How the world's most famous logos were born. ( Mark Sinclair)

From CND to Coca-Cola: how the world's most famous logos were born

A dignified penguin, a drunk rubber man, a tree of life and a brain tonic for curing feelings of constant dread … here are the fascinating stories behind classic logos.

Michelin

... the Michelin brothers – Édouard and André, of Clermont-Ferrand in France – attended the Lyon Universal Exposition. Legend has it that on seeing a pile of tyres on the Michelin stand, Edouard said to his brother: ‘Look, with arms and legs, it would make a man.’

An early Coca-Cola advertisement. Image courtesy Laurence King

Coca-Cola 

In 1886, the fledgling drinks company’s book-keeper Frank Mason Robinson penned the first version of the now legendary script, but it wasn’t registered as a trademark until January 1893. Back then, its lettering style was loosely applied; it was only in 1903 that it became the form used today.
Robinson arrived in Atlanta in 1885, where he met Dr John Pemberton, an experimental pharmacist known for concocting outlandish compounds. In May 1886, the manufacture of what would become known as Coca-Cola began. It was a syrup version of Pemberton’s older French Wine Coca product, which included fluid extracts of “coca” (cocaine) and “kola” (caffeine [from the kola nut]), plus sugar to make a formula that would later be carbonated. It was intended as a “brain tonic” that would increase intellectual capacity and cure headaches.

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in the guardian.com