The Flocksy Blog

Who says print is dead? Business flyers still have a place in marketing strategies. In fact, direct mail has an open rate of 57 percent. That’s much higher than email!

Print advertisements also offer creative ways to build brand awareness and drive conversions.

Business owners can get some great mileage out of a well conceived flyer campaign, and designers can flex some new artistic muscles compared to email design!

So, what makes a print mailer or handbill most effective? If you want to truly captivate your audience, follow these 10 tips for designing a powerful business flyer.

#1 Minimize Your Copy

The key to effective flyer design is to make it SKIMMABLE. Yes, people are more likely to peruse a print mailer than an email, but you still don’t want giant blocks of text. Focus on punchy, enticing headlines and simple sentences.

#2 Break It Up

Concise, readable copy is just one part of making a flyer skimmable and enticing. Try breaking up your flyer into distinct segments. This helps draw the eye and create a flow.

Remember, people tend to read in an L pattern, i.e. across the top and down the left side. By dividing your design into sections, you help them repeat that pattern and absorb more of the information.

Your segments can be parallel, a grid of boxes, a row of circles, anything that breaks the flow and helps organize your flyer.

#3 Skip The Bells And Whistles

Gradients, drop shadows, and clip art, oh my! With so many graphic elements and effects out there, it’s tempting to go a little overboard.

Limit the use of complex designs and cheesy effects. Current trends favor gradients, neon colors, and masking, but you’ll want to stick to one key effect.

For example, don’t use gradients in both your lettering and the background. If using a glow effect, apply it only to the primary image or text.

In short, your design should be accessible and simple, rather than an 80s throwback party!

#4 Use Relatable Images

Speaking of clip art, be sure to use it wisely. Goofy illustrations and generic icons can detract from your message. They just scream, “We threw this flyer together in 5 minutes.”

Modern business flyers benefit from a more human aesthetic. When possible, incorporate original photography or illustration.

If you must use stock images, choose ones that look more natural rather than the slick commercial portraits. Hand drawn pictures are very “in” right now and can offer a creative, inspiring aesthetic.

#5 Stay On Brand

Always stick to the brand identity, if one exists. People should see the same colors and fonts on your flyer and your website.

If there’s no brand identity to work from, choose 1 to 3 fonts and 3 to 6 colors that will define the aesthetic. Remember, fonts are not the same as typefaces. They are variations of typefaces.

Try to use no more than 2 typefaces, and simply use the bold or “heavy” version for emphasis.

#6 Choose the Right Colors

Even if you’re using brand colors, be aware of color psychology. Certain hues trigger specific emotions or moods. These effects also depend on the fonts you use.

For example, if you want to hype up your new product, high energy colors (red, orange, etc.) and “display” typefaces are usually better. By contrast, cool blues and greens plus sans serif fonts seem more relaxed and contemplative.

#7 Benefits, Not Features

We’re borrowing this tip from the world of copywriting as it applies to flyers, too. When developing a business flyer, you should emphasize what customers could enjoy. What’s most enticing for them?

For example, a flyer for a new burger restaurant could lead with the text “Restaurant Opening” and list all the details below.

Recipients likely won’t care about any of that. But what if the flyer had a big, bold headline of “Hot, Juicy Burgers,” plus a dramatic photo of a hamburger and subheads about “grass fed beef” and “homemade buns”? Isn’t your mouthwatering?

Both the copy and graphics should focus on benefits rather than features. Let that key selling point steal the show.

#8 Include A Call To Action

After you’ve gotten your potential customers all excited, it’s time to tell them how to get those big, juicy benefits. One of the top mistakes in designing a business flyer is forgetting the call to action (CTA).

What should people do after they read your flyer? Should they call your business? Pay you a visit? Log onto your website? Choose ONE primary CTA and make sure it’s crystal clear.

The more options you add, the more confusing it is. Remember, your goal is to catch their attention and inspire them to take action ASAP.

#9 Leave Room To Breathe

White space is everyone’s friend. It separates key design elements and helps prevent the reader from getting overwhelmed. Be sure to leave a buffer around each part of the flyer.

