Company logos have always been important branding tools long before the concepts of global marketing campaigns; social media and television commercials were in use. Through the years, businesses have undergone different changes in an attempt to rebrand and gain wider appeal across their target audience. Due to this, most companies have altered their logos considerably with some introducing completely new designs with no correlation with the first ones. Other logos, however, have displayed incredible staying power and have remained the same for many decades or even centuries since the companies were founded. Though, most of the oldest logos in the world have managed to retain some of their important visual elements though others have been slightly altered.

But while the logos undergo changes and all sorts of alterations, the original intent behind the company’s logo will always be preserved and rarely known to many consumers. For instance, Shell started off as a shipping company that transported kerosene to India then brought back shells to sell in Europe. Hence, they used a shell image as part of their logo, and this has been retained to date, making it one of the oldest logos in the world.

Many companies also like retaining their original logos and use their longevity as a selling point to their customers. It is also a show that they haven’t lost roots to their founding principles, and this works to add a lot of credibility to the company before their clients.

Listed below are some of the oldest logos in the world that are still in use today. They still have a strong international presence, and they haven’t been altered significantly from the very first designs.

Stella Artois

Stella Artois logo was first used in 1336 when the company was founded in Belgium. Though the company has experienced numerous changes in management for the centuries they have been in operations, they still retain the very initial logo featuring a horn and a star resting above the name label. Presently, Stella Artois is not just found in Belgium alone, but it is present in more than 80 countries around the globe. It’s also important to point out that it is the leading Belgian beer in the international markets.

Twinning Tea

Twinning Tea logo makes it as one of the oldest logos in the world, having been around for over two centuries since the company was founded in 1887. The logo features capitalized fonts under a crest of a lion, and it has been used continuously without any alteration for the period that the London-based company has been in operations.

At the inception of the company, tea consumption did not feature a lot in the lives of many people in Britain. Coffee, beer and gin dominated most of the breakfast during the early years of the 18th century. But towards the end of the century, tea became one of the popular drinks, thus boosting Twinning Tea and in the process enhancing the brand. After ten generations, Twinning Tea is still a family owned business with a global presence and its logo makes it to the list of one of the oldest logos in the world.

Bass Ale

Bass Ale Company was founded in 1777, but their current logo has been in used since 1876. The logo features a red triangle with the word “Bass” written beneath it. One interesting fact about this one of the oldest logos in the world is that it was the first registered trademark ever to be issued by the British government. The simplicity of the design helped the company become one of the leading beer producers in London during the late 19th century.

Shell Oil

Shell Company was incorporated in 1897 as a shipping company that shipped kerosene to India then brought back seashells to sell in the British markets. The company later merged with Royal Dutch Petroleum Company and retained the logo that is now synonymous with the energy giant. The first Shell service station was opened in California in 1915, and this is the time when the yellow and the red color schemes were introduced. The Shell logo remains to be one of the oldest logos in the world, and the company is currently worth $260 billion.

Levi Strauss & Co

Levi’s logo was first used in 1886. It featured two horses, and it was used as a method of growing the market share before the patent of the jean making process expired. The logo became so popular that customers started referring Levi products as “those pants with two horses” giving birth to the Two Horse Brand until later on in 1929 when Levi Strauss trademarked the name, Levi. It is now one of the oldest logos in the world, and the company employs over 16,000 employees worldwide.

Sherwin Williams

The Sherwin-William Logo was first used in 1905, and it hasn’t undergone many alterations since then. The only changes on the logo of this manufacturer, distributor, and retailer of paints are the addition of the red and blue color and the writings “Cover the Earth”. The initial concept has been retained, and since the logo has been in use consistently for more than a century, it makes it to the list of the oldest logos in the world.

Check out these top sports logos for inspiration as well!

The post Let’s Take A Look at the Oldest Logos appeared first on LogoMaven | Easy Logo Design Software & Logo Maker.

How do you choose the best logo colors? While a startup company can provide a vast amount of value to its marketplace as well as deliver innovative solutions to its target market in order to maximize the impact that it is able to be made with its logo many elements need to be considered. Choosing the right color combination in any logo is just as essential as choosing the right graphic or the right text style. If a color scheme is offputting, unprofessional and unrelated to the content in the logo design it could easily lead to a company being passed up or having the target audience search for a new option. Here’s some of the top tips for choosing the right color combination for any logo design.

1. Understand your target audience:

Choosing the best logo color combinations for your brand is extremely important and choosing your color scheme for your own style habits is a fatal mistake. Choose the main color to resonate with your main target audience. Pick bolder colors for younger individuals or a softer color palette if you are trying to make an impact with a demographic like young mothers. Consider the emotions that each of the colors potentially signify in individuals and select colors based off of the feelings that they elicit. Colors should also at least match well together and by putting together several different colors you would like to use for your logo into a color swatch you can help to position them differently in your logo design. While it’s not a good idea to fully copy a competitor you could look into other businesses in your industry and capture a large swatch of some of the colors and basic schemes that they use to better understand the colors that are commonly used to appeal to your target audience.

2. Use the right ratio for your color scheme:

One of the most commonly used ratios in a color combination in a typical best logo colors is the 60%, 30%, 10% rule. Most common logos are made up of three different colors that make up other branding material. Designers will often pick one strong color that is used for at least 60% of the logo design. The second color will then complement the first selection and be represented in around 30% of the design. The third color is represented by just the smallest margin of a logo and usually just in 10% of the total color in a logo design. Make sure that you are extremely sure of the primary color as this will make up the majority of your logo design. After you have established some complementary colors for your logo design you can mix and match what you will use for the 30 and the 10. Laying out color schemes with 4-5 choices will help you to try several different designs in color schemes that would work well for reaching out to your audience.

3. Look into psychological meanings:

The best logo colors can have a huge effect on us psychologically. When it comes to the types of feelings that you would like your logo to convey in other people it’s important that you place an emphasis on the psychological feelings that each of the colors in your logo bring to people. While colors like blue have a calming and peaceful psychological effect that would be perfect for an environmental company or yoga wear company, if you are interested in high impact excitement you could use colors like Red and white to wake people up and really get them to notice your logo design. Think of how various colors make you feel and don’t be afraid to look into some of the main psychological responses to best logo colors and how the color schemes that you land on might help you to convey a secondary meaning or feeling from your logo.

4. Be logo unique:

While primary colors are an excellent way to get started with the creation of your color scheme, it’s important to be unique. Having your own special shade or at least colors that are slightly different from your competition can help you differentiate yourself in the marketplace. Having some type of unique color scheme for your business can make your brand even more recognizable. It may take some time to find a color scheme that works well for you that’s completely unique but with your own iconic colors people may only need to see a color swatch to associate a color with your business.

5. Think of natural inspirations:

While it’s important that a business color scheme elicits a certain response, its also possible to draw inspiration from a corporate environment or even the area around the business. We start to associate a number of different colors with the time of year like fall colors or spring colors. You may even want to take natural inspiration from various colors in your business. For example, if you are a brewer one of the most obvious colors that you could pick would be some of the colors from your beer products. If you have a particular shade of ale or lager for example you could incorporate this natural color into your branding.

Use these top five tips for choosing the correct color combination. Don’t forget to check out our Top 5 questions you should ask clients starting a logo design project as well, to see how you can improve the flow of your design project.

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