The evolution of logo designing could be traced back to the Ancient Greece, when the rulers and their dynasties used to use cipher as a monogram in their coins. However the modern logo designing dates back to the pre-industrial society when people used to do direct trade with craftsmen, grocer and farmers etc.  At that time pottery, furniture, stonework etc. used to come with the stamp of the craftsmen, which was consider as a signature for trade. Afterwards, with industrial revolution, the direct trade between manufacturer and purchaser ended and things started being produced and packed in bulk quantity.  It was the time when the use of business logo came out as a significant thing to differentiate companies and their products among each other.

It was little about the evolution of logo designing. In this writing we have taken Nokia Corporation’s logo as a case study. Nokia is already well-known for its state-of-the-art mobile and network equipments technology, but most of us don’t know how the company and its logo evolved.

Nokia first logo 1966:

In 1865, Engineer Fredrik Idestam established a wood pulp mill on the banks of the TammerKoski rapids in the town of Tampere, in southern Finland. Later in 1868, he built second mill by the Nokianvirta River, which gave the Nokia its name. In 1871, Idestam and his friend Leo Mechelin, renamed and transformed the firm into a share company, thereby founding the Nokia Company.

The first logo of Nokia was created in 1966 showing the image of a fish. This image should be inspired by the salmon fish of Nokianvirta River.

1898: Finnish Rubber Works:

In 1898, Eduard Polón founded the Finnish Rubber Works, which later became Nokia’s rubber business. The new company tried producing many products like papers, bicycle, car tires, footwear, communication cables, electricity generation machineries, televisions, aluminum, capacitors, and lot more.

At that time Nokia adopted a triangular shape logo, in which the name of a company and the date of foundation were written in red color.

1967: The merger

In 1967, three companies, which were jointly owned since 1922 by Nokia, officially merged and created Nokia Corporation. The three companies were Nokia Ab, Finnish Cable Works, and Finnish Rubber Works.
After the merger, Nokia Corporation adopted the logo which was all black rounded shape emblem, in which “Nokia” was written in white.

Nokia Arrow Logo

At the start of its telecommunication equipment manufacturing, Nokia adopted the logo which was quite similar to the current one, but with the light blue color and the arrow like shape pointing upward. Arrow in the logo represents the Nokia’s progress and advancement in telecommunication industry.

Nokia “Connecting People” Logo

There is no doubt that Nokia has become the no. 1 company in mobile communication. On one hand, its mobile phones and gadgets have been infiltrating globally in mobile markets, and on the other hand, Nokia offers corporate functions which include multimedia devices and applications, enterprise solutions and network services.
The current Nokia logo is a simple blue emblem with a slogan “connecting people”, which rightly portrays the company’s image as a telecommunication company, removing the barriers and distance of communication for people around the world.

Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia
Ref: http://www.nokia.com/about-nokia/company/story-of-nokia/nokias-first-century

A small bio:
This is guest post from Ben Johnson of Logoinn, custom logo design service provider based in UK.

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Tags: logo design

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