I came across an interesting article by Nicholas Tart on the Retire@21 blog today: 17 Evolutions of Your Favorite Logos.

It's fascinating to see how much has changed, and across a very short period of time in many cases.

You know on makeover shows when people comment, "you look like you've lost 10 years!"? I feel that way about the Apple logo in 1976. What a difference. It's hard to imagine the original logo illuminated on an iPad, isn't it?

IBM's logo has also come a long way. Granted, these changes occurred over the course of 80+ years, compared to Apple's 36 year journey.

In the original article, Tart explains why the original Volkswagen logo is reminiscent of Nazi symbolism. Apparently, Hitler was involved in the company's founding. After WWII, Volkswagen understandably revamped its logo.

Over the years, the UPS logo has assumed a much cleaner look. That seems to be a common theme with many icons. Check out the evolution of the Kodak, Nokia, Shell and Yahoo logos in Tart's article. All of them adopt bolder fonts and stick with 1-2 colors.

I have to wonder if this is done, in part, to simplify reproduction. It's a lot easier to accurately reproduce a logo across multiple media (printed collateral, websites, products and packaging) when there aren't fine lines, small details and complicated color schemes present.

What are your thoughts on these logo transformations? Do you prefer one of the older versions, or do you agree with the company's current choice?

All diagrams sourced from www.retireat21.com.