Washington Logos

Famous Logos From Washington

The Pacific Northwestern state of Washington boasts some of the most stunning natural landscapes the nation has to offer. This natural beauty, coupled with a busy seaport, and several top industries combine to make Washington the nation’s fastest-growing economy. 

The state is home to a major aircraft developer, Boeing, as well as several tech-industry and telecom titans including Nintendo of America, Valve, T-Mobile US, and more. In fact, a recent Fortune Magazine survey showed that Washington State was home to 4 of the nation’s top 20 “Most Admired Companies”: Amazon, Starbucks, Microsoft, and Costco. It only follows that Washington would produce some killer logos as well. 

Amazon

Since its launch in 1995, online bookseller Amazon has experimented with a number of logo designs, starting with a stylized capital “A” graphic bisected by the silhouette of a river, presumably, the Amazon River. This logo was quickly replaced with the first of many simple typeface logos featuring the wordmark amazon.com accompanied by a variety of tag lines from the grandiose “Earth’s Biggest Bookstore” to the subdued “Books, Music, & More”.  By 1998, the brand logo had begun to show hints of the current design, with the amazon.com wordmark printed in all lowercase letters in a simple black sans serif font underlined by a slightly curved bright yellow graphic stripe. 

The iconic brand logo used today was first introduced in 2000 when the “.com” was dropped from the wordmark, and the yellow stripe became the familiar golden “Amazon Smile” design offset under the company name with the “z” elevated slightly on the terminus of the upturned grin. 

Starbucks

Starbucks Coffee may be one of Washington’s best-known brands, and it is certainly one of the world’s best-loved logos. The familiar siren mascot has been in place since the brand’s founding in 1971, however, she originally appeared against a brown medallion with the all-caps Starbucks moniker centered above, and the original tagline “Coffee. Tea. Spices” in all caps below. 

After purchasing the brand in 1987, new owner Howard Schultz hired artist, Terry Heckler, to perform a re-branding to coincide with the new ownership. The new design gave us many of the iconic features associated with the brand logo today. The background was changed from brown to Kelly Green, and the wordmarks were simplified to read “Starbucks Coffee” with the upper and lower words separated by two solid white stars. The siren mascot was given a more streamlined, and slightly more “modest” appearance. This logo remained largely unchanged through 2011 when the wordmark was dropped completely, leaving only a zoomed-in image of the familiar mermaid to represent the brand. 

Big Fish Games

Founded in Seattle in 2002, Big Fish Games is a gaming developer, and software distributor best known for offering a massive catalog of online games available for play on PCs and mobile devices. The brand is likely best recognized by its bright and cheerful illustrated logo seen on most of its online websites. The large illustration features a turquoise, azure, and green rendering of earth, with the words BIG FISH in a bright yellow, bold rounded Sans Serif font. The “S” is represented by an oversized illustration of a green fish standing on its tail, and the tagline “Games” is rendered in white using the same rounded bold font below the globe. 

The company’s more modern trademark is a far simpler typeface design rendered in a classic blue ultra-bold San Serif slightly-rounded block text. In this iteration, the “I” in the word “BIG” is represented as a whale tailfin extending from the side of the “G”.