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Hidden Meanings Behind The World's Most Famous Logos

The logo of an enterprise or a company is what can make or break it. A simple, easily recognisablelogo will always have a higher recall value over a complicated logo. We're sure you've wondered how the logos of some of the best known companies of the world were conceived. Good call because some of them have some amazing stories behind them, and some hidden meanings too. Take a look!

Ever looked at Adidas' symbol as a mountain? Well, that's exactly what it's supposed to mean. The three stripes, which were part of the original logo in 1967, never really meant anything. It was just supposed to be unique. In the '90s, though, they slanted the stripes so that it would represent a mountain, which stands for the obstacles people need to overcome. After all, impossible is nothing.

While the arrow does look like a smiley, that's not what it stands for. Notice how the arrow is pointing from the 'a' to the 'z'? This represents the fact that Amazon provides a variety of items for sale, literally from A to Z.

Ifyou thought the apple had anything to do with Newton's law of gravity, you're wrong. However, if you thought that the Apple logo had to do with the creation story of Adam and Eve, then you guessed correctly. It represents the forbidden fruit from the "Tree of Knowledge".

Four hoops. Just a plain and simple design, right? Well, wrong. In fact, each of these hoops stands for the 4 founding companies of the Auto-Union Consortium way back in 1932 - DKW, Horch, Wanderer and Audi.

BMW has a history in aviation and its logo actually stays true to its roots. The blue and white represent a propeller in motion with the sky peeking through. In fact, BMW had a role in World War II as a creator of aircraft engines for the German military. Pretty cool, ain't it?

The Google logo has four primary colors in a row before it's broken by a secondary color. Actually, Google wanted to show that they don't play by the rules and are also playful without making the symbol bulky. To do that, they just used simple letters and colors.

The FedEx logo is an interesting one! At first glance, all you can really notice are the two different colors. But if you look closely, you can see an arrow is created between the spaces of the letter 'E' and 'X', representing the company's forward-thinking ways and outlook towards the future.

The white lines passing through give the appearance of the 'equal to' sign in the lower right corner, representing equality. In fact,IBMs logo has a hidden message for the whole world hidden in the big blue logo that represents its company.

Yes, it really means "M" for McDonald's and there really isn't any other meaning McDonald's had intended. Instead, it came to mean something unintentionally by customers, at least according to design consultant and psychologist Louis Cheskin. In the '60s, McDonald's wanted to change their logo but Cheskin insisted on leaving the golden arches. He said it's because customers unconsciously recognise the logo as "symbolism of a pair of nourishing breasts" (via BBC). Whether we unconsciously believe this or not, Cheskin convinced them and now the logo is one of the most recognisable in the world. I personally, never have, and never will see them as breasts of any form.

The Mercedes-Benz logo is the most confident one of the bunch. The tri-star is representative of the company's dominance in quality and style over all things land, sea and air.

In2008, Pepsi spent $1 million to pay Arnell Associates to come up with the new logo (the old is on the left and the new, on the right). As a result, Pepsi had to pay millions more to re-brand everything. Then Arnell's document was leaked and it was entitled, "Breathtaking Design Strategy." It proposes that the new logo is some kind of Da Vinci Code. According to Arnell's document, the Pepsi logo draws on Feng Shui, the Renaissance, the Earth's Geodynamo, the theory of relativity, the universe, and more.The Pepsi logo is the key to the universe. All this, and still 2nd to Coke. Ouch!

The three ellipses that are found in the logo for Toyota represent three hearts: the heart of the customer, the heart of the product, and the heart of progress in the field of technology. Aw, so sweet Toyota.

Volkswagen keeps its logo very simple, but heartwarming as well. The 'V' and the 'W' can easily be seen. 'Volks', in German, means people, while 'Wagen' means car. It's the car for the people! Can't get simpler than this.