|The Christian fish logo.|
|The Christian Chi Rho symbol dates|
back to around the third century AD.
"A picture is worth a thousand words." It's a very old, trite and true, axiom dating back so far no one really knows how far it dates back. Nowhere is this ancient observation more meaningful than in the art of logo design. A logo is a symbol. Today, logo designs are used to represent everything from corporate identities, to consumer products and services, charitable institutions, government bureaus, and religious organizations. In fact, likely the oldest logo still in common usage is religious in nature. Even older than the iconic Christian cross is the Christian fish (above, left). The simple arching lines had their origin as an acronym, Iota, Chi, Theta, Ypsilon Sigma, meaning Jesus Christ God Son Savior--ICHTYS the Greek work for fish. The symbol seems first to have appeared during the first century AD and to have been used intermittently down through the ages, gaining renewed favor during the 1970s and since. Almost as old is the Greek Chi Rho symbol (above, right, the Greek abbreviation for Christ) superimposed one upon the other. The symbols for the zodiac may, in fact, be as much as a thousand years older than these, though they had no standardized image, a critical requirement for any logo.
|Company logos grew from the advent of print advertising late in the 18th century.|
|The evolution of a logo. The little log in the logo disappeared in the 1950s.|
|An example of what time can do to a logo|
|One of the corporate "granddaddies" of|
them all has quite a lengthy legacy of
|The "new" Colonel was |
somewhat startling at first.