If white space doesn’t fit your design, it can be “negative space,” i.e. any area where there is no text or distinctive image. This is especially helpful if you have a beautiful background. Why cover it up?

#10 Keep It Simple

While print design offers a bit more flexibility than an email campaign, it also has more constraints. There is limited “real estate” and the flyer must really POP to catch the eye.

That means cohesive, simple layouts are more effective than crazy collages of images.

Choose the primary message of your design, whether textual or graphic. Let that stand out while the rest of the design complements it.

Bonus Tip: Proofread, Proofread, Proofread!

We’ve all done it. When you spend a lot of time on something, you get tunnel vision. This can make it hard to see errors, even if they’re glaringly obvious to anyone else.

You definitely don’t want to spend tons of money on printing without proofreading your flyer!

It’s usually a good idea to have a new set of eyes review the flyer. Look for both copy mistakes (typos, misspelled words, incorrect grammar, factual errors) and design issues (misaligned layers, muddled colors, font legibility).

If you have not been using t-shirts to boost your brand, you may want to consider this: the demand for custom t-shirts is increasing daily with expected sales of $10 billion by 2025.

Now that marketers realize the power of this growing trend, more are using them to promote their brands.

What’s your message? Put it on a t-shirt and watch your message sore. While custom-designed t-shirts are the newest trend, as with anything in marketing, you still need to be strategic about it.

Boost your marketing with 12 design tips to make your t-shirts pop:

1. Appeal To Your Audience

Remember this is part of your marketing plan, so the first thing you want to consider is who would buy your t-shirt. Think about your current audience. Would a t-shirt appeal to all of them or just a segment of them? Would the shirt be for youth, adults, men, women? The list goes on. Once you know who you’re designing for, the design concept will be easier to grasp.

2. Conceptualize Your Design

This is a process you don’t want to rush. The design will be what sells the t-shirt. People love to wear t-shirts, but they wear them for a reason, to convey a message.

So first, make sure the message resonates with the market you’ve selected. Second, make sure the design is cool and trendy. That way, people will want to wear it to show it off.

Flocksy has some of the best designers. From illustrator to typography, you tell us what you want to create and we will see it through. That frees you up to work on other marketing aspects. Leave the design to us.

Focus On Five Specific Areas

This isn’t just a t-shirt, this is your brand promotion, so every little detail about the shirt is a big deal. Your specifics will focus on five things: borders, colors, fabric, fonts, scale and size.

3. Border and Design

Will your t-shirt have borders or is the design free-flowing without the edges? Most modern-day designs no long have borders. But sometimes invisible borders do show up. So be cautious of this technical aspect when printing.

4. Color Scheme

What will the color(s) be? How many colors will it have? Better yet, how many ink colors are available for the imprint? Choosing the right shade for the shirt and the font, helps to bring the shirt to life.

5. Fabric

What type of fabric should the shirt be? The fabric has an impact on the ink. If the fabric is too thin, the ink may not lay well on the finished product. And what type of fabric would appeal to your audience?

If they’re athletes would they prefer a performance-wicking fabric? Where do they live? If it’s mostly a cooler climate, would they prefer a heavier fabric, fleece or a sweatshirt? Or should there be a gender-specific cut?

6. Font

Regardless of the design, if the fonts aren’t right, the message will not come across well. The perfect font(s) will make your shirt pop each time. Considering the message and the audience, what size should the font be?

Do you want a more traditional look or a modern one? For example, Serif fonts will give your design a more traditional and formal look while San-serif fonts will give a modern look to your design.

7. Scale and Size

You may have the design and specific details worked out, but you’ll never know if the shirt is just right until you have the scale and size just right. Does the scale of the design work? Does it feel balanced?

Remember, the scale of the design can change based on the size of your shirt. So, you’ll want to make sure the design is scaled to fit perfectly for all sizes of your shirt.

While getting all the specific details worked out takes time, your Flocksy design team can help with all of it. Our designers will work with you from start to finish to ensure you have the perfect design for your promotional t-shirt.

