The "And...You Thought The Name Was Something Fancy" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Viewing a dozen or more of my favorite sites and came across two very different topics, but also very similar.  One topic was how iconic brands got their logos while the other was how companies got their name.  Both were fun to read as well as guessing whom they might have been.  I thought I would share some of what I discovered as an extra read for you today.  Hope I have been keeping you busy reading during our time at home during the current crisis.

The Nike swoosh is easily recognizable all over the world.  It was designed by a design student at Portland State University in 1971.  At the time, co-founder of Nike, Phil Knight, hired Carolyn Davidson to work for his company Blue Ribbon Sports in the late 1960s.  He had her design a logo to show speed while she was a student at Portland State.  She presented him with five potential designs, one of which was the Nike swoosh.  At first he wasn't too keen on the design, but liked it the best of the five designs.  He paid Carolyn $35 for the design.  When Blue Ribbon Sports renamed their company Nike, the swoosh became their logo.  Luckily for Carolyn, she was gifted a portion of Nike stock and a gold swoosh ring for her contribution to Nike's success.

The Apple logo was designed as a tribute to Alan Turing, an early leader in artificial intelligence research.  He deciphered German codes during WWII and was the first man to plant the technological seeds for the contemporary computer.  One day Alan bit into an apple which was laced with cyanide and died.  Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, founders of Apple, realized how important Alan was to the company that they used the apple with the bit missing as their logo.  Now, that's one story about how the logo come about; but it's not true.   Another story tells about Apple's logo being taken directly from the Bible; again, not true. A third story tells about the apple falling on Sir Isaac Newton's head, leading him to figure out the concept of gravity; another mis-truth.  The design actually came from a man named Rob Janoff.  The image of the apple needed the bite taken out of it to show it was an apple and not a cherry, thus the logo.  The name did come from Steve Jobs who happened to be on a fruit diet and while visiting an apple farm decided he wanted his logo to be an apple.

The Starbucks logo was a collaborative effort between Terry Heckler and Gordon Bowker.  Bowker wanted his artisan coffee to show a sense of adventure of Seattle's maritime history.  It was based on "Moby Dick" and the first mate of Captain Ahab, Mister Starbuck.  Heckler designed the 1970s logo with a mermaid in mind, complete with some rather realistic anatomical details on her chest and a forked tail, set upon a brown background.  In 1992 it was toned down a bit and changed to bright green with the mermaid's hard covering her private parts.  In 2011 the Starbucks was removed form the logo altogether so all that remains is the green mermaid.

Lego company got their name based on a simple meaning.  Lego is simply a derivation of the Danish phrase for play good: "Leg got."  It seems that it is as simple as that.  Boy, did it work!

eBay got their name due to trying to register an email account and finding that 68 others had already used the name they wanted.  Not sure what that name might have been, but founder Pierre Omidyar changed the name site to Echobay after his consulting firm.  Once again that name had been taken so he shortened it to eBay.

Reebok was named to signify freedom and elegance.  At the end of a hard day at work and heading out for a jog may take you back to something primal and liberating.  What else signals freedom and elegance?  Well, the word "antelope", which is what the name Reebok is derived from.  The Afrikaans word for "antelope" is "rheebok."

Pepsi is either the only acceptable soft drink or the bane of humanity.  Just ask my wife who thinks Pepsi is the best soda.  The name goes back to the Coke-Pepsi rivalry.  When Pepsi was founded in 1904, Caleb Davis Bradham sought to offer a healthier beverage without the stimulants of Coke.  Pepsi was actually sold in a drug store in North Carolina as "Brad's Drink."  They renamed it Pepsi which was derived from the word "Dyspepsia" which means indigestion.  The drink was alleged to have medicinal properties so "Pepsi" was born.

Häagen-Dazs reminds you of a rosy-cheeked Danish girl churning butter in sun-kissed fields with happy cows roaming on the horizon.  Hey, I would buy something like that.  But, it seems it was a mom and pop shop in the Bronx and means absolutely nothing.  Yes, it means absolutely nothing!  Mom and pop made up the word to make the ice cream sound foreign and luxurious.  And, it worked.

The previous eight products and companies are some of the most recognizable in the world and have been named or received their meaning by some of the most unusual methods.  But, at times it may be best to keep it simple.  Seemed to work in the case of all of the above.  it was another extraordinary day in life of an ordinary guy.