Looks like Friday’s here again, and that means it’s time for another Friday feature.
It’s another logo alphabet post today, this time focusing on companies beginning with the ever-solitary letter I.
1. The iconic logo of IBM, also known as International Business Machines Corporation, was designed in 1972 by Paul Rand. However, the company actually began all the way back in 1911 as the Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation following the merger of three separate companies. IBM invented a number of groundbreaking pieces of modern technology including the ATM, floppy disk, hard disk drive and the Watson artificial intelligence.
2. IKEA was founded by a 17 year old Ingvar Kamprad in Sweden in 1943, its name formed by his initials (IK) followed by those of Elmtaryd and Agunnaryd, which are the names of the farm and village where he grew up respectively. Amusingly, IKEA’s huge amount of self-assembly furniture has made it the world’s third largest consumer of wood, it coming in behind The Home Depot and Lowe’s.
3. Intel’s name is a portmanteau of the words Integrated and Electronics (not Intelligence, as is often incorrectly assumed), and was founded on the 18th of July 1968. The company produced the first commercial microprocessor chip in 1971, and during the 1990s adverts featuring the slogan “Intel Inside” made both it and its now famous Pentium processor household names.
4. Industrial Light & Magic is the name George Lucas gave to the production company he founded in May 1975 when he found out that 20th Century Fox’s special effects department had been shut down just as he was given to go-ahead to make Star Wars. The company’s original logo was designed by famous movie poster artist Drew Struzan, and featured a classic top hatted magician conjuring a ball of light as he emerged from a cog.
5. Icon Productions was founded in the August of 1989 by Mel Gibson (and Bruce Davey, his Australian producing partner) when he experienced trouble financing his 1990 film Hamlet. Icon has produced a variety of films including What Women Want, The Singing Detective and Gibson’s controversial The Passion of the Christ. The logo itself is a small section of the Theotokos of Vladimir icon, which depicts Mary and the baby Jesus.
Next we’ll be looking at logos beginning with the letter J, which you can make suggestions for if you feel so inclined. Simply leave a comment here, tweet us @thelogocompany using the #fridayfeature hash tag or leave a message on our Facebook page.