It might be hard to remember, but there was a moment during which the race for mobile phone dominance didn’t seem to have such clear victors. There were a number of major players in the market, some of whom dedicated a great deal of time and money to dominating the field. One of these was Sony Ericsson, a joint-venture that ceased to exist in 2012. While the company itself may be no more, it left behind an amazing logo. Indicative of 2000s design in all the best ways, looking at the Sony Ericsson logo certainly gives a great deal of insight into the company itself.

Sony Ericsson Logo Design Elements

The Sony Ericsson logo is as much a symbol of the early 21st century as it is a symbol of the venture itself. Vibrant, 3D and infinitely fascinating, it throws a great deal of modern design wisdom out the window to make something that’s truly special. The spherical, 3D design had a number of nicknames like ‘the energy sphere’ and ‘the green lozenge’, but it was always easy to identify. It was one of those designs that seemed so fetching that it just had to be something special.

The color scheme and font were likewise unique. The cool green brought to mind both spring days and cool nights, not to mention a sense of growth and energy. The font was simple but modern, obviously influenced by the tech sector but nonetheless unique in and of itself. This is the kind of design that absolutely only could have been made in a certain place and time.

Changes and Evolution

1. Shape

The single logo for the short-lived Sony-Ericsson venture (ended in 2012) never really had time to grow or change. As such, it was left with a single spherical image. One fun note about the sphere is that it managed to combine the initial of both companies, though not in a way that’s immediately obvious. It’s a neat little design choice that’s fun for the designers but that doesn’t take anything away from the design itself.

2. Color

Color didn’t really change for the logo over the years. Green and silver were incredibly modern at the time, especially coming off of the resurgence of sci-fi films at the turn of the millennium. There was some minor tint change through the various product lines, though, with some logos actually getting more of a glowing green color. There were even a small number of products that swapped out the glowing green for other vibrant colors like pink, though these were incredibly few and far between.

3. Font

The font of the Sony Ericsson line is a bit funny, as it’s probably better known today as Sony’s modern font. While the company may not have survived very long, the initial font choice can still be seen on products today. It’s a testament to how forward-thinking that one aspect of the design was, especially compared to almost every other aspect of the logo.

Influences/ Inspiration

There were quite a few influences on the Sony Ericsson logo. The big ones, of course, were logos from the two companies involved. There were also numerous companies in the tech sector that used circular logos at the time, and it’s hard to say that Apple’s iconic apple design didn’t have at least a little influence on the overall Sony Ericsson design. There are also a number of other contemporary factors that probably had a great deal of influence – the Matrix films, with their emphasis on glowing green, are a likely contributor to the logo as well.

Quite a few companies tried to ape the Sony Ericsson logo while the company was active. The biggest name is probably Microsoft’s Xbox 360, which sported a very similar logo. The logo itself went a long way towards inspiring numerous knock-offs, though, and many different tech companies sported similar logos for quite some time.

Trivia

• In 2009, Sony Ericsson was the world’s fourth largest phone manufacturer
• Sony bought out Ericsson’s stake in the venture in 2012.
• The Sony Ericsson line was succeeded by the Sony XPeria line.
• The logo has subtle references to both Sony and Ericsson in its design.
• At the time, it was assumed that Sony and Ericsson were partnering to make a Playstation phone.
• Ericsson made 1.1 billion dollars when it sold of its stake in the venture.

 Conclusion

While the Sony and Ericsson partnership wouldn’t last, the logo still stands out as a great piece of early Millennium design. It’s vibrant and fun, and it definitely leverages the design technology that become available at that time. While design has certainly moved past this logo, it still stands up. There’s nothing wrong with a bit of nostalgia, especially with a logo like this.

Even if you don’t follow basketball, you know the Los Angeles Lakers. One of the most decorated teams in the NBA, they are always competitive even if they don’t take home a trophy. Frequently home to big stars and even bigger games, the team’s been defined by a single logo for decades. In looking at how the Lakers logo has – hasn’t – evolved, one can see how big a part of the team’s identity it has become.

Lakers Logo Design Elements

It’s hard to overstate both how simple and effective the Lakers logo is. Compared to most sports logos, it’s almost laughably basic – a basketball, the name of the city, and the name of the state. This is a design that has been in place literally as long as the team has been in Los Angeles, with little call for an update or a re-design. The simplicity of the shape itself is largely why the change has been so slow to come, though – after all, the basketball logo is a classic.