8. Placement Is Everything

As you were conceptualizing that design, I’m sure you had a vision for its placement. The most common placements for graphic design on shirts are the front pocket (usually small print), the front center, the sleeve, back center, and top back center.

But will there be other branding or logos on the shirt? Because that will also play a part in the placement of the actual design. Don’t just assume you know where to place the design. Play around with this to ensure the optimal look for your shirt.

Consider Your Four Print Options

You now have everything you need to complete your vision for your promotional t-shirt. All you have to do now is get it printed. But wait, do you know your print options?

If you don’t you’ll want to take a minute to study this since printing options have come so far. Printing is a significant element in t-shirt design, so you’ll at least want to know your four options:

9. Direct to Garment (DTG) Printing

DTG Printing makes your shirt soft to the touch with no extra thick layers on the t-shirt.

10. Heat Press Printing

Heat press printing is good for printing in small quantities and is the most economical way to print. However, it’s not recommended for darker fabrics.

11. Screen Printing

Screen printing is good for printing premium t-shirt designs to give your shirt an impressive, unique look. However, if you have multiple color designs you may want to go with a different print method.

12. Dye Sublimation Printing

Dye sublimation printing is a good method to use if you have polyester cream fabrics. This method will make the shirt more durable, which may mean an up in cost, but it will look professional.

Your Flocksy design team will ensure your design file is in the correct format for printing your unique design. Hire your own creative team at Flocksy.

Featured Flocksy Team Member Design Of The Month:

Here is a custom Infographic mockup created for a client by Flocksy team member James. All custom illustrations/brand designs/marketing materials on Flocksy are created completely from scratch by one of our extremely talented graphic design creatives. Start a graphic design project today and see results in just hours!

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The nominees for the 2022 class of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame are out so now is a great time to explore the world of inspiration that comes from the music industry.

This industry has not only inspired its own members to create masterpieces. It’s also inspired authors, artists, and, yes, even graphic designers.

One place you can see this inspiration is in the logos of record companies. A logo is a very important piece of branding.

It needs to be instantly recognizable, small enough to not detract from cover art or other band materials, and tell something about the company at the same time.

It’s a difficult feat but these twelve record companies nailed it when it comes to creating a powerful logo.

DFA

This first logo shows that you don’t need something smooth and slick to make an impact.

DFA was a label right in the middle of the New York dance punk scene and that vibe is carried right on through the logo with its stick-and-poke tattoo design.

Death Row Records

All the eighties and nineties kids out there will remember the many dramas and controversies that surrounded Death Row records in the early to mid-nineties and beyond.

Suge Knight and his stable of artists were as known for their criminal records as they were for their music.

Their choice of font, color, and image of a man in an electric chair clearly communicates the aggressive and violent mentality surrounding the music and artists.

Zarcorp

Zarcorp was a label that catered to the obscure and alternative. They only produced vinyl records and focused on mostly obscure bands in the electronic and alternative scenes.

Their logo embraces the weirdness and obscurity of the label with its nod to optical illusions that buries the company’s “z” behind overlapping circles.

Blue Note

This seminal jazz record company’s logo (in use from 1939-69) is so iconic that it has come to define the whole genre of jazz music. As simple as it is powerful, the logo calls to mind not only musical notes, but scores as well.

The logo’s simplicity would go on to inspire other record label logos, such as Sub Pop (see #9 on this list).

Def Jam Recordings

Def Jam was one of the first record labels to focus on producing and promoting hip hop music in the early 1980s.

The beauty of their logo was that it calls attention to, not only the first letters of the label’s name, but also highlights the importance of DJs to the early hip hop groups and music.

While the label expanded its stable of artists to include those beyond hip hop, their logo remained an icon of the early 1980s hip hop scene.

Factory Records

It’s rare that a logo becomes as iconic as the brand itself but that’s the case for Manchester, UK-based record label Factory Records.

Rather than trying to create a generic label logo that could encompass many places and genres or trying to create a logo that captures the feeling of a specific genre of music, Factory Records chose to pay homage to their hometown of Manchester.

The stylized cityscape is based on the cityscape of Manchester itself.

