Whenever someone creates their
own company, the most important factor to consider is its name. You will need
something that is catchy, memorable, sophisticated and at the same time, represent the
product or service.
I have always been passionate
about logos, names, designs and the reasoning behind why they were chosen to be
at the forefront of companies. For example, ‘JB Design’ is an anagram of my
name – James Boynton. Having my full name would be a bit too lengthy and not be
an extremely original and ‘out there’ name and logo. I have been called ‘JB’ by
my tennis coach from the United Kingdom and many of my tennis collaborators for
over 10 years. JB almost felt like an alter-ego of mine. Therefore the name has
meaning to a deep level for me so I named my Blog and company ‘JB Design’.
Some companies choose pictures
to represent their brand – Apple, Jaguar, Orange…You may instantly know and
recognize these brands but where did they come from. Just like I explained with
JB Design there must have been a reason why they were chosen.
Below are some explanations of
what I have come to understand from a selection of famous companies you will
recognise:
Apple
 |
| Courtesy of www.breezycreativedesign.com |
The apple is said to be taken
from the story from the Bible about Adam and Eve. The apple represents the ‘Tree
of Knowledge’. There is also a nifty pun related to the “bite / byte” taken out
of the apple. This to me indicates the extent to which an individual will learn
from using a Apple product.
Amazon
 |
| Courtesy of www.your3dcenter.com |
One may think the orange arrow
poses no apparent purpose. But amazon.com says they have everything from ‘A to
Z’. Take a closer look as to where the arrow is coming from and going to (a to z). Also the arrow can be seen as a smile, a smile brought to the faces of
their customers.
FedEx
 |
| Courtesy of www.99designs.com |
Hmm, blue writing, orange writing,
nothing seems to be occurring in this logo. Wrong. Look closer. There is a
hidden symbol embedded within the FedEx logo. There is an arrow in the space
between the E and the x. Part of the positioning of this company is precision
and speed, this arrow symbolizes this rather well.
Eighty 20
 |
| Courtesy of www.crunchpost.com |
For all of you boffins out
there that understand binary, you will understand this one. This company is a sophisticated
financial modelling consultancy company. Their work is highly quantitative and
rather a lot of computational integration. This logo certain shows it. So what
is so special about this logo? Please, read on.
At first glances, the common
guess is 20% of the squares are dark. Incorrect, nice thinking, but incorrect.
Think of the dark squares as 1’s and the lighter squares as zeros. On the top –
1010000. On the bottom – 0010100. These ‘images’ represents 80 and 20
(respectively) in binary. Clever 'Eighty20', very clever.
Toblerone
 |
| Courtesy of www.logodesignblog.com |
The magical word is Swiss.
Toblerone is from Bern in Switzerland which is called ‘The City of Bears’. Look
closer at the golden mountain peak there is a silhouette of a Bear.
Sony Vaio
 |
| Courtesy of www.blog.corporatelogos.ws |
We all know someone who has a Sony
Vaio computer, perhaps you own one yourself. There is another ‘computery’
meaning. The V and A represent a basic analogue signal and the I and O
represent the digital signal. Clever huh?
Formula 1
 |
| Courtesy of www.blogcdn.com |
An easier one for you now. At
first glance you would see Formula 1 underneath. Then why would there be just
an ‘F’ with some red stripes. In between them both, you should see the number 1
within the negative space. This does look like a fast logo communicating speed.
Carrefour
 |
| Courtesy of www.findlogo.net |
For everyone who has traveled abroad, you may recognize one of the biggest retailers in Europe Carrefour. All
of you budding linguists will know the name of this retailer means ‘crossroads’
in French. Therefore the two opposite red and blue arrows make sense. Those
with attention to detail will have also recognized the first letter of the
company within the negative space between the two arrows.
I am positive I have
highlighted my initial statement of explaining there must be hidden meanings
behind the logos, names and designs.
Have you noticed every car has
a logo? Some embody the manufacturer’s heritage or mission for the company.
Below is a link to an intriguing website explaining the story behind a
selection of popular car logos:
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