By this point, the colors are as much a part of the team’s identity as the basketball logo. Purple and yellow are absolutely Lakers’ colors and you’ll see them on fans of the team around the world. Even the font is unchanging, allowing fans of the team to wear virtually any jersey ever made by the team without looking out of place. If there’s such a thing as the perfect basketball logo, there’s a good chance that it’s worn by the Los Angeles Lakers.

Changes and Evolution

1. Shape

There has only been one major change in shape during the entire existence of the Lakers team, and it came before the team moved to Los Angeles. The original Lakers, based in Minneapolis, still a had logo that is very reminiscent of the logo they wear today. That logo still features the basketball as the main design feature but with a picture of Minnesotta inside the main element. It was a feature that arguably made a great deal of sense for the original team, but it’s also a feature that was very wisely dropped as soon as the team relocated to Los Angeles.

2. Color

Yellow has always been the primary color of the Lakers. Even when the team was the Minneapolis Lakers, the main elements of the logo were still a golden-yellow color. Over the intervening years, the only real changes have been in the specific shades of yellow used. The original Los Angeles Lakers logo featured a darker yellow and darker purple. Both colors were lightened in 1976 before the team eventually settled on a color scheme that was about halfway between the two shades in 2001. Even so, the colors are close enough that merchandise from the three eras looks virtually identical.

3. Font

There has only been one major font change for the Lakers. The Minneapolis Lakers logo featured the letters MLPS above the basketball logo and the word LAKERS below, both written in a font style that was very popular among professional teams in the 1940s and 1950s. When the team moved to Los Angeles, they adopted the iconic font that features the speed lines coming off the first and last letters in the logo. Virtually no changes to the font have been made since 1961.

Influences/ Inspiration

It’s hard to pick a single influence for the Lakers’ logo. On one hand, it’s clearly beholden to the original logo of the Minneapolis Lakers and several other pre-NBA teams. It’s a great throwback to an era gone by, albeit one that doesn’t look out of place on the court today. It comes from the same heritage that spawned many other sports logos, including several MLS franchises today.

On the other hand, it’s hard to say that the Lakers logo necessarily inspired any other franchise. It has some influence on a few sports teams that came after, but it’s such a classic that other teams have moved away from the general design scheme. As such, the major elements – the unchanging color scheme, for example – are so widely used that it’s impossible to find any kind of direct lineage from this logo to another.

Trivia

• The name ‘Lakers’ come from Minnesota’s nickname ‘The Land of a Thousand Lakes’.
• The Lakers have scored 16 combined NBA titles.
• The signature ‘showtime’ offense was created by Lakers’ legend Magic Johnson.

Conclusion

The Lakers logo is timeless. The simple design elements are unchanging and look neither behind the times nor like part of the current zeitgeist. The way the logo was put together was perhaps prescient, but it manages to be one logo that seems impossible to update again. If you’re looking for perfection in logo making, there’s a good chance it will be found here.

Girls Scouts are about more than just cookies. For a century, they have helped young women to grow, gain confidence, and learn valuable life skills. While they’re probably best known for their yearly cookie sales, Girl Scouts provide a safe haven for many girls who are looking for friends and a way to be part of something larger than themselves. One of the major pieces of the Girl Scouts brand is the Girl Scouts logo, which has been in place for over thirty years – but has also been through some significant changes over the lifetime of the organization. The Girl Scouts logo has, in many ways, grown alongside the organization.

Girl Scouts Logo Design Elements

The girl scouts logo shape is that of three female faces in profile, coming together to create a shape that’s a bit like a shamrock. It’s certainly a shape that puts women in the forefront, but also one that works incredibly well as an identifiable piece of marketing. It’s the kind of shape that works whether or not you realize exactly what it’s supposed to be, making it one of those abstract logos that does its job well. The shape also cleverly evokes a connection to nature, something that’s always been a core part of the Girl Scout experience.

The green color has become synonymous with the Girl Scouts as well. The color is that of nature and growth – again, key components of the scouting organization. The current wordmark font is lowercase and friendly, representing both a sense of belonging and a sense of youth. It’s a triumph in terms of being able to compress the entire message of a scouting organization into just a few very basic elements.