Island Records

Sometimes, a logo manages to encapsulate not just the genre represented by their artists, but also the hometown of the label. Island Records is a great example of that kind of label.

The label was founded in Jamaica and rose to prominence with their first big artist, Bob Marley.

The simple palm tree captures the island feeling both, while also being unique enough in its monochromatic color scheme that you know it’s an Island Records logo you’re looking at.

Motown

Many long running labels go through a series of evolving logos throughout their history with each one capturing a moment in time in the history of the label.

Motown has had many logos over the years but none as iconic as the logo from the mid-1960s that became synonymous with the Motown sound.

This logo became such an iconic part of Motown history that the label has gone back to using it in this modern era.

Sub Pop

The stark, bold black and white logo for this Seattle-based record label is one of the reasons this label has become an icon in the music industry over the past three decades.

The bold nature of this logo, and the compact design, was intentional so that it could be used on the front and back of album covers.

Ghostly

You know a logo is a pinnacle of sleek graphic design when some use it to cover the Apple logo on their MacBooks. Ghostly International’s logo is just that kind of design.

Ghostly specializes in blissful electronic music and, in addition to being an impactful design in and of itself, also captures the dreamy, modern feel of the music they are known for.

Earache Records

Going beyond the name, the Earache Records logo lets you know that you’re in for some loud, hard music when you pick up one of their records.

The splatter paint background combined with the harsh-looking font very effectively conveys the label’s hard metal roots and current indie-metal focus.

Warp

Other than a color change, the Warp Records logo has remained constant since the label’s founding.

The logo was designed in 1989 by Ian Anderson of The Design Group and captures the international edginess that has become synonymous with Warp.

And Some You Might Not

The logos for toy companies are more than just the symbol of the brand but are also a promise that you will get the same quality from their toy line that you have come to expect since they started putting products on the market.

Their line of toys has changed over the years with new materials and standards of safety, but the logo still stands for the underlying resolve of the manufacturer to make the best playthings for your children.

The importance of a toy brand is in its niche audience, which is primarily children, who might not know why their favorite toys are made by Mattel or Hasbro but will often affiliate these companies only with selling toys and nothing else.

There have been movies made based on certain toy lines, such as the Transformers and GI Joe movies, but that is as far as they extend beyond their wheelhouse.

The Logos You Love

Here are a few of the more famous toy manufacturer logos you will easily recognize that go back decades and are still thriving to this day:

Mattel

Of the toy dynasties, Mattel is probably the one that comes to mind first if you were asked to name a toy manufacturer off the top of your head.

Started in 1945, Mattel is the brainchild of two founders, is the current holding entity of several toy brands under its umbrella, and the logo has had many changes over the years, all starting from the one displayed here on the left, which ran from 1955 to 1961.

Hasbro

Hasbro was started in 1923 and carried the original name of Hassenfield Brothers, Inc, before being shortened to Hasbro in 1944. Along with the evolving logo that changed roughly every decade since the company’s beginning, the Hasbro boy was also introduced to market their toys on TV using animation.

Today, to ensure their brand is associated with the playfulness of a child’s spirit, the logo features a smile below the company name.

Fisher-Price

Fisher-Price has always been a beacon for fun to children of infant and preschool ages. Their logo was designed to inspire the creativity, growth, and ingenuity of young children while also showing a sense of whimsy.

During the middle years of the brand, the logo got a little stale and dated, so they partnered with Pentagram, a marketing firm, to restore their brand identity as a playful product line.

Playskool

In 1928, two women had a vision. They thought, what if toys could be for more than just play, but open entirely untapped parts of a child’s mind. As teachers, helping children grow to their potential and studied what made children better versions of themselves in the classroom.

They started Playskool based on their observations. The original logo created in 1928 was modified in 2000 from the traditional rectangular version to the oval most widely seen today.

Radio Flyer

Antonio Pasin invented the Radio Flyer wagon in 1917. It is unlikely that, to this day, his labor of love would still be carting children around, or at least their belongings. His original design was entirely composed of steel, with quality wheels to ensure speed and a smooth trip, and those variables are present on the famous logo for this beloved brand.

