Here's How Much Money The World's Biggest Brands Spent Designing Their Logos

One of the most important parts of a company's branding strategy is choosing the right logo. The process takes a lot of time, vision, talent ... and sometimes money.

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Stock Logos—a site that offers, well, stock logos—has compiled a list that reveals how much Coca-Cola, Nike, BP, and other companies spent creating their logos.

But you'll be surprised which companies spent millions and which spent the cost of a movie ticket on their iconic images.

Coke Santa
Guess how much Coca-Cola spent on its logo. Coca-Cola Company
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Coca-Cola: $0

coca-cola logo

Coke's famous logo was created by its founder's partner and bookkeeper, Frank M. Robinson, in 1886. According to the soft drink's website, Robinson "suggested the name Coca‑Cola, thinking that ‘the two Cs would look well in advertising’. He wanted to create a unique logo to go with it, and experimented writing the company’s name in elaborate Spencerian script, a form of penmanship characteristic of the time."

The best things in life are free.

Google: $0

google first logo

Although Google's famous, rainbow logo has gone through minor alterations over the years, the original design was created in 1998 by Google co-founder Sergey Brin on the free graphics program called GIMP. Then Ruth Kedar, a mutual friend of Brin and Larry Page from Stanford, got to work on other logo prototypes.

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Twitter: $15

twitter logo

Twitter bought rights to the now-famous Twitter bird for $15 on iStockphoto. Artist Simon Oxley, a British citizen living in Japan, might have only received $6 for his work—without a credit. However, the bird has undergone a recent makeover.

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Nike: $35

nike logo

Nike co-founder Phil Knight purchased the famous swoosh logo from graphic design student Carolyn Davidson in 1971. Knight was teaching an accounting class at Portland State University, and he heard Davidson talking about not being able to afford oil paints in the halls. That's when he offered her $2/hour to do charts, graphs, and finally a logo.

"I don't love it, but maybe it will grow on me," Knight said, after doling out $35 for the swoosh.

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Enron: $33,000

Enron logo

Paul Rand was paid $33,000 for creating the Enron logo in the 1990s. Rand also created logos for ABC, IBM, UPS, NeXT, and Westinghouse.

NeXT: $100,000

next logo

Paul Rand also designed the NeXT logo for Steve Jobs in 1986, this time for $100,000.

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London 2012 Olympics: $625,000

london olympics logo

The Olympics 2012 organizing committee shelled out  £400,000—translating to about $625,000—for what turned out to be a very controversial logo. Wolff Olins designed the logo in 2007 and was critiqued for either being too sloppy or looking like Lisa Simpson performing oral sex.

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Pepsi: $1 million

Pepsi logo

Arnell Group redesigned Pepsi's logo to the tune of $1 million in 2008. According to Stock Logos, "The listed prices include a complete branding package unless otherwise noted."

A 27-page document, titled "Breathtaking," was full of pop-culture buzz words explaining Arnell's methodology for the redesign. The report was mocked using phrases like: "Emotive forces shape the gestalt of the brand identity."

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BBC: $1.8 million

BBC Logo

The BBC made over its logo in 1997, switching from slanted fonts and splashes of color to the simple, letter boxes typed in Gill Sans.

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BP: $211 million

bp logo

According to Stock Logos, BP spent 211 MILLION DOLLARS for its logo design in 2008. Ad agency Ogilvy & Mather worked with BP's changing logo, tagline, and image in 2001 “to reinvent itself as an energy company people can have faith in and inspire a campaign that gives voice to people’s concerns, while providing evidence of BP’s commitment, if not all the answers.”

After the oil spill, BP had other image problems.

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