Changes and Evolution

1. Shape

It’s hard to describe the original shape of the Girl Scouts logo as anything other than an outline. The thick lines were drawn around a stylized version of the Seal of the United States, in a style that’s very much of the turn of the 20th century. The logo update in the 1920s kept the eagle but brought a more familiar shape, one that honestly looks far more similar to the logo of the Boy Scouts than anything else. Another shape change would come in the 1940s, losing the eagle and putting a border of shamrock-esque shapes around the central shape of the logo. The 1960s spirograph-esque logo would be the final change before the organization moved to its current iteration.

2. Color

Oddly, the Girl Scouts logo didn’t really have a color until the 1980s. From 1910 to the present, the logo was largely rendered in black and white outside of a few specific instances. The move towards the green logo was likely in response to a renewed interest in outdoor activities, as well as an attempt to make sure that the logo was actually able to capture the eyes of consumers.

3. Font

From 1910 to 1980, the word ‘Girl Scouts’ was actually absent from the Girl Scouts logo. Instead, the logo prominent featured the letters ‘G’ and ‘S’, usually in the center of the logo. The letters were most prominent until 1960, at which time they shrank almost to the point of being illegible. The move to using the full name of the organization came in the 1980s, largely in an attempt to create both a better brand identity and to bring the name of the scouts back into the public consciousness.

Influences/ Inspiration

The biggest influence on the Girl Scouts logo is, of course, the Boy Scouts logo. Though the current logo is easily differentiated, most of the earlier logos were more in line with the organization’s all-male counterpart. The current logo seems more influenced by charitable organizations than anything else, with clear nods to organizations like The United Way in its design.

Few companies have followed the Girl Scouts lead in terms of logo design. Because the Girl Scouts have effectively cornered the market in scouting organizations for girls, few competitors exist to learn from the logo. As such, there aren’t any real examples of groups that have riffed on the organization’s logo design.

Trivia

• The Girl Scouts have more than 2.4 million members.
• The first Girl Scouts troop was organized in 1912 in Savannah, Georgia.
• Girl Scouts cookies have been sold since 1917.

Conclusion

The modern Girl Scouts logo is a great example of simplicity in action. It says everything it needs to say, but it doesn’t overwhelm the consumer with information. The Girl Scouts are still an evolving organization, so it will be interesting to see if the group decides to update their logo again. If they do, you can be sure that the change in logo will go along with a change in ethos.

For many, the English Premier League is the premier football (or soccer, if you are American) league in the world. Made up of the most elite football clubs in England, the League is one of the most popular sporting organizations on the face of the Earth. As one might expect from such an organization, there is a great deal of effort put into how the organization is marketed. One major part of these marketing efforts is the Premier League logo, which has changed and evolved over the years.

Premier League Logo Design Elements

The current Premier League logo is dominated by the image of a lion. The mascot of the league since its earliest days, the current shape is a stylized lion head wearing a crown. This image is indicative of everything from royalty to power, but most of all it is an image by and of England. It deftly makes the connection between the location of the league and the home of its most ardent supporters all without having to say a single world.

Of course, there’s more to the logo than just the image. The color scheme used varies, but all the colors are clearly designed to be shown on screens. This move certainly honors the fact that the vast majority of football fans now watch their favorite sport on television rather than just reading about it in a paper. The chosen font is crisp and easy to read, whether it’s seen on a banner or on a computer screen.

Changes and Evolution

1. Shape

The original Premier League logo debuted in 1992, and it was quite busy. It had a number of elements in place – the famous lion, of course, but also a crown, a football, and the league’s name. The lion was highly stylized and reminiscent of the type of lion one would see on a coat of arms, a fitting choice for an English league. This logo would last for over a decade, at which point it was revamped for 2007. The new logo would feature a much more realistic lion, though the football and league name would stay in the picture. This logo was a bit more impressive, but it lost a bit of the easy identifiability that the original logo brought with it. The final logo change in 2016 would greatly simplify the logo.

2. Color

It took some time for the Premier League to decide on a color scheme. In the earliest logo, the lion was blue, the football was red, and the banner was green. The green would be dropped after the first iteration, though, with the red reserved solely for the football. Simplifying the color scheme seemed like a necessity in the world of streaming games and HD televisions, though, so the red (and the ball) would both be dropped as the logo went into its final form.

3. Font

Oddly, there’s never been a font change for the Premier League. The name changed due to sponsorship (from F.A. Premier League to simply Premier League), but the actual font used in the logo has remained the same for twenty-five years. This is perhaps due to a lack of major font changes in marketing during the time period, or perhaps just because the League decided to stick with what works.