Lego

More than almost any toy, Legos are the most universally recognized by children and adults alike. The logo was designed in 1934, but the brand didn’t get as much attention from its logo recognition and changed it a few times for the last 64 years, finally nailing it in 1998. They did the best thing they could and kept it big, bright, and very simple.

Nerf

Taking the applications of foam to the next level, Nerf brand toys will always be known for their innovations in playful artillery. The brand name has always been part of the logo, however, the logo colors, the font of the letters, and even the shape have been very fluid, changing wildly over the years.

The letter “e” in Nerf for some of the designs was lower case, yet today’s version is all uppercase in thick block letters.

Some Lesser-Known Logos

These are still common but will never quite hold a candle to the giants of toy manufacturing. Still, they make a great product and are worth your attention.

K’Nex

A proverbial babe in the toy game, K’Nex is not your average building set like the products from Legos. Instead, they went a different direction, making construction toys that help the user learn about kinetics, robotics, and physics.

The Rodon Group developed the logo based on what you are supposed to do when building their products, which essentially, is to connect the pieces. Hence, K’Nex.

Playmobil

Despite being a German toy manufacturer that only opened their line in 1974, Playmobil is to this day Lego’s biggest rival in the building blocks niche.

The first logo was drawn with Playmobil written in Sans Serif in all lower case, above the uppercase word “SYSTEMS.” Later, the “SYSTEMS” had been replaced, not with words, but with a smiling child’s face above the company name logo. It identified the product line as friendly.

A more recent update removed the child’s face but its overall word mark stayed the same.

MGA Entertainment

MGA was founded in 1979 and, while their logo might not look familiar, they are one of the larger toy companies with a reputation for brands that cross a variety of products. Their playthings have the innovation and intuition to predict what the next generation of boys and girls will want.

They had their first major success in 1997. The logo has changed to adding shapes since its release, the placement of “entertainment” has shifted and a more 3d effect overall was added.

Playmates Toys

Playmates was founded in 1966 in China. Their specialty is promotional toys, and despite fluctuating metrics and market volatility, they continue to be a leader in the industry.

Their logo has undergone almost no changes over the years, with one exception, and that is the word “toys” which was added to draw a distinction between their brand and the playmate products sold in Playboy magazine.

Tomy

A Japanese company founded in the 1920s, it was originally called Tomiyama, named after its founder. It is hailed as one of the first toy companies to have an assembly line and a research wing.

In the beginning, they specialized in toy planes and have propelled toy innovations and modernization since its opening. The logo is a pared-down version of the original which said Tomiyama Tomy, and is now just “Tomy.”

Wrapping It Up

Kids don’t look for brands. They know what they like and they gravitate to it. It is the parent’s job to know who makes the product, how they are made, and if they are safe. Consumer reports catch manufacturing problems all the time. The easiest way for you to know which toys are good for children and which might harm them is to look for the bright logos. They are always featured when a brand has trouble.

Featured Flocksy Team Member Design Of The Month:

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All custom illustrations/brand designs/marketing materials on Flocksy are created completely from scratch by one of our extremely talented graphic design creatives.

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No brand is complete without a logo, even if that logo has the brand name etched into it. But the difference with motorcycle logos is when you see a motorcycle going by and don’t know who makes it, the logo the manufacturer chose is so undeniable, many people can instantly recognize it and use it as the jumping off point for their potential future purchase.

Motorcycles come in many different shapes and sizes, from the chopper, to café style racing bikes, to the one we all know, the Harley Davidson. The identifier that sets these apart has to be unique, and as you will see from our list, there are almost zero similarities between the brands.

So, if you are ready to hit the open road and hear or see a bike you want, look for these and you will see your future of freedom.

Harley Davidson

Despite the company being started in 1903, the world-renown logo wasn’t created until 1910, and is still the same logo for all Harley Davidson products.

The only changes this orange, black, and white symbol has undertaken happened at unique anniversaries within the brand, such as the addition of a “V” to the logo in 1953.

