15+ Amazingly clever logosListThumbs

15+ Amazingly clever logos

December 10, 2008

Logo design is a huge part of graphic design. A logo is a name, symbol, or trademark designed for easy and definite recognition. I'd like to share with you a selection of logos that I feel are some of the best around. Hope you enjoy.

These are all taken from the book, 'Logo', a book from a design journalist, Michael Evamy, published by Laurence King. Laurence King have a great range of Art & Design related books.

Picture 6

London Symphony Orchestra
2001

Picture 5

USA Network
2005

Picture 16

Sandhurst Shrubs
2004

Picture 4

ARC Representation
2004

Picture 1

Eight, Corporate Communications Company
2005

Picture 8

Beyon, Office Furniture Supplier
2001

Picture 10

Fashion Center
1993

Picture 7

Message, Abbey Baptist Church
2001

Picture 15

Ohio National
1996

Picture 14

More 4
2005

Picture 2

Greenberg, Brand marketing research
2003

Picture 12

More Th>n
2003

Picture 9

The Lochness Partnership
2005

Picture 13

The Royal Parks
1996

Picture 3

The Guild of Food Writers
2005

Picture 11

Gotham Books
1998

No logo list would be complete without including the frequently discussed...

Picture 17

FedEx
1994
Note: If you dont see the arrow, look harder.


If you've got any logos you would like to share, please do.

About the author

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My name is Youssef Sarhan and I am a Graphic Design student at The National College of Art & Design, Ireland. I co-founded WhiteInk with my friend Tim Phelan; which we occasionally write on. I also talk about and give tutorials on motion design at Keyframe Kid. Have a read of either to learn more about who I am and what I do.

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53 Comments

mr_whizard12/10/2008

FEDEX totally rocks!!! nice inspiration guyz n sumday i wud like to design a logo as clever and innovative as one of these

Kris12/10/2008

Those are pretty cool. I like the USA one.

fab12/10/2008

nice !! these are very clever logo design !! nice post thanks !!

http://www.yaweb.fr

Youandigraphics12/10/2008


Trully some very clever logos. Simple and yet able to communicate strong messages.

Anonymous12/10/2008

i am stupid. i could not see an the arrow on the fedex logo.

illustrative fish12/10/2008

Great post!

I used to work for FedEx and every since then I cannot get away from seeing their logo. I even downloaded the free music video of the week this week and seen a FedEx truck go through the background there! LOL

My personal favorite... I think Eight is very clever.

Thanks for the post!

Youssef Sarhan12/10/2008

Cool, one of thw terms of the FedEx logo brief was that it could be seen for 5 miles away.


www.youssefsarhan.com

Anonymous12/10/2008

Thank you, that's awesome!

Santhos Webdesign12/10/2008

Indeed some very clever logo's! I like the Eight logo :-)

1deomatik12/10/2008

awesomely clever logos :)

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View 1deomatik's Portfolio

Gary12/10/2008

Great collection of very successful logos. To this day I'm still amazed by the simplicity + effectiveness of the FedEx logo. As you can see these logos are just b/w, but communicate so well and quickly. Food writers guild and Gotham Books are also very clever too.

iArts12/10/2008

Kill me...But can't see the arrow at FedEx

Yuri Jai12/10/2008

I love them all but, I really love
Eight, Corporate Communications Company
and
The Guild of Food Writers

www.behance.net/angrysteel
www.15minsfame.com

Jarod12/10/2008

The white space between the E and the X makes an arrow.. ;-)

Jeremey12/10/2008

For those of you who don't see the arrow in the Fedex logo, it's the white space between the last "E" and "X". Nice post, I love the simplicity of each of them.

hailua12/10/2008

arrow between EX :D

Alan Valek12/10/2008

So good—I've always loved the USA logo—genius. The "eight" is super good as well.

Zepho12/10/2008

It's very interesting how the Fedex logo came together. The designer initially had no idea the e & x made an arrow. When he was pitching the logo to the company they were the ones to notify him that they loved the arrow. It was totally unintentional.

Zak12/10/2008

Love the food writers guild and beyon!

joker101_np12/10/2008

For those that cant see the arrow: The upper case "E" at the end and the lower case "x" are touching. Look at the shape of the negative space formed between the tow letters and it makes the shape of an arrow, with the triangular part of it made up of the crosses of the "x".

Its a great example of logo design because the designer considered both the positive and negative space, to make a dynamic design where the positive and negative spaces harmoniously work in balance together. Often we don't take enough time to look at the negative space as well. Good habit to get into

Joseph Maguire12/10/2008

I really love some of these marks, especially the wittiness of the food writers guild. Really didn't care for that mark for the fashion industry I got the button gag but the C where was it? LSO they could have made something more with that mark, I think they were trying to make it look like an instructor of an orchestra with a wand.. but it wasn't all that clear.

