Althouse: Have you ever noticed the arrow hidden in the FedEx logo?

May 18, 2009

Have you ever noticed the arrow hidden in the FedEx logo?

Things hidden in logos.

Via Metafilter, where somebody inevitably links to that famous accidental image.

ADDED: A Metafilter commenter detects plagiarism.

25 comments:

fivewheels said...: I don't know that the FedEx arrow really adds anything obviously meaningful. It's not clever in the way that most of the others are.

As a kid, for years I completely failed to notice that the Milwaukee Brewers' logo was more than just a glove.; 5/18/09, 2:47 PM
BJM said...: Or things hidden in parking lots?(h/t Kaus); 5/18/09, 2:52 PM
fivewheels said...: The ideas for the Marriage and Zip logos are neither clever nor in any way hidden. And the crossed t's in Lafayette just look like a capital A. Low marks for those.

Hidden is the wrong word -- embedded is closer.; 5/18/09, 2:53 PM
Anthony said...: I feel extremely appalled at myself for never noticing the Big 10 one.; 5/18/09, 4:03 PM
john said...: fivewheels - There's a can of beer in that logo, correct?; 5/18/09, 4:04 PM
Leland said...: My understanding with the Big Ten was that the Big 12, previously Big 8, trade marked Big 11, 12, and 13 when considering expansion.; 5/18/09, 4:07 PM
BJK said...: fivewheels - There's a can of beer in that logo, correct?John, since I don't know if you're serious...the old 'Ball and Glove' logo for the Milwaukee Brewers is formed out of the letters 'm' and 'b'.

From the linked article, I have to point out that the g in the fuga logo could just as easily be a q -- which isn't what I'd call a great logo. (Then again, I also didn't notice the thing with the Brewers logo for about 10 years as a kid.); 5/18/09, 4:10 PM
Salamandyr said...: And in the camel, there's totally a little man.; 5/18/09, 4:14 PM
pdug said...: The Presbyterian Church (USA) has a nice logo.

http://www.pcusa.org/graphics/images/symbol.gif; 5/18/09, 4:23 PM
Wince said...: Is FedEx using Britney Spears' likeness?; 5/18/09, 4:47 PM
Issob Morocco said...: Gotta love the Big Ten 11, which most likely will add a twelve once ND is excommunicated from the Catholic Football League.

Big Ten 11 + 1

Where in the devil did P&G's old logo go?

BTW, it is the Other suBliminAl eMbedded messAges, not clearly vISible, That you don't see tHat you all should bE wOrried aNd concErned about!!! ;-); 5/18/09, 4:57 PM
Douglas said...: The secret of the FedEx logo was covered quite thoroughly by Steve at thesneeze.com here. Also, interesting take on other arrow related logos.; 5/18/09, 5:03 PM
Unknown said...: Fivewheels,

Its not just an arrow, its what FedEx does as a business: shipping an item from one place to a designated place. If you look carefully, you will see
"o -> X" suggested in the letter forms between dEX.; 5/18/09, 5:40 PM
rhhardin said...: The Wall Street Journal has a period after the Journal.; 5/18/09, 5:42 PM
rhhardin said...: Chaotic logos in Kroger today, with a sign warning to ``hydrate responsibly,'' probably on the waterboarding problem.; 5/18/09, 5:47 PM
Anonymous said...: surely ann as a fine art major knows about the foreground or negativ/positive space. you learn this in drawing 101 in a junior college.

I perfected the teaching method by learning it so. Yes, that is true vanity because i am no teacher and i think it was genius.

You take a black object with a swirl or simple design. You then place it against a white wall.

next get a black piece of paper and a white piece of chalk. You are forced to draw the negative space with the white chalk to make the black object appear.

I wonder if programmers can relate to this at all with a scheduling algorithm of foreground and back ground. i do not know. i am not so programmably programmed. More artistically.

the trick comes when you can get two or more negative images out of the background in different directions. I have an example of this that is two years oldin my photography. so there are three images.; 5/18/09, 6:20 PM
knox said...: Creating even a decent logo is pretty difficult. Working in a "bonus" image--and still ending up with a graceful logo-- is quite an achievement.; 5/18/09, 6:39 PM
Henry said...: That's some breathless prose. I'm not convinced of the awesome coolness of all Johnson's picks.

I prefer Sean Farrell's list, which suggests a somewhat more discerning mind:

http://penflare.com/2009/01/the-secret-messages-of-logos/Note that Farrell's list predates Johnson's (who, ironically, includes one of Farrell's logos).; 5/18/09, 8:47 PM
NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...: I just shared with my sister that the Charmin bears were in the woods...

Same sort of thing.

A lot of those are good in-jokes for people who pay attention.; 5/18/09, 10:22 PM
Lawyer Mom said...: Funny you should ask. My son spotted it when he was four and, being his mom, I remain impressed.; 5/18/09, 11:08 PM
Anonymous said...: open university, not a bad logo in and of itself either.

downloadable lessons in math and somewhere a video on the web which is madatory stuff for design 101 and math students.

need i remind you of islamic tessellations before someone yells out escher. or might that bring up some kind of hate mongering.

If you were listening carefully, you would have seen why yusuf was standing his ground last week.; 5/18/09, 11:10 PM
blake said...: Both Althouse and Henry's links include a logo called "Heartbeats" and say that it's two bent musical notes.

Do others perceive those notes? (Would they without having them pointed them out?) I didn't see them, and I still don't. They look like a "d" and "b".; 5/19/09, 1:01 AM
Eric said...: My favorite logo is the one for the British Office of Government Commerce, which some wag has rnamed "Oh God, Cock!"; 5/19/09, 2:18 AM
Fred4Pres said...: That famous accident image resulted in Junior; and we love him just as much.; 5/19/09, 6:54 AM
Henry said...: ADDED: A Metafilter commenter detects plagiarism.That certainly seems probable (see my 8:47 PM above).; 5/19/09, 12:49 PM