Indian

Indian motorcycles, started in 1901, became one of the largest motorcycle manufacturers in the world due to their innovative designs.

They are known as one of the few companies that adjust their logo with every new product release. It can always be seen on the tank, and at one point, the bikes even had an Indian head on the front fender.

Honda

Not only an auto maker, Honda has a history of building quality products are economical prices, and their motorcycle line is no exception.

From its flagship, The Goldwing, to the Magna, the VTX, and even the GSXR, Honda comes with the tools to impress. The wings on the logo are in reverence to Nike, the Greek goddess of victory.

Titan

Largely custom, Titan has a short but notable legacy because of the sleek and sexy design of their bikes. They were founded in 1994 in Phoenix, Arizona, and designed so the owner could make easy to add upgrades.

The logo was designed to be more hardcore than Harley, more distinct, and have a heavy metal feel, which works in concert with the style of their choppers.

Yamaha

Along with many high-quality Japanese products, the Yamaha motorcycle series aims to please. With its distinct logo, it can be easily recognized even when put next to similar bikes from other Japanese brands like Honda or Suzuki.

The standardized emblem of the triple tuning fork is an update from the original, which was a Chinese phoenix with a tuning fork in its mouth.

Ducati

If you are in the moto racing scene, then you will easily pick a Ducati out of the crowd, but for those who aren’t they made it easy to spot.

Ducati is emblazoned on their café series of bikes, usually with the model like 916 or 616 just below it. The company was started in 1926 in Italy, with the original logo the same shape as their parent company, Lamborghini.

Victory

The “V” on the Victory logo is distinct and a rallying cry to the employees to always push forward despite adversity. The wings in the symbol are for freedom and speed. Isn’t that what riding is all about.

Victory factored all that in when designing their logo and adding it to their line of heavy cruisers and stands by these principles to this day.

Kawasaki

Since the inception of Kawasaki’s high quality motorcycle line after the second world war, the logo has changed with the times, but has always maintained the essence of the original, using the name, or at least the “K”, and showing movement at speed.

However, the newest logo is simply an uppercase K, as the lines to indicate movement were found to be contrived and outdated.

Suzuki

Suzuki has been a world-wide producer of production machinery since the early 1900s, but only started with motorcycle manufacturing in 1922.

Despite the new niche of products, the founder decided his original logo had enough recognition that having a different one for their bikes would be an error, and so, all Suzuki products share this logo.

Triumph

Similar to the concept behind Victory’s logo, Triumph is a testament to the undying spirit of innovation. A British company, it was started as a bicycle manufacturer int eh late 1800s by a pair of German designers, then was shuttered for almost 80 years for many reasons few can nail down.

It resurfaced with many styles of bikes from touring to cruisers and so forth, and the logo is designed to show the company’s resilience.

Final Thoughts

Some motorcycles have a distinctive sound, like Harley Davidson’s, but that can be copied, which was done by Honda in the 80s.

Some bikes have a look that is unique, but at speed, many can resemble others in the same design scheme. But logos are unique, heavily copyrighted, and will always give away what is flying by as you watch in awe.

That is what logo marketing for bikes is all about.

Logos have been around forever, and companies across the globe use their logos to help tell their story and sell their brand. Their logo is representative of who they are and why you should buy from them.

Their logo gets to the heart of their uniqueness, and you can hear it in their stories. We discovered some interesting and cool facts about these 15 logos and thought we’d share them with you.

1. FedEx

The FedEx logo immediately caught the attention of the CEO as he noticed the forward arrow between the E and X. Was this intentional? No. It just happened to be the space between the E and the X. But the designer, Lindon Leader, was very intentional about ensuring that it looked like it stood for something.

So, to make it stand out, he used the right combination of two fonts, Univers and Futura Bold, to make the arrow look natural and unforced. FedEx has been moving forward ever since.

2. Dominos

It can be difficult to keep up when your business is growing by leaps and bounds. Someone should have forewarned Domino’s owner James Monaghan in 1965 when he came up with the logo for Domino’s. At the time of logo creation, Tom only had three Domino’s stores, so the three dots were representative of each store.

