo of this company had the letters ITR, which was a major part. Just after this merger, the logo was changed to reflect the change and it contained both ITR and CTR initials in 1911.

CTR adapted the new name International Business Machines Corporation in 1924, and hence the old logo had to be replaced with a new one. The old logo with the ornate rococo font was replaced by one in which it was written Business Machines in san serif font, written in the form of a globe and the word International as its equator. This suggested a more global role for the company.

With the advent of computing, IBM decided that it was time to change more and adapt to the new technology. It decided to do away with it its punched-card tabulating system and favor computers. The new logo sported a Beton Bold font.

Then in 1956, company CEO Thomas J. Watson, Sr appointed Tom Watson, Jr. as the CEO, before he died. The new CEO had a different vision for the company and so he decided to change the logo one more time. Paul Rand was hired to design the new logo in such a way that it would be subtle and will appear more grounded and solid and exuded confidence.

After this, Paul Rand made one more change to the logo to reflect speed and dynamism of the company. The solid font was replaced by stripes. This logo has been since used in IBM.

Google

The search giant we know as Google was founded in 1996 by two Stanford University computer science graduate students Larry Page and Sergey Brin. The name is derived from Googol, which means one followed by 100 zeros. Sergey Brin, who had self-taught the free computer graphics program GIMP, created the first logo in rainbow colored Catall BQ font for his company in this program and later even added an exclamation mark to it to mimic the Yahoo! logo (as Yahoo! was the major search engine of that time).

In 1999, Google hired Stanford's Consultant Art Professor Ruth Kedar to design the now famous Google logo. Ruth Kedar says, "There were a lot of different color iterations. We ended up with the primary colors, but instead of having the pattern go in order, we put a secondary color on the L, which brought back the idea that Google doesn't follow the rules."

The last overhaul that this logo received was in 2010, when it used a typeface similar to the previous logo, but featured a distinctly orange colored "o" in place of the previously yellowish "o". Also, there was a subtle shadow rendered in a different shading style.

Apple

Apple Computer Corporation had its humble beginnings in 1976 when it was established by three individuals - Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and principal investor Ronald Wayne.

At its inception, Apple had a very complicated logo designed by co-founder Ronald Wayne, with a picture of Isaac Newton sitting under an apple tree with a phrase from Wordsworth: "Newton 'A Mind Forever Voyaging Through Strange Seas of Thought Alone." This logo was used during the era of Apple-1 and it made Jobs think that the complex logo may be one of the reasons for the low sales of the Apple-1.

Soon they had to prepare for the display at the first West Coast Faire (a technology trade show) and it was important to have a brand new logo that reflected all that Apple stands for - simplicity and great design. A young art director, Rob Janoff was assigned this task.

Since Apple computers were distinguished from the rest by their ability to display many colors, Rob made this new logo of an apple in colorful horizontal stripes of rainbow colors and with a bite taken out of it on one side. Though it is rumored that this bite taken out of the apple was to signify that this is from the world of "bits and bytes", Janoff has stated that he did so to prevent this apple from appearing like a cherry tomato. The apple design was, obviously, taken from the name of the company. The resulting logo was a lot more attractive and eye-catching and it stayed so until 1998.

Apple launched its new iMac in 1998 and with it, they wanted a new logo to suit the sober-looking lineup of its products. While the apple with a bite taken out of it remained, the rainbow color went and got replaced by a gradient chrome silver color which is currently in use.

Canon

Canon had recognized the importance of having a global presence right from the start and that can be seen from its logos from that time. This company actually hired a specialized advertising designer to create its logo and used a typeface that was never used before in Europe or America.

Its first camera was launched in 1934 and named Kwanon, which was the Buddhist goddess of mercy. The logo included the words Kwanon and a picture of the goddess with several arms and flames.

Just like other companies, Canon also tried to simplify its logo and at the same time make it as noticeable as possible. Canon trademarked its new logo in 1935, but it still kept on evolving to make improvements in its design to make it more balanced. This evolution of the Canon logo went on till 1956, when the logo assumed its form that we are familiar with today.

Kodak

Kodak understood the importance of brand recognition as it was the first company to integrate its name and looks into one symbol when it started in 1907. Since 1935, Kodak started incorporating its complete name in its logo which predominantly contained the colors yellow and red to make it eye catchy.

Kodak tried to introduce a flip page as a logo in 1960. In 1971, that logo design was dropped in favor of a complicated design in the form of a box and graphic "K" element. In 1987, Kodak changed the fonts of this logo to make it more contemporary, but retained the overall design.

Following a general trend of companies trying to simplify their logo designs, Kodak too decided to simplify its logo in 1996 by removing the boxes. This 1996 logo was given a slight facelift in 2006 by replacing the "a" and "d" to a more rounded and contemporary form.