Nike – $35
The “Swoosh” is perhaps one of the most well-known “cheap” logos – costing the sports brand just $35 USD when co-founder Phil Knight commissioned graphic design student Carolyn Davidson back in 1971. When it was finished, Knight said “I don’t love it… but I think it will grow on me.”
BP – $211,000,000
In 2001, oil giant commissioned creative agency Landor Associates, advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather and the PR consultants Ogilvy PR to replace their “Green Shield” logo with the current Helios symbol and create a surrounding identity and campaign. Designed in a green and yellow sunflower pattern, the logo represents energy in its many forms and comes with the tagline “Beyond Petroleum”. The cost of this re-branding procedure? A mere $211 million USD…
Google – $0
Despite arguably being the most recognisable logo in the Western world, the logo cost the Internet company exactly $0 to create. It was actually designed in 1998 by co-founder Sergey Brin and, although it’s obviously been tuned up a little since then, the main elements still remain.
Coca-Cola – $0
Much like the Google logo, the Coca-Cola branding was create totally free of charge by the founder’s bookkeeper Frank M. Robinson. As well as designing the unique logo in elaborate Spencerian script, Robinson also thought up the company’s name – suggesting that the two Cs would like nice together in advertising.
London 2012 Olympics – £400,000 (approx. $625,000)
Here it is – one of the most hated logo designs on the last decade. Designed by in 2007, the London 2012 Olympic logo is, according to the agency, “unconventionally bold, deliberately spirited and unexpectedly dissonant, echoing London’s qualities of a modern, edgy city.” For many, the result is actually “the graphic equivalent of… dad dancing” (Alice Rawsthorn in The New York Times) and a terrible attempt at creating something trendy. Criticism also rained in for the logos resemblance of Lisa Simpson doing something naughty and for secretly spelling the word “zion.”
Twitter – $2 – $6
Twitter managed to snag their original logo for the price of a sandwich, using the power of crowdsourcing to drive the price down and purchasing it from. Speaking about his creation, Japan-based designer Simon Oxley said he didn’t even realise Twitter were actually using the design until someone on their staff contacted him for permission to animate the bird. “I was happy to see the image ‘in-action’ as they say on iStockphoto, back when Twitter wasn’t well known. I did ask that a credit be added to the Twitter page mentioning that I had conceived the bird.” The design was recently updated by Twitter to a cleaner version.
Pepsi – $1,000,000
2008 re-branding was undertaken by the New York-based Arnell Group, who charged a cool $1 million USD for a complete branding package. That may seem like a lot, but it’s a drop in the ocean when you consider that the PepsiCo company poured $1.2 billion into changes on all the different beverage brands they own.
BBC – £1,150,000 (approx. $1,800,000)
When the began to move towards the Internet and digital television in 1997, influential British graphic designer decided it was time to address the logo situation, suggesting that something more uniform across all the channels and media was necessary. Until then, the BBC had a branding system that meant each department had a different logo scheme, weakening the broadcasting company’s core brand severely.
(via RedCardDesign)
The “Swoosh” is perhaps one of the most well-known “cheap” logos – costing the sports brand just $35 USD when co-founder Phil Knight commissioned graphic design student Carolyn Davidson back in 1971. When it was finished, Knight said “I don’t love it… but I think it will grow on me.”
BP – $211,000,000
In 2001, oil giant commissioned creative agency Landor Associates, advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather and the PR consultants Ogilvy PR to replace their “Green Shield” logo with the current Helios symbol and create a surrounding identity and campaign. Designed in a green and yellow sunflower pattern, the logo represents energy in its many forms and comes with the tagline “Beyond Petroleum”. The cost of this re-branding procedure? A mere $211 million USD…
Google – $0
Despite arguably being the most recognisable logo in the Western world, the logo cost the Internet company exactly $0 to create. It was actually designed in 1998 by co-founder Sergey Brin and, although it’s obviously been tuned up a little since then, the main elements still remain.
Coca-Cola – $0
Much like the Google logo, the Coca-Cola branding was create totally free of charge by the founder’s bookkeeper Frank M. Robinson. As well as designing the unique logo in elaborate Spencerian script, Robinson also thought up the company’s name – suggesting that the two Cs would like nice together in advertising.
London 2012 Olympics – £400,000 (approx. $625,000)
Here it is – one of the most hated logo designs on the last decade. Designed by in 2007, the London 2012 Olympic logo is, according to the agency, “unconventionally bold, deliberately spirited and unexpectedly dissonant, echoing London’s qualities of a modern, edgy city.” For many, the result is actually “the graphic equivalent of… dad dancing” (Alice Rawsthorn in The New York Times) and a terrible attempt at creating something trendy. Criticism also rained in for the logos resemblance of Lisa Simpson doing something naughty and for secretly spelling the word “zion.”
Twitter – $2 – $6
Twitter managed to snag their original logo for the price of a sandwich, using the power of crowdsourcing to drive the price down and purchasing it from. Speaking about his creation, Japan-based designer Simon Oxley said he didn’t even realise Twitter were actually using the design until someone on their staff contacted him for permission to animate the bird. “I was happy to see the image ‘in-action’ as they say on iStockphoto, back when Twitter wasn’t well known. I did ask that a credit be added to the Twitter page mentioning that I had conceived the bird.” The design was recently updated by Twitter to a cleaner version.
Pepsi – $1,000,000
2008 re-branding was undertaken by the New York-based Arnell Group, who charged a cool $1 million USD for a complete branding package. That may seem like a lot, but it’s a drop in the ocean when you consider that the PepsiCo company poured $1.2 billion into changes on all the different beverage brands they own.
BBC – £1,150,000 (approx. $1,800,000)
When the began to move towards the Internet and digital television in 1997, influential British graphic designer decided it was time to address the logo situation, suggesting that something more uniform across all the channels and media was necessary. Until then, the BBC had a branding system that meant each department had a different logo scheme, weakening the broadcasting company’s core brand severely.
(via RedCardDesign)
