How to Stay on Top with Logo Design in Numbers: 101 Stats and Facts

Logo designing and branding is a vibrant industry with a history and present worth cherishing. Here are a few notable statistics, discoveries, and facts about logos and brands that you may or may not have known.

Let us hop on the bandwagon of knowing fun and interesting things about brand logo designs.

Visual Elements of Logos

General Facts

• 33% of the top 100 brands use the color blue in their logo
• 80% increase in brand recognition with a colored logo design
• In 1957, two most popular fonts for logo, Helvetica and Univers were created.
• 2 fonts in logo designs are advised for designers to use.
• 2 - 3 colors are generally used to create brand logo designs
• In just 400 milliseconds the visual elements of a logo design are processed in the visual cortex of our brains.
• 10 – 20 principles of design in total exist when it comes to designing a logo.
• It's advised to test a logo on the recommended scales between 10 – 100 percent.
• 7 types of logo designs exist in the world:
  • ✔ Abstract
  • ✔ Mascot
  • ✔ Combination mark
  • ✔ Emblem
  • ✔ Lettermark
  • ✔ Pictorial mark
  • ✔ Wordmark

Brand Facts

• 31 ice-cream flavors of Baskin Robbins are depicted in its logo design by cleverly using numbers to create initials.
• In 2000, skeuomorphism was one of the popular logo design trends but by 2010 flat designs ruled the world.
• For continuously 227 years, Twinings Tea has used the same capitalized font with a lion crest in their logo.
• 10,000 dots rather than just 3 would've been seen on Dominos logo if its founder Tom Monaghan's idea hadn't been dropped. Idea was to add a dot in the logo for every store.
• 7 types of lions have been spotted since 1917 in MGM Studios mascot logo.

Logo Design Dimensions/Sizes

• 300px x 300px should be the maximum size of a social media logo design
• 500px by 500px is usually the size of a logo design artboard.
• 200KB should be the file size of your logo if you're posting it online.
• 20px to 30px should be the minimum height of a logo for a website.

Logo Industry

• 67% of small businesses are willing to $500 for logo design while 18% would pay up to $1000
• $199 is the starting price of a good professional logo design.
• 80% of design crowdsourcing is done by small businesses and startups.
• Through 2024, logo designers are expected to face strong competition for jobs.
• $5 logos are the cheapest designs you’ll get with no guarantee of quality.
• Only 5 – 15 minutes are spent on creating a logo in a free logo maker on average.
• $3 billion is the estimated market size of logo design service in the USA.
• By the 1970's, companies were convinced that a visual corporate identity is beneficial for their businesses.

Logo Design Marketing

• Levi's first used its logo design in 1886 as a way to grow its market share.
• The 1977 Apple logo was multicolored to sell that Macs had colored screens.
• It was in 2000, Google hired illustrators to redesign its logo for holidays and events.

Logo Design Copyright/Trademark

• 10 months or more are needed to get your business logo trademarked by an authority.
• $325 is charged to submit the basic logo trademark application.
• 10 years is the shelf-life of a logo’s trademark.
• Until the 1980s, U.S. law refused to recognize a single color as a brand.

Logo Lawsuits

• In 2010, a case was filed against Nike’s logo stating it resembles the 1957 logo of cigarette brand Newport.
• $ 5 million lawsuit was filed against singer Cher for copying designer Moshik Nadav's logo typography in 2017.
• 6,000 pounds lawsuit was filed by Starbucks against a local coffee stall in Bangkok that copied the brand's logo.
• In 2008, Victoria School of Business and Technology was sued by Apple for using the icon of an apple in its logo.

Logo Design Crowdsourcing

Logo Design Awards

• Out of 1,200 submissions 20 entries won in HOW Logo Design Awards in 2017.
• 58% votes were garnered by Ad Victorem logo in the logo design category of HOW Design Awards via Reader’s Choice voting in 2018.
• 600 regional, national and international graphic design awards have been received by identity designer, Jeff Fisher.
• 40 design awards have been won by the famous FedEx logo.

Logo Design Education

• Out of 320 postsecondary schools offering art and design under The National Association of School of Art and Design (NASAD) only a few concentrate on logo design.

Logo Design Process

• 20 to 30 sketches are made for a single logo design on average.
• 2 to 5 hours are consumed in designing the first version of a logo.
• 3 logo concepts are made for the client to decide on one.
• 7 – 10 days are usually spent on logo design projects on a crowdsourcing website.
• It takes 4 steps, usually, to make a logo design on an online platform.

Logo Design Costs

• $100,000 was the cost of the NeXT Computer logo designed by Paul Rand for Steve Jobs in 1986.
• Only $35 was charged by Carolyn Davidson to create the iconic Nike logo in 1971.
• $1 million was the total cost of designing the 2008 minimal Pepsi logo using the golden ratio rule.
• $15 was the price of the first Twitter logo and the bird was taken from iStockphoto.
• $1.8 Million was charged to make the BBC new logo. The logo uses clear letters 'B B C' in square boxes.
• $625,000 was the worth of the 2007 London Olympics logo, considered as the worst design of the year.
• $280,000 was spent on the Belfast logo in 2008 that used the symbol of love: heart.
• World's most expensive logo designs:
• Symantec Brand & Acquisition – $1,280,000,000
• Accenture Logo Design – $100,000,000
• British Petroleum Logo & Marketing – $210,000,000
• You'll see a 10 - 40% reduction in logo printing cost if you use less ink, says Ecobranding.
• 10% to 20% processing fee is generally charged on logo design crowdsourcing platforms.
• Usually you get 7 days to pick a winning logo design after the project has ended.

