Slideshow: Top 50 Iconic Logos

The Definitive Ranking of the 50 Most Iconic Logos

On the surface, putting together this list of 50 iconic logos was a bit daunting, but that being said, it’s a challenge that the Logo Crew absolutely relished.  We combed through just about every logo out there to come up with our definitive list.  So take a scroll through and let us know what you think!

When you start delving into the realm of what makes something iconic, you’re starting to work in an area that often has a wide variety of opinions.  In fact, the definition of iconic isn’t even all that clear:
iconic: of, relating to, or of the nature of an icon
That definition really doesn’t clear things up at all.  To help clarify the ranking of the 50 most iconic logos, we set forth some clear parameters of what a logo would need to have in order to be considered “iconic”
  1. Highly recognizable – The logo must be an image that is recognized en masse in the United States and internationally.
  2. Symbolic status – The logo must be a widely accepted symbol of an industry, product or movement.  In other words, it must be important.
  3. Endurance – The logo must be part of an enduring legacy, not something that popped up overnight.
Along with those three main factors, we also realize that many logos reach iconic status due to emotional ties and this has been factored in as well.

Top Luxury Car Logos

The Definitive Ranking of Luxury Car Logos

Car logos are some of the most highly-recognized symbols in the world and none more so than luxury car logos.  Thus the challenge of ranking the logos of some of the coolest brands on the planet was just too good to pass up.  Scroll through our rankings to see who comes out on top!

When The Logo Crew For Logo Design Studio Pro took on the challenge of ranking all of the luxury car logos, it was not a challenge that we entered into lightly.  We are well aware of brand ties and allegiances that might have swayed our voting process.  That is why we came up with an impartial rating system to help us clearly distinguish the best from the rest.  Here was the criteria used:
  • Memorability – How memorable is the logo?
  • Scalability – How memorable is the logo? How well would the logo translate into different sizes or colors?
  • Relevancy – How appealing is this logo to the target market? (In this case, high-end, luxury buyers)
  • Personality – How well does the logo convey the personality of the brand?
  • Overall Appearance – How attractive is the logo overall?
We took every logo and had each member of our esteemed Logo Crew panel rate each logo against each criteria and then added up all the scores.  Some of the results were surprising and others were quite expected.  Either way, we’re confident that the results will speak for themselves.

Enter the Ultimate Business Starter Sweepstakes!

Hey there folks and happy Wednesday!  If you’ve been wanting a little excitement for your Wednesday afternoon, then look no further.  We are officially announcing the Summitsoft Ultimate Business Starter Sweepstakes.  We want every new business to be successful, and the winner of this sweepstakes will be getting access to some of the best business tools around with a great selection of our premium business software.  Plus we’re throwing in a $50 Visa gift card to help cover all those miscellaneous business expenses like paper or server costs or Starbucks. Anyway, we’d love for you to take your chances and enter to win.  It’s totally free to enter and only takes a minute. You can learn more and enter the Ultimate Business Starter Sweepstakes here. Best of luck!

Alignment

Arrangement or position of text and/or graphic objects. 1) TEXT: When used to describe text, the arrangement of text or graphics relative to a margin (or, the canvas in Logo Design Studio). Left alignment means that text is lined up along the left side. Right alignment lines up text along the right side. Center alignment aligns text around a midpoint. 2) OBJECTS: Alignment used for graphical objects determines their relative positions (on the canvas in Logo Design Studio). Most draw programs support an align command that allows you to align two or more objects and/or text so that their tops, bottoms, sides, or middles are aligned. In Logo Design Studio, you can align the text and/or graphics on your logo canvas using the toolbar buttons, the Advanced Alignment section of the Tools pane, or the arrow buttons on your keyboard: Logo Design Dictionary - Alignment

Brightness and Contrast

Contrast is the variation of dark and light intensities within an object/image. To look its best, the selected object/image must have the proper balance between highlights, midtones, and shadows.

Brightness is often associated with contrast, and is the reason they are grouped together. Brightness is the overall “lightness” of an image. If the brightness is high, all colors are bright. If the brightness is low, the colors in the object/image are dark.

In Logo Design Studio, you can adjust how sharply an object appears on the canvas by using the Brightness And Contrast controls. These controls are ideal for importing an image or picture that might be too bright, dark or blurry:

Blur

Soften a selected object, text or image with a default blur effect. The Blur effects smooth transitions and decrease contrast by averaging the pixels near edges and areas of significant color transitions.

In Logo Design Studio, adding a blur is a great way to create an out-of-focus effect, or even create additional shadows for your selected object or text:

Logo Design Dictionary - Blur

Aspect Ratio

The relative horizontal and vertical sizes of a graphic object or text box. When resizing graphics, it is important to maintain the aspect ratio to avoid stretching the graphic out of proportion.

In Logo Design Studio, you can uncheck the Preserve Aspect Ratio box in the Tools section to stretch an object to a size that better fits your look, but in some cases this may cause some quality loss. You can also resize text boxes by unchecking Autosize if some of your text seems to be getting “cut off”:

Logo Design Dictionary - Aspect Ratio

How to Find Your Brand Personality in 5 Minutes

Whether you have a brand new business or one that has been around for decades, success is going to be very hard to come by if you don’t understand who you are as a company.  A brand personality is what the consumer can relate to and whether you know it or not, everything tied to your company influences the consumers’ idea of your brand personality. Brand personality is what makes Coca-Cola seem classic and traditional, while Pepsi feels youthful and more trendy.  A brand’s personality is created through everything from a company’s logo to their color scheme to the fonts they use.  And it’s important to note that the personality of a brand is something that is often built up by consumers and fans of the brand, which is why if you don’t want someone else defining your brand, you need to control the image from the start. To help you out in this endeavor, we put together a helpful 5-Minute Brand Personality Quiz.  It’s a tool that will help you define where your company fits on the brand personality spectrum and how you can help translate your brand message correctly to the public.  If you have a chance, check it out – we hope you find it useful!