The 38 Greatest Retired Logos of All Time

Every mark here was retired by a rebrand, a merger or a bankruptcy, yet people still know it at a glance. Settle which loss designers should still be mourning.

1. 1
   Pan Am Globe

   The blue globe of Pan American World Airways, flown until the airline shut down in 1991.
   1000pts
2. 2
   NeXT Cube

   Paul Rand's tilted black cube for Steve Jobs's NeXT, which Apple bought in 1997.
   871pts
3. 3
   Apple Rainbow

   Rob Janoff's striped apple with a bite, used from 1977 to 1998.
   822pts
4. 4
   Commodore C=

   The C-and-flag badge of the Commodore 64's maker, which went bankrupt in 1994.
   802pts
5. 5
   Chrysler Pentastar

   The five-pointed star introduced in 1962 and phased out in the 1990s.
   802pts
6. 6
   Nickelodeon Splat

   The orange splat that kept changing shape, used from 1984 to 2009.
   768pts
7. 7
   Blockbuster Ticket

   The blue-and-yellow torn ticket of the video rental chain that went bankrupt in 2010.
   705pts
8. 8
   Apple Newton Logo

   Ron Wayne's 1976 pen-and-ink drawing of Isaac Newton under an apple tree, dropped within a year.
   633pts
9. 9
   AT&T Striped Globe

   Saul Bass's 1983 globe of blue stripes, replaced by a glossy 3D sphere in 2005.
   633pts
10. 10
    TWA

    The bold red TWA lettering of Trans World Airlines, which stopped flying in 2001.
    632pts
11. 11
    BOAC Speedbird

    Theyre Lee-Elliott's streamlined bird, drawn for Imperial Airways in 1932 and flown by BOAC.
    632pts
12. 12
    Starbucks Coffee Badge

    The green ring reading Starbucks Coffee around the siren, dropped for a wordless disc in 2011.
    632pts
13. 13
    Bell System Bell

    Saul Bass's 1969 bell in a circle, retired when the Bell System was broken up in 1984.
    632pts
14. 14
    Enron Crooked E

    Paul Rand's tilted E from 1996, one of his last logos, retired after the company collapsed in 2001.
    632pts
15. 15
    AIM Running Man

    The yellow running figure of AOL Instant Messenger, which shut down in 2017.
    548pts
16. 16
    Windows Flag

    The wavy four-colour flag that greeted PC users from Windows 3.1 to Windows 7.
    548pts
17. 17
    Pontiac Arrowhead

    The red arrowhead of the GM brand that was shut down in 2010.
    548pts
18. 18
    Toblerone Matterhorn

    The Matterhorn with a bear hidden in its slope, taken off the packs in 2023 under Swiss-origin rules.
    548pts
19. 19
    Hartford Whalers

    Peter Good's 1979 crest: a whale's tail over a W, with an H hidden in the space between.
    548pts
20. 20
    Dunkin' Donuts

    The pink-and-orange lettering with a coffee cup, dropped when the chain became just Dunkin' in 2019.
    548pts
21. 21
    Skype Cloud

    The blue cloud-shaped S of the calling app that Microsoft shut down in 2025.
    448pts
22. 22
    Cartoon Network Checkerboard

    The black-and-white checkerboard wordmark, used from 1992 to 2004.
    448pts
23. 23
    Sun Microsystems

    Vaughan Pratt's ambigram of four interlocking 'sun' words, retired after Oracle bought Sun in 2010.
    448pts
24. 24
    Google Serif Wordmark

    Ruth Kedar's multicoloured serif lettering, used from 1999 until 2015.
    448pts
25. 25
    Montreal Expos

    The tricolour M hiding an e and a b, worn until the team moved to Washington in 2004.
    448pts
26. 26
    Saab Griffin

    The crowned red griffin on Saab cars, gone when the carmaker collapsed in 2011.
    448pts
27. 27
    Instagram Retro Camera

    The brown Polaroid-style camera icon that topped the app from 2011 to 2016.
    448pts
28. 28
    Microsoft Pac-Man Wordmark

    The 1987 italic wordmark with a notch cut into the o, nicknamed Pac-Man, used until 2012.
    448pts
29. 29
    Nokia Wordmark

    The bold blue lettering on billions of Nokia phones, replaced in 2023.
    329pts
30. 30
    Internet Explorer e

    The blue e circled by a ring, retired along with the browser in 2022.
    329pts
31. 31
    Mexico 68

    Lance Wyman's op-art lettering for the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City.
    329pts
32. 32
    Yahoo! Wordmark

    The bouncy lettering with its exclamation mark, in red and later purple, until 2013.
    329pts
33. 33
    Twitter Bird

    The blue bird in its 2012 form, retired when Twitter became X in 2023.
    0pts
34. 34
    Oldsmobile Rocket

    The rocket emblem of one of America's oldest car brands, closed by GM in 2004.
    0pts
35. 35
    Netscape N

    The big N on a curved horizon, symbol of the browser discontinued in 2008.
    0pts
36. 36
    UPS Bow Shield

    Paul Rand's 1961 shield topped by a parcel tied with string, replaced in 2003.
    0pts
37. 37
    BP Shield

    The green-and-yellow shield BP used for decades until the Helios sunburst replaced it in 2000.
    0pts
38. 38
    Sony Ericsson Orb

    The glossy green orb of the Sony Ericsson phone venture, retired in 2012.
    0pts

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