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A lot of the giant technology brands and companies you know and love today didn’t look anything like they do now when they first started. Just look at their original logos: almost always butt ugly, but slowly grew into what they are now. Here are the humblest beginnings for all to see:
The fine folks at Stock Logos compared famous logos with their original forms, and it’s hilarious to see how unrecognizable they all are now. They’re universally awful. Who gave the okay on some of these? Were they made as a joke? See for yourself below.
Microsoft
Probably my favourite original logo from a tech company because it looks awesomely old and nostalgic. It’s so obvious Microsoft was started in the 70s.
Apple
Could you imagine this logo behind all those laptops lids, all those phones and tablets and all those movies and TV shows?
Motorola
Was this just somebody’s signature?
RCA
What do people like? Oh yeah, dogs! Let’s add a dog in our logo. Done.
Canon
I can’t even try to interpret this one but I think I saw someone with a tattoo of this before.
AT&T
AT&T gets the Razzy award for the most words one can cram in a logo.
Nintendo
The house of Mario’s original logo actually looks like Japanese Marlboro Reds.
IBM
This looks like the logo that inspired Planet Hollywood.
Kodak
Is that a twisted form of Hangman? Is it in Chinese? Maybe it’s a wax seal. Whatever it was, it looks like a much better version of IBM’s.
Xerox
Another fun one because it looks so dated, this is how I imagine all vintage things to look.
Nokia
No matter what you make in Finland, it somehow always come back to fish.
LEGO
Not exactly a tech company but I’m glad I can always count on Lego to be sensible.
A children’s toy company.
Firefox
It’s a Pokemon!
The Al Pacino face was always a little bit creepy. Guess they were trying to warn us.
By far the ugliest original logo of all time. And it’s the most recent!
For more logo fun ugliness (especially for non-tech companies) be sure to check out Stock Logos’ full comparison on original and current logos. They even culled together a piece on how some of these logos might evolve, with hilarious predictions of what they’ll look like in the future. [Stock Logos via Laughing Squid]
What If Tech Companies Used These Beautiful Vintage Logos?
The 9 Most Terrible Tech Tattoos
Check Out the Original Logos From These 10 Brands
I actually think the Eastman Kodak logo looks surprisingly contemporary for something over 100 years old!
Quite a good look at how many of these logos have adapted over the years – http://www.logoeps.com/the-evolution-of-tech-companies-logos/6472/
The RCA logo is now the logo for HMV
the wiki article explains it all, I was going to try and explain it in short terms but my sleep deprived brains says no :L
oops forgot the link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/His_Master's_Voice
Bugger, you beat me to it star maker! I should read the article and the comments before spending a five minutes on research…
Star maker ?
http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2011/11/youre-invited-to-giz-uks-launch-party-shindig/#comment-10889
Paha, I truly do have an atrocious memory :L thanks for reminding me
No they weren’t they were just produced in a different time. The RCA Victor one is from the 30′s. Saying something is terrible just because it was made before your grandparents were born is like complaining about the lack of airbags on the model T.
Twitter, on the other hand, has no excuse. Was the original logo thought up by the creators of twitter or did they get it done professionally? If the latter I would love to hear the design brief and the creators notes on why they think this accurately represents the brand.
I love the Apple Logo. That’s awesome, if I could buy an engraving of that or something I’d stick it over the logo on my existing Mac.
Incidentally http://highonglue.com/ipad-2-leather-book-cover-old-apple-logo/
Second ugliest would have to go to this one. I mean, what is that pixelated mess?
http://howtosplitanatom.com/wp-content/old_gizmodo_big.bmp