Do you know that logos can be just as famous as the company itself? Now it doesn’t come as a surprise anymore that a lot believe logos stand for the entire brand. Over the years, a lot of logos hogged the spotlight in the most intriguing, funniest, and sometimes surprising ways. Try to read the following stories:

 

London 2012 Olympics Logo

The year 2012 was such a busy year for London as the city played host for the every-four-years Olympics. But the actual preparations started almost five years ago. They transformed a huge lot into a mega complex for the athletes and guests, created a volunteer team, secured the city, and, most of all, developed the logo—which failed miserably. The logo cost the city around 400,000 pounds, and yet it received a lot of harsh criticisms for being unintelligible and downright ugly.

 

Microsoft Logo

Microsoft’s logo for a very long time is the “almost floating” window, which was appropriate since they are the seller of the most popular operating system in the world: Windows. However, times and priorities have changed. The company is trying its best to compete to Apple and other burgeoning IT companies such as Google. Thus, a good way to signify its openness to change and competition is a logo change, which now features more rigid 4 small windows of different colors. This didn’t sit very well with some loyalists, however, who still prefer the original one.

 

Apple Logo

Well, it’s understandable why Apple’s logo is an apple. What people don’t understand is why it has a bite. For many years, it’s been a subject of speculation, one of which is that it stands for the forbidden fruit eaten by Adam and Eve. Many also believe it means partaking something from the “tree of knowledge”: Apple fills your mind with more information.

 

Starbucks Logo

 The main logo of the company remains the same. You still have that smiling mermaid with curly hairs covering her breasts. What caused the outrage among the biggest coffee brand in the world is the incomplete log on the coffee cups. Starbucks decided to remove the words “Starbucks” and “coffee,” leaving patrons with a cup with the mermaid logo. There’s a good chance Starbucks did this so you can focus more on the smell of their coffee—or perhaps printing the entire thing has become more expensive?

 

Google Doodles

Google’s logo is more known as doodle since it changes regularly, depending on a very special occasion. In fact the Doodles have become iconic logos themselves. Some of them are controversial, though, such as when the doodle featured Rosa Parks instead of a red ribbon to symbolize World AIDS Day. Google actually celebrated it by putting red in Google Maps, but advocates believed it wasn’t enough.