Logo Design History

• In the 13th century, Egyptians branded domestic animals with hieroglyph symbols to mark ownership.
• In 1440, Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press that set a stage for modern logo designs while also keeping vintage aesthetics, such as in craft beer logos.
• By the late 15th century, many printers were using brand marks to identify their works.
• Between 1910 and 1913, commercial logos became common in the US and in Europe.
• The 18th and 19th century logos were complex shapes with intricate designs.
• Before 1968 the word "Pete's" was attached with the Subway Logo.
• In 1885, Frank Mason Robinson designed the Coca-Cola logo starting the modern era of logo designing.
• Before 1940, global brewer Carlsberg used the Swastika symbol in their logo.
• The first abstract logo was made in the 1870s. It was the Bass logo with a red triangle.
• By the early 21st century large corporations like MTV, Nickelodeon, and Google adopted dynamic logos that changed in appearance in different settings.
• Pepsi logo evolved from 1898 wordmarks to an abstract design by 2008.
• The recognized wordmark logo of Johnson & Johnson was first used in 1887.
• The first Heinz logo design was used as early as 1869, the same year the company was founded.
• General Electric logo was first introduced in the 1890's during the Art Nouveau period.
• The first digital logo trend started in 1951 with the CBS TV logo, which was created deliberately for screen appearance.
• The famous stallion in Ferrari logo can be traced back to 1692 at the time of Vittorio Amadeo II, Duke of Savoy.

Logo Designers And Logos

• 1960's London-based design agency Wolff Olins re-introduced pictorial symbols in branding.
• In 1969, Salvador Dali designed the logo for Spanish lollipop company, Chupa Chups.
• In 1920, a BP employee AR Sanders designed the first BP logo that won in a company competition.
• In 1948, Walt Disney designed the Toys for Tots train logo and its poster.
• In 1961, Paul Rand designed the iconic United Parcel Service (UPS) logo.
• Until 2008, the Pepsi Globe logo resembled the Taegeuk symbol widely used in South Korea.
• In 1976, the first Apple logo was designed by Ronald Wayne, referred to as the third co-founder of the company.
• In 1962, McDonald’s hired psychologist Louis Cheskin who suggested the golden arches "M" for the logo.
• In 1998, the first multi-colored Google logo was designed by Sergey Brin using free tool GIMP.
• In 1983, an award-winning designer created the AT&T logo that wasn’t changed until 2005.
• The classic Coca-Cola wordmark has remained intact for over 130 years with some minor changes.
• 34 years is the average lifespan of Saul Bass logo designs.
• The 1972 IBM logo created by legendary brand designer Paul Rand hasn't been changed to date.
• In 1953, freelance designer Art Paul was approached by Playboy founder Hugh Hefner to design the m logo of the new magazine, which has remained the same to this date.
• The 2016 Uber logo created by CEO Travis Kalanick became the most controversial and hated logo of the decade.
• Since 1976, the I Love New York, logo designed by Milton Glaser, has become the most used logo in the country.
• The mid-1930’s 20th Century Fox logo was created by Emil Kosa, a special effects animator, which lasted until 1944.
• The current Columbia Pictures logo was digitally created by artist Michael Deas.
• The iconic 1997 crescent and boy logo of Dreamworks was the brainchild of filmmaker Steven Spielberg.
• In 1868 founder Henri Nestle designed the Nestle logo based on his name's interpretation in German.

Miscellaneous

• 156 Americans between the ages of 20 and 70 were asked to draw 10 famous logos from memory in a study, Branded in Memory. 1,500 drawings were created in 80 hours.
• The 1994 FedEx logo designed by Lindon Leader is the most famous example of a negative space logo.
• It takes 8 impressions for consumers to memorize a logo design.
• The Starbucks 1971 logo has been inspired by a 16th century Norse woodcut of a twin-tailed mermaid.
• McDonald's logo is recognized by children as young as 4 years old.
• Until the Black Cauldron in 1985, Walt Disney never used its logo animation in front of a film.

Sources

• http://lwvprintworks.com/10-facts-history-graphic-design
• http://www.museodelmarchioitaliano.com/route1.php
• http://www.topdesignmag.com/little-known-facts-about-some-of-the-most-popular-logos-in-the-world
• https://brightside.me/wonder-curiosities/12-astonishing-facts-about-famous-logos-you-didnt-know-371210
• https://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/a-history-of-productiona-history-of-production-company-logo-animations-company-logos
• https://www.simpliowebstudio.com/most-expensive-logo-designs
• https://www.4over4.com/blog/5687/15-cool-facts-about-logos-you-probably-didnt-know-about
• https://visual.ly/community/infographic/business/history-logo-design
• https://medium.com/@jamrobcar/23-fun-font-facts-6e94def8c6b2
• https://www.logodesignlove.com/subway-logo
• https://blog.designcrowd.com/article/586/10-cool-quirky-facts-you-didnt-know-about-crowdsourcing
• https://www.theartcareerproject.com/careers/logo-design
• https://www.market-inspector.co.uk/blog/2016/07/30-mind-blowing-facts-you-didt-know-about-the-biggest-brands
• https://www.howdesign.com/design-creativity/8th-annual-logo-design-awards-winner-galleries
• https://www.signs.com/branded-in-memory
• https://logojoy.com/blog/logo-size-guidelines
• http://time.com/2904290/10-oldest-company-logos
• https://yazaroo.co.uk/2017/12/07/the-10-oldest-logos-still-in-use-today
• https://logogeek.uk/logo-design/neuro-design

*This post was originally published on Logo Design Guru.

Written by Raquel Addams