A few weeks ago we covered 5 logo design tips for have-a-go heroes. One of the key points to emerge from the piece was how designers should try to say as much as possible with a logo, whilst keeping it simple.

The example we used was the Amazon logo, which pretty much consists of its URL (Amazon.com), and a little ‘smile’ which also doubles as an arrow which points from ‘A’ to ‘Z’. Genius.

So we thought we’d pick-up on this key design characteristic by presenting some other fine examples of crafty logo designs from across the business world.

Some of these you’ve probably looked at a thousand times and never noticed the subtleties contained within the image. If you have any more to add to the list, do feel free to leave a comment with a link…

Toblerone

Everyone loves Toblerone, don’t they? The confectionary’s unique form is supposedly based on the triangular shape of the Matterhorn in the Swiss Alps. But if you look closer at the actual logo you can see a bear on its hind legs.

The relevance? The Toblerone was founded in Bern, a city known colloquially as ‘The City of Bears’.

Fedex

You’ve definitely seen this logo before. If you look closely between the letters ‘E’ and ‘X’, you’ll see an arrow. This aligns the company with direction, reliability and speed…everything you’d want from a courier service.

Philadelphia Flyers

Okay, perhaps not a global brand in the same way as FedEx or Toblerone, but for those who follow Ice Hockey, you’ve probably seen this logo at least a thousand times.

The Philadelphia Flyers’ logo looks like a letter ‘P’ moving at pace and leaving a streak in its wake. If you look a little deeper, however, you’ll see a hockey stick entering the centre circle making contact with a puck.

Baskin Robbins

This is Baskin Robbins’ logo and it’s a goodie. If you look at the ‘BR’ lettering, you’ll see that it’s also the number ‘31’. A random number? No, it’s the number of different flavours they originally had.

London Symphony Orchestra (LSO)

This is a particularly good subliminal logo. On the surface, the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) emblem is little more than a pleasant flowing line that spells out LSO. If you allow your imagination to roam free, you’ll also see the form of a person waving both their arms in the air. It looks rather like a conductor in an orchestra, if you ask us.