The Burger King Logo: Why the Bun Came Back
Burger King spent twenty years with a shiny blue swoosh round its burger, then threw it away for a flat logo from 1969. It was one of the best rebrands of its time.
A journal of iconic marks
Where logos tell stories
The history, design choices and meaning behind the world’s most famous logos, plus ideas for designing your own.
Latest stories
The Samsung Logo: From Three Stars to a Blue Ellipse
Samsung means “three stars” in Korean, and the first logos showed exactly that. Today the brand is a plain blue wordmark with two missing lines.
The Lamborghini Logo: A Tractor Maker, a Star Sign and a Raging Bull
Lamborghini’s charging bull came from its founder’s star sign and a love of bullfighting. It was also a deliberate answer to the horse on a Ferrari.
More stories
Benelli Simplifies Its Lion Emblem for a New Identity
At EICMA in Milan, the Italian motorcycle maker showed a cleaner, one-colour version of its laurel, stars and lion emblem, and a lion that can now stand on its own.
The Houston Comets Return With a New H and a Basketball Comet
The WNBA’s first champions are coming back in 2027, with logos that keep the old navy, red and silver but had to be new: league rules don’t allow an old primary logo to return.
Apple Music’s First Rebrand Was Shaped by Sound in a Pool of Oil
Apple’s first redesign of Apple Music since 2015 drops the red, sets the name in lowercase, and gets its ripples from notes played into a pool of oil.
McLaren’s New Logo Comes From Its Founder’s Family Garage
McLaren’s road cars and F1 team share one identity for the first time, with a wordmark based on the sign over Bruce McLaren’s family service station in Auckland.
Instagram’s New Wordmark: Script Meets Sans After Ten Years
Instagram changed its wordmark for the first time in a decade, mixing script and sans-serif letters. The app icon stayed the same, and the internet read it as “Instagzam”.
The Nintendo Logo: From Playing Cards to the Red Pill
Nintendo was making playing cards in Kyoto for almost eighty years before it made a video game. Its logo, a word inside a red rounded outline, is simple enough to sit on all of it.
The Porsche Logo: A Crest Sketched for America
The first Porsche sports cars had no badge, only the name in metal letters on the bonnet. The crest arrived a few years later, because an importer in New York asked for one.
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