Big names ahead

Once you see it, you’ll never unsee it: 12 brand logos’ hidden messages

Image: Yucel Moran

A good logo has to communicate what the brand it represents is all about. It should do so in the simplest and most elegant way possible, conveying the brand’s spirit and core concept. The following 12 famous brands have managed to create iconic logos that not only represent them successfully but also include a subtle, partially hidden message. Did you know about any of these?

Image: James Orr

The name of the French supermarket chain means "intersection" in its native language. This meaning is clearly reflected in its logo, with its two arrows pointing in opposite directions. Additionally, hidden in the space between the arrows you can see the shape of the letter "C."

Image: BoliviaInteligente

Amazon’s logo has a ubiquitous online presence. It’s simple, and it has been streamlined over the years. If you’ve ever wondered what the arrow beneath the logo means, take a look at its starting and ending points: it goes from A to Z.

Image: Zozz_

The name Cisco comes from the common abbreviation of San Francisco, its hometown. The logo portrays the two towers of the Golden Gate Bridge, arranged in a shape that also suggests a sound wave.

Image: Bangyu Wang

Why does Apple’s logo have a bite mark on it? The reason is practical: if there was no bite mark, the smaller versions of the logo—used on a variety of gadgets including the iPhone—might look like a cherry.

Image: jp26jp

The FedEx logo looks quite normal, but it hides a small detail, overlooked by most: between the second "E" and the "x," the negative space forms a small arrow pointing forward, symbolizing speed and precision.

Image: Safwan C K

The triangular Swiss chocolate Toblerone uses the Matterhorn—one of Switzerland’s most iconic mountains—as its logo. But, if you look closely, inside the mountain you can spot the shape of a bear, which is the official symbol of the Swiss town of Bern, the original home of Toblerone.

Image: Eduardo Pastor

If you’ve ever wondered what the red logo of the Levi’s brand means, then you should take a look at the stitching on the back pocket of any pair of their jeans—the shape matches perfectly.

Image: Jacob McGowin

If you take a closer look at the neckline of the redheaded girl in the Wendy’s logo, you’ll notice that her shirt collar subtly spells out the word "mom." This detail is meant to evoke the feeling of home-cooked meals, just like something made by your mom.

Image: appshunter.io

The NBC logo is formed by the colors of the rainbow, which represent the colors of modern television. But at the center, you can see the shape of a peacock, with its beak pointing to the right. The colorful shapes around it represent the bird’s spread feathers.

Image: Pablo Martinez

While some people suggest that the two-colored BMB circle represents a propeller, based on the airplane manufacturing history of the brand, the truth points elsewhere. The blue and white segments actually represent the flag of Bavaria, the region where the company originated.

Image: Crystal Jo

The world’s largest chain of ice cream shops, Baskin-Robbins, is best known for offering 31 flavors of ice cream. Its logo cleverly features the number "31" highlighted in pink, hidden within the center of the design.

Image: Alexander Shatov

The stylized logo and lettermark of the electric car brand Tesla is designed to resemble the cross-section of an electric motor. Or, at least, a meaningful part of it.

Pick your next pastime

Yarn-bombing, gongoozling, and other unusual hobby names

Image: hbieser

Yarn, stones, small beautiful pictures. Some deceivingly simple objects have fascinated humans for generations. People must have found soothing peace and fun in activities built around these simple things, because, centuries later, we are still happy to spend Saturday mornings polishing mud and scavenging for old lottery tickets. Let’s explore the etymology of the names of 10 strange hobbies: Some complex names for simple pastimes, and complex pastimes with simple names.

Image: jhenning

Toy voyaging is responsible for certain toys, like teddy bears or fairy dolls, having traveled to more countries than most people ever do. Travelers who practice this hobby help in the collective endeavor of moving certain tagged toys on journeys and documenting their adventures with photos and diary entries, usually online.

The etymology for this hobby is straightforward, but the term was coined by an online community self-proclaimed "ToyVoyagers" who help keep track of all the moving toys and their log history. The practice helped bring together people from all over the world who once held and cared for these toys, and who log in once in a while to see pictures of these celebrity teddies near world-famous landmarks.

Image: Linda Söndergaard

It is said that, by now, millions of geocaches are stashed around the world. But what are they? Geocaches, or caches, are containers hidden in specific locations as an incentive for people to play a worldwide game: Geocaching. It’s a large-scale, real-world, outdoor treasure hunt of capsules that have been conceived, in some cases, for decades. The modern take on this classic game is that participants use GPS and smartphone apps to navigate to these locations.

