Arrows, swashes, swooshes, globes, sunbursts and parallel, vertical and horizontal lines, words, letters, shapes and pictures. Logos are the most ubiquitous and essential of all graphic design devices, representing ideas, beliefs and, of course, things. They primarily identify products, businesses and institutions, but they are also associated, hopefully in a positive way, with the ethos or philosophy of those entities. The 50 logos in this book are examples of good ideas in the service of representation, reputation and identification.

Steven Heller is the co-chair of the MFA Design/Designer as Author + Entrepreneur program at the School of Visual Arts in New York. He is the author of more than 170 books on design and popular culture, and the recipient of the 2011 Smithsonian National Design Award.

Gail Anderson is the director of design and digital media at SVA’s Visual Arts Press. She is a designer, writer and educator who has lectured about design at organizations and conferences around the world.