Getting your message across in a logo can be like talking on a cell phone with bad reception. It may end up a little garbled or your audience may not hear you at all.
The Procter & Gamble® logo featured above was used for 60 years before being scrapped in 1995. For most of the time it was used, it was the subject of a ridiculous urban legend about P&G’s supposed ties to the devil. Probably not the message P&G was going for.
Here’s one that tends to get through. What do you think of when you see the vertical lines in the Cisco® logo?
It’s a stylized Golden Gate bridge, a call out to the city that gave the company its name.
Here’s one that often isn’t noticed at all. Can you spot it?
Did you see the arrow in the negative space between the “E” and “X”? It’s cool when it gets across.
How about the message in the Amazon® logo?
The curved line is both: a smile with a dimple; and a callout to the A to Z guarantee when you buy on Amazon.
Some logos are meant to playfully mislead. For example, this mark, where Hooters® is pretending that no one is thinking about breasts:
It’s great to include a hidden or overt message in your logo as long as you can avoid an unintended negative interpretation. What hidden messages have you seen in logos lately?