The term comes from the combination of geo, the Greek word for Earth, and cache, meaning a hidden storage spot. The original name for the activity was "GPS stash hunt", but it was changed by the community of geocachers to avoid any negative connotations. The first geocache was placed in Oregon in 2000, and the fascination with this activity has only grown since.

Image: Yan Krukau

In short, dorodango is the art and craft of creating perfectly round and polished balls of mud. It might remind you of rock tumbling, the act of polishing rough rocks until they are unrecognizably smooth and shiny. But this was an ancient art form that started in Japan, which a professor from Kyoto University helped bring back into modern-day practice.

In Japanese, Hikaru translates to "shining" or "bright," and dorodango refers to a ball of mud. It is considered a meditative and delicate process: of course, it might take hours or days to perfect a ball of mud until it gleams like marble, but that’s the point of setting out to do it. It gained a lot of popularity worldwide thanks to social media, where fanatics of minimalism and quiet craftsmanship got on board.

Image: johnrp

Have you ever been walking down the street when you found, well… a tree trunk wrapped in yarn? This is the result of an activity also known as "guerrilla knitting." Its goal is to cover objects in public spaces with colorful knitted or crocheted yarn. Trees, as well as statues, benches, lamposts, or mailboxes, are often recipients of these decorations which explore intricate shapes and patterns.

The term combines "yarn," referring to the material, with "bombing," a slang term reserved for sudden or unexpected artistic actions, like graffiti. In 2011, a large-scale yarn bombing project took place in Austin, Texas, where over 99 trees were covered with yarn for the city’s annual "Knitta, Please" project. The wholesome part of yarn bombing is that it is considered a non-destructive form of street art.

Image: Chait Goli

Strange as the term may sound, if you’ve ever been near a bridge or canal lock, you might have found yourself gongoozling. It simply means to leisurely watch boats and vessels as they pass through canals or waterways. The word originated in 19th-century English, combining gawn (to stare) and gooze (a dialect word for "to gape") to refer to a very curious observation.

The activity is particularly popular in the U.K. and is promoted to encourage tourism around its scenic canals. Sometimes this is compared with trainspotting, although that one consists of recognizing and cataloging trains instead of just watching them.

Image: Adonyi Gábor

Have you ever gone to the theatre and forever saved the program? Well, that’s not far from what an ephemera collector might do. Deriving from the Greek ephemeros, meaning "short-lived," this is the term given to the hobby of conserving items originally meant for short-term use. For example, gathering and collecting event tickets, posters, envelopes, newspapers, and so on.

Collectors are fascinated with how these objects contain a historical snapshot of their lives or important eras or trends. There’s even an Ephemera Society’s Fairs held in many parts of the world, where enthusiasts share the rarest finds, going back to even Victorian postcards.

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If you were to win the lottery, most likely you would frame the winning ticket and praise it often. But lotology enthusiasts collect all sorts of lottery tickets, not just the successful ones. Lotologists are fascinated with the variety of designs, printing techniques, historical value, and cultural significance of lottery tickets from around the world, used or unused.

The name derives from lot- referring to lottery tickets, and the suffix -ology, meaning the study of something. Some of the most fascinating finds in this area have been winning tickets from long expired lotteries, or the first drawn tickets from major famous lotteries.

Image: Artem Beliaikin

Petit-Tube is an online site that bases its content on the titan of online videos: YouTube. A French digital artist created this site in 2011 with one simple goal: To show visitors one random video that, at the time of consulting, had zero views.

This hobby, tailored for the most curious digital surfers, often leads to people supporting small or growing channels and providing an audience for strangers who are posting their videos and hoping to be seen. Also, viewers might find hidden gems before they go viral, or underappreciated funny, bizarre, or moving scenes.

Image: Pixabay

Of course, if a loved one sent you a postcard from a faraway city while on vacation, you’d be inclined to keep it. But would you keep a stack of postcards with nothing written in them? A deltiologist would. Deltiology is the hobby of collecting postcards, which can range from vintage cards depicting landmarks to rare, limited-edition releases. You may have guessed it: Deltiology is one of the most popular collecting hobbies in the world.

Some people find these unique postcards in shops while traveling, but others, interested in the exceptionally rare, browse sites like eBay to expand their collections. The term derives from the Greek word deltion, which refers to small writing tablets or letters.

Image: Snapwire

Short for "urban exploration," the term urbex means exploring abandoned or off-limits urban spaces. A forgotten theatre, country house, hospital, or an entire ghost town, can be the center of an adventure for urban explorers.

Usually, the thrill is based on discovering and documenting these eerie spots. Many urbex-ers share online videos and pictures of their findings, and the hobby has also inspired many documentaries and exhibitions. Enthusiasts often follow the "Leave No Trace" rule, which means they avoid causing damage or leaving behind any evidence of their visit.