The 10 Best Logo Redesigns of All Time

Image via Complex Original

Though it may trail Wal-Mart in annual sales, Target has a cool cache that Sam Walton’s brainchild never will. It all centers on the company’s very recognizable red bull’s-eye—in play since 1962. In ‘68, the logo got a bright and bold upgrade. While it’s been tweaked in the decades since, the changes have been minimal. The consistency explains why a reported 96 percent of American shoppers know the logo, and how the fashion-forward discount retailer has managed to convince top designers like Alexander McQueen and Missoni to design exclusive, low-priced clothing lines for its customers.

How do you determine when a logo has passed the point of “extremely recognizable” and entered into “iconic” territory? Take away the company name and see whether people still know who’s behind it. Case in point: Nike. The athletic giant has been sporting its well-known Swoosh for the past 20 years. If ever the case was to be made that great logo designs don’t have to be expensive, it’s that very same Swoosh. In 1971, Nike co-founder Phil Knight paid Portland State University graphic design student Carolyn Davidson a sum total of $35 to come up with the company’s branding. Knight’s response at the time? “I don’t love it, but maybe it will grow on me.” 

Of the estimated four billion cups of Starbucks coffee that are sold in any given year, most caffeine hounds are probably chugging them down so quickly that they barely even look at the logo on the cup. But if they did, they’d notice a couple of things: yes, that is a mermaid, and no, the coffee company’s name is nowhere to be found. Though the siren has been the key image on all of Starbucks’ products since the company’s founding in 1971, she’s had a few makeovers over the years—most notably in 1992. The image was zoomed in to only include her top half. Then, again in 2011, the company name was removed altogether. 

Though iTunes has always had a streaming component, back in 2001—when it was first introduced—the media player identified itself with a compact disc and a couple of musical notes. To-the-point? Sure. A little bit hokey? Definitely. Since then, the logo has been tweaked more than a half-dozen times, though each one has been subtle. In 2010, they finally threw out the CD that served as the main design element—smart move for a business that’s selling the idea that CDs are essentially obsolete.

Since being founded in 1997, Netflix has been all about creating simple, yet revolutionary, ideas. DVD rentals by mail? Who would’ve thought! When the company removed both the red background and drop shadow from its logo last year, it was about more than just a branding tweak. It was a way of subtly removing the company’s association with the old way of doing things (read: red envelopes via snail mail) and rebranding Netflix as an innovative leader in the streaming revolution.

Launched in 1985, VH1 has long been the wiser, more sophisticated sibling to MTV’s wild child. But like MTV, the channel that was founded as “Video Hits One” has long strayed from its early days of music video-only programming, growing into a storehouse for offbeat “Celebreality” shows like The Surreal Life and Rock of Love, nostalgia-inducing series like I Love the ‘80s, and more thought-provoking music documentaries like The Tanning of America. It almost makes the addition of a plus sign into the logo in 2013 a bit overdue, but smart nonetheless.

Like VH1, Discovery Channel’s content is much further reaching than it was way back in 1985, when the station launched as The Discovery Channel. Back then it focused mainly on science and technology documentaries. While many of those verticals are still in play today (hello, Shark Week), the channel has also branched out into reality television with shows like Dirty Jobs and MythBusters, adding a series of sub-channels like Discovery Health, Discovery Science, and Investigation Discovery. Streamlining their logo—as they did in 2008 with the help of Viewpoint Creative, then again in 2013 with an every more compact icon that puts the “D” in Discovery—makes it easier to adapt across channels.

There’s really only one word to describe the logo that launched Spotify’s life as a top streaming service in 2008—and that word is “outdated.” From its space-consuming green background to its drop-shadowing, the logo did little to illustrate the company’s tech-savvy business model. They got the picture in 2013 and gave the logo a more grown-up look, which they tweaked (the color) again earlier this year.

UPS hopped on the redesign bandwagon in 2003, turning what looked like a bow-tie-wrapped logo into a more authoritative shield. In 2014, the company rebranded again, this time to a two-dimensional version of its more than 10-year-old logo, even giving its washed-out brown a darker hue.

When Delta reworked its logo in 2007, it wasn’t just about giving the company emblem a quick nip and tuck; it was about introducing a new image, as the airline had just emerged from bankruptcy and was in dire need of some serious rebranding. Working with Lippincott, it “sought to create a foundation for the brand that celebrated and respected the company’s 80-year heritage and employees’ tremendous pride, while also expressing a new confidence and authenticity that reflected Delta’s ambition and responded to the wants and needs of its modern customers.” Spoiler alert: It worked!