Panera Bread Logo - Design and History
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Panera Bread (called St. Louis Bread Company in the St. Louis area) is a chain of bakery-café restaurants in the United States and Canada which sells breads, sandwiches, soups, bakery items, and organic foods; some locations offer dinner pizzas. Panera is considered a "fast casual" restaurant. The Panera Bread logo is an illustration of a woman with flowing hair holding a loaf of bread in her arm. This also goes with the company slogan of "A loaf of bread in every arm". The lady holding the bread is also known as "Mother Bread". The logo and the entire branding for the new company was developed by Heckler Associates and they host a very interesting case study of how they rebranded "the St. Loius Bread Company" to "Panera Bread". See their website for details. Interestingly, the process of making sourdough bread requires a small piece of the dough used to make the previous batch of bread dough. This starter piece is often called the "mother." Whenever Panera opens stores in a new region, a piece of the original starter that was created in the 1980s is lovingly carried to the new bakery to ensure that original Panera quality and character will rise again and again. |
Skoda Logo - Design and History
Skoda Auto is an automobile manufacturer in the Czech Republic. In 1991, it became a subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group. The origins of Skoda go back to the early 1890s where, like many long-established car manufacturers, the company started out with the manufacture of bicycles.
It was 1894, and 26-year old Václav Klement, who was a bookseller by trade in Mladá Boleslav, in today's Czech Republic, which was then part of Austria-Hungary, was unable to obtain the right spare parts to repair his German bicycle. Klement returned his bicycle to the manufacturers, Seidel and Naumann, with a letter, in Czech, asking for them to carry out repairs, only to receive a reply, in German, stating: "If you would like an answer to your inquiry, you should try writing in a language we can understand".
A disgusted Klement, despite not having any previous technical experience, then decided to start his own bicycle repair shop, which he and Václav Laurin opened in 1895 in Mladá Boleslav. Before going into business partnership with Klement, Laurin was an already established bicycle manufacturer from the nearby town of Turnov.
Subaru Logo - Design and History
Subaru is the automobile manufacturing division of Japanese transportation conglomerate Fuji Heavy Industries Co., Ltd (FHI). FHI was established on July 15, 1953 when five Japanese companies, known as Fuji Kogyo, Fuji Jidosha Kogyo, Omiya Fuji Kogyo, Utsunomiya Sharyo and Tokyo Fuji Sangyo, joined to form one of Japan's largest manufacturers of transportation equipment. Subaru is known mainly for its all-wheel drive vehicles such as the Subaru Forester and the Outback.
The company is influenced by the star cluster Pleiades. In Japanese the cluster name is "Subaru", which roughly translated into English means, "to govern", "unite," or "gather together". The large star in the logo represents Fuji Heavy Industries, and the five smaller stars represent the current five companies that are united under the FHI group. In essense the logo represent the unification of 5 companies mentioned above to become one large entity called the Fuji Heavy Industry.
Vauxhall Logo - Design and History
Vauxhall Motors is a British automobile company. It is a subsidiary of General Motors Corporation (GM), and is part of GM Europe. Alexander Wilson founded the company in Vauxhall, London in 1857. Originally named Alex Wilson and Company, then Vauxhall Iron Works, the company built pumps and marine engines.In 1903, the company built its first car, a five-horsepower model steered using a tiller, with two forward gears and no reverse gear. This led to a better design which was made available for sale.
The Vauxhall logo is based on a mythical creature called the "Griffin".
The griffin is a legendary creature with the body of a lion and the
head and often wings of an eagle. As the lion was traditionally
considered the king of the beasts and the eagle the king of the birds,
the griffin was thought to be an especially powerful and majestic
creature. Griffins are normally known for guarding treasure. In
antiquity it was a symbol of divine power and a guardian of the divine.
The griffin emblem, which is still in use, is derived from the coat of arms of Faulke de Breaute, a mercenary soldier who was granted the Manor of Luton for services to King John in the thirteenth century. By marriage, he also gained the rights to an area near London, south of the Thames. The house he built, Fulk's Hall, became known in time as Vauxhall. Vauxhall Iron Works adopted this emblem from the coat of arms to emphasise its links to the local area. When Vauxhall Iron Works moved to Luton in 1905, the griffin emblem coincidentally returned to its ancestral home.
The logo as pictured used to be square, but it is now circular, to enable it to fit in the same recess designed for the circular Opel emblem. Since the 1920s the griffin has been redesigned and released 9 times (see below for the detailed changes). In 2008 Vauxhall released a revised version of the 2005 logo. Bill Parfitt, Vauxhall€™s Managing Director, said, "While the new-look Griffin pays homage to our 100 year-plus manufacturing heritage in the UK, it also encapsulates Vauxhall€™s fresh design philosophy, first showcased in the current Astra, and set to continue with Insignia."
Technology Logo Parody
Today Technology companies are the biggest in the world with companies like Google, Microsoft and Cisco household names. This page has a collection of the parodies of some of the popular technology companies.
AOL Logo Parody
 | AOL, America Online was once a powerhouse in providing users with dialup access to the Internet. At one point it had over 30 millions subscribers. In its prime, AOL was always associated with poor services and poor customer service. With the advent of broadband services, AOL is only a shadow of its former self. Shown alongside is a parody of the AOL logo. This logo was taken with permission from Syndicated Designs. |