Reinvention is the mantra of Silicon Valley from individual entrepreneurs and engineers to startups and the even the large enterprises that form the foundation of the tech industry. The evolution of tech company logos offers a glimpse at how companies have changed over the years — some have changed radically and some barely at all.
Intel, for one, has had only two corporate logos since it was founded in July of 1968. The company founders, Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore, created the original blue dropped “e” Intel logo that was used for more than three decades.
At International CES in 2006, as part of announcing a strategic shift for Intel, then-CEO Paul Otellini introduced a new corporate logo that remains in use today. The design uses a “swoosh” surrounding the company name, which appears in custom font known as Neo Sans Intel.
In addition to its blue corporate logo, Intel also has a sonic logo known as the Intel “bongs.” The four notes were composed by Walter Werzowa in 1994. According to Werzowa, the rhythmic pattern of the four notes — D flat, G flat, D flat and A flat — were patterned after the syllables in the company’s Intel Inside slogan, which itself has appeared on millions of computing devices.
Though the Intel logo has always remained blue and included the name of the company, other corporate tech logos have undergone more radical change. The multi-colored stripes of the Apple logo gave way to the now familiar monochrome logo. The fish that appeared on an early Nokia logo when the company was a wood pulp mill on the banks of the Nokianvirta River is long gone. The stylized script of the original 1888 IBM logo included a “T” because, at the time, the company made “tabulating machines.” By contrast, one company logo that has changed almost imperceptibly is GE, which has used the two-letter same script since 1892 with minimal changes.
Take a look at the following infographic for more information about color, value and evolution of corporate logos.
