Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • you see them everywhere you go in your smart phones and computers, on building walls and even beneath your feet.

  • They have invaded every sphere of your life and you welcome them Legos.

  • Thes little plastic pieces are everywhere, and kids just love him.

  • Wait, What?

  • It's logos, not Legos.

  • Oops, My bad.

  • All right, let's start again.

  • Logos.

  • Which secrets do they hide?

  • And how come they're so omnipresent?

  • It all started way back in ancient Egypt.

  • Come on, I'll send you there.

  • There you go.

  • People back then used.

  • Hire a glitch fix to communicate.

  • Instead of letters and words, they drew pictures that bore the same meaning.

  • So they, for example, mark their property with a set of symbols.

  • And those were the first actual logos.

  • But Egyptians didn't just right Aimo Tepes stuff on things.

  • They were great artists, and their works were very symbolic.

  • In fact, the grid system they used in paintings is still a thing in today's corporate logos, hopping a bit forward in time to ancient Greece around 500 BC, and here you find yourself in a rich merchant's mansion.

  • Know where we speak?

  • Answer.

  • You look at the letter.

  • He's riding See that little stone thing on his desk?

  • It's a signature seal.

  • It's made of a flat piece of quartz and bears the image of a horse and a name engraved on it.

  • The merchant finishes writing for some wax on the papyrus and stamps his seal on it.

  • Now, wherever this letter goes, it'll be recognized as written by, Let's See, ah, pious Augusta's never heard of him anyway.

  • These seals our ancestors of modern, animalistic logos.

  • All right, let's go forward.

  • Still to the Middle Ages.

  • Europe.

  • Recognize the town?

  • Of course you don't.

  • It's too small yet, and yet you're standing in the 14th century Paris.

  • It's way too early for the iconic Eiffel Tower, but I've brought you here for something else.

  • Look at that shield on the gates.

  • Over there.

  • There's a sailing boat on a red field and gold flowers on blue.

  • This is the city's coat of arms, and these things can be called the logo's of medieval times.

  • Every respectable house in town had its own code of arms.

  • Paris is, for example, symbolized its river trade granted by the monarch.

  • Hence the boat and golden Florida Lee, a symbol of royalty images were used in heralding because the majority of people were illiterate.

  • In the middle, agents on Lee monks and aristocrats could read and write, so they found a way to show everyone who's the boss.

  • Later, let's travel a bit further.

  • Cities became more important, and people move from rural areas where they had lived off the land to urban ones.

  • They couldn't grow or make everything they needed now.

  • So trade specialists appeared they needed some identification.

  • And since most people still couldn't read, they resorted to pictures.

  • Does that strike pole look familiar?

  • Well, it should.

  • It's a barbershop, those metal scissors hanging over there.

  • A tailor's on anvil.

  • You guessed it.

  • It's a blacksmith.

  • But what really changed the game was the printing press.

  • There you go.

  • Hey, are you okay?

  • Feeling dizzy?

  • Breathe deeply.

  • It'll pass.

  • All right.

  • Good.

  • See that gentleman over there?

  • His name is Johannes Gutenberg, and he's the man.

  • We should all thank for printed newspapers and books.

  • And well, the ladder was printed and circulated on Lee for their contents.

  • Newspaper dealers saw an opportunity to make money from advertisements.

  • A shoemaker who wanted to become more well known paid for putting his name and signature into a big newspaper.

  • And that was the beginning of the modern era of logos.

  • Now get a hold of yourself, were leaping forward again.

  • It's the middle of the 19th century, and the industrialization is at full speed.

  • Printing has become very common, and color prints have popped up everywhere.

  • Businesses both big and small, used it to their advantage and invented ads for themselves to attract attention on Lee.

  • Now they weren't just using names, they had brands, and they needed to show them off somehow.

  • One of the first to do that was Coca Cola, and its logo has remained largely unchanged since that.

  • The choice of color for it, by the way, was not by chance.

  • Even today, you can see lots of companies using the color red in their brand names and logos.

  • Read immediately catches the eye we associated with several things at once.

  • Read heart is a symbol of love and compassion.

  • Red Cross is known worldwide to be the symbol of medicine and red traffic.

  • Light means you should stop and wait.

  • Animals and insects also use red colored award off predators or attract mates That's where brands got the idea and made their logos read to seeing a bright red flash.

  • Even with the corner of your eye, you instinctively turn your head and look at it anyway.

  • In the beginning of the 20th century, logos became commonplace, and even non commercial organizations adopted the idea.

  • Take, for instance, the Olympic Rings logo symbolizing the unity of the five continents of the world.

  • But the rial boom of the modern era of logos came in the 19 fifties, when Paul ran the legend among graphic designers, came up with his own vision and created the iconic IBM logo.

  • Since then, symbols have sprung up everywhere.

  • Colors, signs, icons.

  • Everything that bears any meaning apart from the literal has found its way into the logos I've already told you about the color.

  • Red and blue, for example, is used to inspire confidence and trust.

  • No wonder many insurance companies use it in their logos.

  • They want their clients to be sure of them.

  • Banks and other financial organizations make a lot of use of it, too.

  • It's also the color of the star of life, the six pointed star sign you can see on ambulances especially in the US Green is the universally accepted color of nature, which is pretty logical.

  • Organizations devoted to environment protection try to use at least some green elements in their logos, and even the word green itself has become a symbol of safety for the planet.

  • Green color is also a frequent guest and companies that promote a healthy lifestyle.

  • Organizations love hidden symbols, too.

  • If you look at the Tour de France logo, for instance, you probably won't notice it without a prompt.

  • But there's a hidden picture of a cyclist, innit?

  • Amazon has a stylized arrow that goes from Letter A to Z, which not only means you can order anything imaginable there, but that you'll also be happy with your purchase.

  • The arrow is a smile, too.

  • Wikipedia has a logo that comprises various language from around the world in a puzzle.

  • But it's still unsolved, which is to show that the encyclopedia is never complete.

  • Well, there are many more curious examples to brands and logos.

  • Which ones can you remember?

  • Share them in the comments below.

  • Finally, there's that bright looking lightbulb logo I keep seeing on YouTube makes me want to click on it for some reason.

  • How about you?

  • Hey, if you learn something new today, then give the video alike and share it with a friend.

  • And here are some other videos I think you'll enjoy.

  • Just click to the left or right, and remember, stay on the bright side of life.

you see them everywhere you go in your smart phones and computers, on building walls and even beneath your feet.

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it