Guess the Logo

Guess the logo: a yellow fan-shaped emblem with a red outline, seen at fuel stations around the world. Which company?

• BP
• Shell
• TotalEnergies
• Indian Oil

Answer: Shell. The name goes back to Marcus Samuel's father, who sold seashells in London. The first logo in 1901 was a mussel shell; the scallop arrived in 1904.

Guess the logo: two golden arches that form an 'M'. They began as real arches on the sides of the chain's 1950s restaurants. Which brand?

• Burger King
• KFC
• McDonald's
• Subway

Answer: McDonald's. The 1953 restaurant design had a tall yellow arch on each side. Seen from an angle the pair looked like an M, which became the logo in the early 1960s.

Guess the logo: the very first icon of this photo-sharing app was based on a Polaroid camera. Which app?

• Snapchat
• Pinterest
• Flickr
• Instagram

Answer: Instagram. Co-founder Kevin Systrom drew a Polaroid-style camera for the first icon. Today's logo is a simple camera outline on a purple-to-orange gradient.

Guess the logo: a slanted silver 'H' that the carmaker says shows two people shaking hands. Which brand?

• Honda
• Hyundai
• Hino
• Hummer

Answer: Hyundai. Hyundai says its H is a salesperson and a customer shaking hands. Honda's H, by contrast, stands upright.

Domino's logo is a domino tile with three white dots. What did the dots originally stand for?

• Three founders
• Three pizza sizes
• The first three stores
• Three toppings

Answer: The first three stores. The plan was to add a dot for every new store, an idea dropped once the chain started growing fast.

BMW's blue and white roundel is often said to be a spinning propeller. Where do its colours actually come from?

• The state colours of Bavaria
• A First World War aircraft
• The flag of Finland
• Munich's football club

Answer: The state colours of Bavaria. BMW stands for Bayerische Motoren Werke, Bavarian Motor Works. The propeller story began with a BMW advertisement in 1929.

Guess the logo: six silver stars on a blue oval, showing the star cluster whose Japanese name the carmaker carries. Which brand?

• Subaru
• Mazda
• Nissan
• Isuzu

Answer: Subaru. Subaru is the Japanese name for the Pleiades, the star cluster also called the Seven Sisters.

Guess the logo: a mountain on a triangular chocolate bar, with a bear hidden in it as a nod to the city of Bern. Which brand?

• Lindt
• Toblerone
• Milka
• Ferrero Rocher

Answer: Toblerone. Toblerone was created in Bern, whose emblem is a bear. In 2023 the Matterhorn gave way to a more generic peak when some production left Switzerland, but the bear stayed.

Guess the logo: a small green crocodile on a polo shirt, taken from the nickname of the tennis player who founded the brand. Which brand?

• Fred Perry
• Ralph Lauren
• Le Coq Sportif
• Lacoste

Answer: Lacoste. René Lacoste got the nickname after a 1923 bet over a crocodile-skin suitcase. Fred Perry, another tennis champion's brand, uses a laurel wreath.

Guess the logo: a black prancing horse, first painted on the plane of an Italian fighter ace of the First World War. His mother offered it to a racing driver. Which brand?

• Porsche
• Lamborghini
• Maserati
• Ferrari

Answer: Ferrari. Countess Paolina Baracca, mother of the ace Francesco Baracca, suggested the horse to Enzo Ferrari in 1923. The yellow background is the colour of Modena, Ferrari's home city.