Interesting stuff indeed.

eugrafia12/11/2008

I love the simplicity in this designs, it´s a refresher from a world full of complicated designs, not that they are all bad, but I just like the simple ones.

pussysugar12/11/2008

My favorite one is the one for Gotham Books, It's so simple yet it immediately get's to the point. I love logos like that. Really awesome stuff ;)

Acompany me to the Valley of Sweetness

@mbi12/11/2008

all of them are good in their level. but people who are so inquisitive like me on logo designs would like to see all the previous scribbling experiments before they reached this final stage.

@mbi

Spyce12/11/2008

I love the FedEx logo. My graphic design professor mentioned the logo in class one day, and said that "if you look hard enough, you will see and 'x' in there. After you find it, you'll never look at the words 'FedEx' the same again."

He was right, haha.

chrisco12/11/2008

Only decent one, IMHO, is the FedEx one. You would not want to build a brand around any of the others.

FeatherHost12/11/2008

The FedEx one is known and popular, but I love the 'The Lochness Partnership' logo. Looks so cool with the 'Lo' as the monster, but still being easily readable.

Wesley12/12/2008

amazing stuff.
It's so damn hard to create a good logo.
The combination of both clever and good looking is hard to achieve.

BC Design12/18/2008

I really think the negative space is used well in the USA logo. I also like the logo for the Guild of Food Writers. Although it took me a second to realize that it was a spoon in the Pen Nib.

Érica01/13/2009

Eight is fantastic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Selcouth & Liripipe, Inc.01/20/2009

Holy crap, I never noticed the bloody arrow and I've been a typophile for, like, a decade. Jesus Christ, I wonder how many people who aren't designers notice that...I feel like whoever designed that logo is a sneaky little git. In an endearing, but infuriating, kind of way. Eesh. Wow.

That alien icon is almost enough incentive to register...oy.

brendan mitchell02/13/2009

Some great logos amongst that lot. Here's a link to a great logo I stumbled across today.

http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/the_roaring_mouse.php

VoteAudrey02/13/2009

I enjoyed these. Logos express so much about a brand.

brett Friedman02/13/2009

Always been a fan of the fed ex logo.

I also LOVE the Amazon logo. it is an arrow illustrating A to Z meaning they cary everything, but it is also a smirk, saying in a kind of smarmy way, 'yeah, we have everything'

Dan Course02/13/2009

The FairTrade logo is sexy,

Jason Black02/13/2009

Some of my favorites! Nice post.

Izleaq02/19/2009

Always been a fan of the fed ex logo.

I also LOVE the Amazon logo. it is an arrow illustrating A to Z meaning they cary everything, but it is also a smirk, saying in a kind of smarmy way, 'yeah, we have everything'

---------------
saç ekimi

SteveTheGreat02/24/2009

I like the logo for Talib Kweli’s Blacksmith Entertainment. The artist created the graphic so that if you flip the word “Blacksmith” 180 degrees… it still says “Blacksmith”. Innovative and tricky.

http://blacksmithnyc.com/

Fabian03/04/2009

Fantastic collection.Thanks for sharing!

Joaquim Marquès Nielsen03/05/2009

The Guild of Food Writers is THE perfect logo of all time!

betonblog03/12/2009

Hi Youssef, great collection!

See the logo on http://neuland-herzer.com by the media / consulting company Neuland + Herzer. It works similar to the above mentioned.

Best

betonblogger

Oz03/23/2009

I would like to add this logo:

I got a lot of compliments about it and I want to share it.

panda

take a closer look at the word "panda"

Thank you !!

HeeL03/26/2009

Ha ha, great!)) I like USA Network

Anonymous04/03/2009

from chrisco:

"Only decent one, IMHO, is the FedEx one. You would not want to build a brand around any of the others."

you're not serious? hopefully you don't have anything to do with design or branding.

MASSIVE DOG BIGGER THAN THE UNIVERSER04/06/2009

"Beyon, Office Furniture Supplier" is just the S from Joy Divisions Substance cover.
Easy to be good when you stand on the shoulders of Crouwel and Savile.

You wouldn't know that though would you being a shitty little tutorial blog

club penguin05/16/2009

I used to work for FedEx and every since then I cannot get away from seeing their logo. I even downloaded the free music video of the week this week and seen a FedEx truck go through the background there!

Preved05/16/2009

Yeah.. New Stuff... This is awesome. http://111111111tv0m0vttqay-7vt-vt0-mqva.com used 222222 [url=http://33333333333333333sfgwet.com]333333[/url]This is great for everybody.

BondocFADS05/24/2009

Wow! I really appreciate all the efforts you share to us. Great and creative logos. Some made it to the top but others are good and cool. I like the very simple but creative logos like "The Guild of food writers" and the Blacksmith Entertainment.

BondocFADS05/24/2009

How can i upload to share my graphic designs?

saç ekimi06/03/2009

I like the logo for Talib Kweli’s Blacksmith Entertainment yeahh great

grow taller08/12/2009

I really love some of these marks, especially the wittiness of the food writers guild. Really didn't care for that mark for the fashion industry I got the button gag but the C where was it?

Ways to get ex back09/03/2009

Trully some very clever logos.

SparcoDesign©11/04/2009

The Lochness one is good.

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