The plan was to add a dot for every store thereafter, but the business expanded so fast that he decided to not even do it. Just think, Domino’s logo could have more than 13,000 dots by now!

3. VLC Media Player

If you’ve ever wondered what the cones represent in the VLC Media Player logo, you’re probably overthinking it. Apparently, the students who were responsible for writing the code used what they had. They had collected a lot of traffic cones, so they thought it would be good to use as the logo.

4. Bluetooth

The Bluetooth wireless design was named after King Harold Bluetooth, who ruled Denmark between 958 and 986 CE. During his reign, the king united the tribes of Denmark into a single kingdom.

This analogy fits well for the Bluetooth logo since the technology unifies various devices and makes communication between them easier. The logo is a merging of two Scandinavian runes that represent the king’s initials.

5. Wikipedia

With Wikipedia being an online encyclopedia, ever-knowing to all there is, it’s not surprising that their logo would symbolize the world. The logo represents a globe constructed from puzzle pieces.

Each puzzle piece bears a character symbolizing the multilingualism of Wikipedia, and the missing pieces at the top symbolize the infinity of the knowledge, there’s more to come.

6. Android

It turns out Android can credit the male and female symbols we see on the outside of the bathroom for the inspiration that came for their logo. The logo designer needed to be inspired to create a logo that would include a robot and be easily recognized.

See if you can recognize the ideas he got from the male and female symbols seen universally outside of restrooms. Just goes to show that inspiration can come from literally anywhere!

7. BMW

Although most think the famous BMW logo symbolizes an airplane propeller, it’s much simpler than that. While it is true that the firm’s first technical creations happened to be aircraft engines, the designers chose the logo to represent the Bavarian flag. When you google the Bavarian flag, you’ll get it.

8. Pinterest

Sure, the spelling of Pinterest has the first three letters of the word pin, which symbolizes “pinning” pictures to walls. But if you look closely at the “P”, you’ll notice that the line is literally a pin that you would use to pin pictures to the wall.

9. Uber

Uber’s new logo is more synonymous with the notion that you can find an Uber anywhere you go. The logo was changed from a “U” to a symbol that is meant to resemble an atom. The new logo represents the fact that their cars can be found anywhere, just like bits or atoms.

10. Baskin Robbins

Baskin Robbins started their company in 1945 with 31 flavors of ice cream, and they made a point to include that very important number in their logo. Can you see it?

11. Ferrari

Many people probably think the Ferrari logo symbolizes horsepower, but it doesn’t. Turns out, a horse silhouette was initially painted on the plane of an Italian ace pilot Enzo Ferrari knew. The emblem was later given to Ferrari by the pilot’s mother after he won a very important race, and the rest is history.

12. Lacoste

Rene’ Lacoste made a bet and lost. The bet cost him a crocodile suitcase he desired in a shop window. Had he won his game, he would have won the suitcase. A journalist who overheard the details of the bet wrote an article about a tennis player who hadn’t won his match but fought like a crocodile.

From that point on, the name Crocodile was given to him. It only seemed right to have a crocodile serve as the logo for his company.

13. Starbucks

The inspiration for the Starbucks logo came from a myth of a fairy, a woman who was also a fish who was holding her two tails. You could see the nakedness of the woman in the 1971 version of the logo.

That logo was censored and we now see a more respectable-looking mermaid on the logo. Her hair covers her breasts, and we can no longer see her entire two tails, only the ends of it on both sides of her.

14. MGM

Since 1917, Metro Goldwyn Mayer, also known as MGM, has used seven different lions for the lion roar that accompanies their famous logo. It’s not as easy as you think, though. The lions have to be tamed and trained to roar on cue.

15. McDonald’s

McDonald’s thought that arousing people’s appetite would make them spend more money on their food, so in 1962 they hired a psychologist who came up with the arches. His thinking was that the red tips inside the arches resemble female breasts, which subconsciously reminds people of their happy childhood and arouses the appetite.

McDonald’s has been using the arches ever since. Who knew the favorite take out of so many families with children, had a somewhat NSFW inspiration for its logo?