The evolution of brand logos

A logo is the entrance door for any business as it creates the first impression. And successful logos are immediately recognisable and reflect the brand's message.

However, markets and trends change. Thus, what might have been an excellent logo in the past, may have become obsolete now.

Evolution helps brands stay fresh and relevant. By looking at the logo, packaging, product, and advertising designs of a brand, by comparing their early branding iterations with the latest version, we get a clear picture of what has changed and what has stayed the same over a period of time.

The changes also allow us to see what was trendy during a particular time as characteristics like typography, layout, patterns, and colours have a significant impact on logos and almost every era followed the same pattern.

Here is an example of four companies that have changed their logos over time.

Grameenphone

Grameenphone, commonly abbreviated as GP, is one of the two Telenor networks that carry Telenor's corporate branding but not the Telenor name.

In fact, GP used to have a different logo in the beginning as well.

Iqbal Quadir and Dr Muhammad Yunus founded Grameenphone to provide universal mobile phone access throughout Bangladesh, including the rural areas.

Iqbal Quadir was moved by the idea of microcredit of Grameen Bank, envisioning a business model where a cell phone can serve as a source of income.

The logo was thus designed in green and red colours - colours of the national flag.

Visually, the logo contained a green male face figure, and a female face figure in front with a red mobile phone over her ears and a red nose pin.

The logo both resembled connectivity and empowerment.

The logo continued till 2006, and it was changed to the current logo to match with Telenor's logo.

Biman Bangladesh Airlines

Biman Bangladesh Airlines, commonly known as Biman, is the national flag carrier of Bangladesh. The airline was created in February 1972, right after the independence of Bangladesh.

Biman's logo - the Balaka (stylised white stork) inside a red circle was designed in 1972 by painter Quamrul Hassan.

The logo was, however, changed for two months in 2010 but it was reinstated later after having found out that the father of the nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman liked and approved the previous logo of the flag carrier.

Though the logo has remained the same, the livery of the airline has changed a few times.

After the launch of Biman, the initial livery had been a dark blue line extending across the aircraft along with the windows and covering the tail section, replaced in the 1980s by the dark green and red lines - matching the colours of the Bangladeshi flag.

Banglalink

After their launch in 2005, Banglalink decided to go with the stripe and colour of Bangladesh's national animal - the Royal Bengal Tiger.

The design was simple - an orange square with the stripes of the Bengal Tiger and Banglalink's name written underneath in small letters.

Also, the text colours were green and orange. Though the story of why the initial colour was green has been lost.

One assumption is that the green in Bangla resembled the greenery and forests of Bangladesh.

Later, in 2006 the logo was changed for the first time. This time, the font became orange.

However, the logo was once again changed within a few years. The new logo got a 3D orange template with a white outline.

The 3D logo continued as Banglalink's brand image till July 2020 before a newer version was launched in August this year.

This time, following the minimalism trend, the logo was designed minimalistically with a Helvetica font.

The famous orange canvas has shifted from its white bolded outline, and the dark sketching on the canvas is now asymmetric.

BTV World

BTV World, a television channel owned by the Bangladeshi government, has seen several logo changes since it started broadcasting in 2014. 

The first logo of BTV World had a TV made of the Bangladeshi flag colours, and the words "BTV World" was embedded inside. 

Later, in the changed logo the text was placed underneath the TV set logo.

And in the final and current version of the logo, the text was changed again to match the text design of BTV's original logo.

Robi

Robi Axiata (meaning "sunray"), formerly Aktel GSM, has changed its logo only once since it started its journey in Bangladesh in 1997 as a joint venture between Telekom Malaysia and the local AK Khan Group.

The initial logo Atel was just the name of AK khan telecom in a shorter form and the GSM written underneath was just the technology used in mobile devices.

The other technology was CDMA - which, at that time, was used by Citycell only.

Later, the company was renamed Axiata (Bangladesh) Ltd after Japanese NTT DoCoMo bought AK Khan's 30 percent share of AKTEL in 2008.

As the company was renamed, the logo was rebranded as well. The word Robi was chosen as it carries a range of meanings representing the emotional and cultural bonds of Bangladeshis, and the prism is just the identification of Axiata.

Robi's idea to add the word in the logo was the vision that Bangladesh's future telecom market will be rural-based, and a Bangla word will add more value to the company.