Influences/ Inspiration

What influenced the Premier League logo? If you look across the world, you’ll probably notice that the League is highly remniscent of the flags of several different nations. Even more so, though, it’s remniscent of many different British coats of arms. This makes sense, of course, given where the League is based. While it’s not an emblem that’s particularly common in the world of sports, it works simply due to the connection between the locations of the League and the sport played.

There are no real followers of the 25-year-old logo. The logo is too unique and, frankly, too English to work elsewhere. Instead, the logo comfortably sits as a product of its environment.

Trivia

• There are twenty teams in the Premier League, but the league started with twenty-two.
• Alan Shearer holds the record for most goals at 283 over twenty years.
• The Premier League is the wealthiest league in the world of international football
• The Premier League started on August 15th, 1992.
• Only four teams won the League title between 1994 and 2013.

 Conclusion

The Premier League logo is a great football logo. It’s simple, it’s meaningful, and it looks great on television. In the modern era, you really can’t ask for much more. While few other sports leagues have followed in the footsteps of the League, it’s safe to say that the League has managed to embrace those logo design decisions that work best for sporting leagues in general.

Baseball logos feature some of the best and most imaginative designs out there. After all, they have to work on fabric as well as in print, they have to be identifiable, and they’re always very limited in terms of the space they can take up. If you’re looking for an example of one of the best baseball logos, you may want to look at that of the Seattle Mariners. While it has certainly undergone some changes over the years, the Seattle Mariners logo is a great example of what makes baseball logos work.

Seattle Mariners Logo Design Elements

Insofar as baseball logos are concerned, the logo of the Mariners is fairly involved. The primary shape is a simple circle, which is common, but there’s a lot going on inside. The first inner ring has the team’s name, while the second inner ring is dominated by a large compass. It’s an image that clearly evokes the ideas of travel and navigation, both of which are very important to the team’s name. Behind the compass is a realistically-rendered baseball, which helps fans to remember exactly what sport the team plays.

The colors are fairly complex as well. The the Seattle Mariners logo features grey, green, blue, and white in various elements. They’re all colors that come from the sea, and they’re all colors that one can associate with Seattle. The font of the logo is fairly simple, perhaps the only thing on the logo that can make that claim. It’s clear and easy to read, which makes it incredibly valuable for branding purposes.

Changes and Evolution

1. Shape

Of the four logos that the Mariners have had over the course of the team’s history, three have been circles. If you think about it, it makes sense – not only is a baseball a circle, but a circle is a very easy shape to put on a uniform or hat. The first and second logos featured stylized ‘M’s shaped like tridents, which reflected the team’s nautical name. From 1987-1992, the shape was literally a baseball with a very simple M as the sole image. Only the 1980s image was different, featuring a star behind the trident.

2. Color

The Mariners have had four different color schemes. The original scheme from the late 1970s was yellow and blue, which certainly stand out. In the 1980s, the yellow and blue remained by the yellow was relegated to becoming an outline. This would be the case in the late 1980s and 1990s as well, though the yellow and blue would both take a backseat to the white of the baseball. It wouldn’t be until the current day – when being easy to view on a computer screen became more important – that the colors would really become more involved.

3. Font

There have been more than a few font changes as well. The first font was a very business-like 1970s font. The second Seattle Mariners logo to feature an actual font was the third Mariners logo, which featured a very basic, heavily-outlined M. The Mariners have never been particularly heavy on font usage, which makes the changes between each seem both abrupt and somehow very natural.

Influences/ Inspiration

Who influenced the Mariners? The quick answer would be the rest of Major League Baseball, such as the Atlanta Braves logo. If the Mariners changed their logo, there’s a good chance that other teams were changing their logos as well. The current logo is definitely very much defined by logos of modern sports teams, with the more involved elements being easier to view on HD televisions.

Few teams have followed in the Mariners’ footsteps, though. The involved logo is definitely unique, though some other teams do have logos with a few elements as well. Some of those logos might have been inspired by the Mariners, but it’s hard to guess who might have had the idea first.

Trivia

• The Mariners haven’t won a pennant since 2001.
• The original Seattle baseball team was the Pilots, who later became the Milwaukee Brewers.
• The Mariners are so named because of Seattle’s large seaport.
• The Mariners play at Safeco Field.

Conclusion

The Mariners have a great logo, even if it is a little busy. Every element, however, represents something that is important to the team’s identity. If you take long enough to study the Seattle Mariners logo, you can understand exactly what image the team is trying to project. In the end, that might be one of the most important jobs had by a logo.