The weird original logos of Apple, Amazon, and other tech giants

apple store
Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Few symbols are as important to a brand's identity as its logo.

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Apple, Microsoft, Sony. Seeing their logos can evoke an emotional response, linking their userbase with their ideals. On the flip side, if poorly designed, these symbols can also make a company look out of touch or a little strange.

As tastes and trends change, some brands change their logos to keep up, or realize that their original vision may not be representative of what they want their most public image to be.

Here are some examples of logos that haven't quite held up to the test of time.

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Apple

original apple logo
This logo has fallen far from the company Wikimedia Commons

The simplicity synonymous with Apple's brand is actually absent from this portrait of Sir Isaac Newton sitting under an Apple tree. The company course corrected only a year later to the significantly more iconic colored Apple logo, but this still remains a part of its history.

Interestingly enough, the company name actually didn't come from Newton's apple (a common misconception), but instead from one of Steve Jobs' "fruitarian diets").

Sony

Screen Shot 2016 01 15 at 3.52.20 PM
The future that never came. Sony

The font Sony uses for its logo is sleek, giving off the same impression as some of its products. The logo the company used in 1958, however, eschewed the idea of timelessness in an attempt to seem futuristic. 

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Amazon

Amazon9598
Amazon

Amazon's original logo lacks the subtlety of its "A to Z" design. Instead, it's a river (or road) leading into an A. This image lasted until 2000, but it's strange that Amazon's logo didn't depict its main product at the time, books. That stands in contrast with ...

Best Buy

Sound_of_Music_logo
The store, not the musical. Best Buy

Best Buy launched in 1966 under the name "Sound of Music." The logo resembles more of a CD than a record, but at least the logo matched the product. 

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Xerox

Xerox Logo OLD
Xerox

Xerox may have had a fall from grace in the public eye, but no one should forget that it was the company's PARC division that invented the graphical user interface. Its original logo, however, gives off a slightly different context than it did in the 1950s. 

Nintendo (1950)

Nintendo_ _1950
Playing a different kind of game. Nintendo

Nintendo was in the games space nearly a century before its Mario video games came along. Though the company has soared in popularity over the past three decades, it had its humble start as a card company. This logo, used from 1950 until 1960, illustrates that. 

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Logitech

Logitech_1988
Keep your eye open. Logitech

Many of the logos here are a brand's first attempt. This was Logitech's third, and while it's the first iteration of its current logo, its seemingly free-form design hasn't stood the test of time. 

Microsoft

Micro1980
Microsoft

As with Logitech, Microsoft's original logo was pretty solid. The one the company used from 1980 through 1982 looks like a company trying to be edgy and cool, just a sign of the times.

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Wikipedia

Wikipedia's_first_logo_in_2001
Wikipedia

Wikipedia recently turned 15, and its site has stayed largely the same in its overall design, but that's not the case with its logo. The site that has given billions of people a chance to contribute to arguably the most organized set of information on the web didn't have much of a logo at its start in 2001.

BONUS: Delta Airlines

Delta_1928
Have a nice flight. Delta Air Lines

While Delta is not strictly a tech company, its original logo is quite something. The airline used this logo during its first year of operations in 1928.

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