We’ve all looked back at photos from our misbegotten youth, seen the fashions we once thought were cutting edge, and asked ourselves, “What were we thinking?” Well, technology companies are certainly not immune to this phenomenon. These six early technology company logos should its not only hair styles and clothing that has come a long way over the years.

1. Six drastic technology company
logo evolutions
We’ve all looked back at photos from our
misbegotten youth, seen the fashions we
once thought were cutting edge, and
asked ourselves, “What were we
thinking?”
Well, technology companies are certainly
not immune to this phenomenon.
These six early technology company logos
show that its not only hair styles and
clothing that have come a long way over
the years.
Image courtesy of luigi diamanti at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
By Jeff Jedras

2. Adobe
While Adobe is now a leader in
digital design, fonts have always
been at the core of its
business, which makes the font
choice in their first logo …
well, interesting.
But as a startup on a shoestring
when it was founded in 1982, co-
founder John Warnock’s wife Marva
was drafted to design the original
logo.

3. Apple
Before moving to an ever-evolving
series of more literal apple logos,
Apple’s first logo was a bit more
artistic, perhaps representing the
interests of co-founder Steve Jobs.
Drawn by fellow Apple co-founder
Ronald Wayne (who shortly
thereafter gave up his share for just
$2,300 – ouch), it depicts Sir Isaac
Newton, he of the theory of gravity,
sitting under an apple tree.

4. Canon
Japanese camera manufacturer Canon was
initially known as Kwanon, as this logo
developed for the launch of its first product
in 1933 shows.
This logo only lasted a year, moving to a
more simple word-only logo. It became
Canon in 1935, and would evolve over the
years into the familiar logo we know today.
Those that find their zen in photography
will no doubt appreciate the original,
though.

5. Microsoft
Designed in 1975 when Bill Gates and
Paul Allen founded the company to
develop and sell Basic interpreters for
the Altair 8800, Microsoft’s first logo
was simple, at least – no falling Apples
or religious deities -- although we can’t
say much for their font choice.
A few years later the Micro and the
Soft would come together.

6. IBM
IBM traces its roots back to the Bundy
Manufacturing Company in 1888, which
in 1889 became The International Time
Recording Company (ITR), and created
this logo as it brought its line of
mechanical time recorders to market.
It would be 1924 before the company
became International Business Machines,
and 1947 before the logo would be
recognizable to us today.
The current logo does owe much though
to the simplicity of this original.

7. Nokia
Along with Canon, and perhaps Apple,
Nokia has to share the prize for largest
logo evolution.
While they’re all about mobile phones
today, Nokia was actually founded in
1868 as a wood pulp mill – its riverside
location both powering the mill and
explaining the fishy logo.
It would later merge with a cable
works and a rubber works, before
moving into telecommunications.