Top 11 Most Expensive Logos in the World Ever Designed

A brand logo is like your organization’s unique identity, which separates it from its competitors and gives it a face, a recognition for itself. A thoughtful logo is as important to any organization as its products themselves. It should be attention-grabbing at first sight, to bring customers to your doorsteps. By an attractive logo, we don’t mean intricate designs, it can be simple yet elegant to serve the branding purpose. It is believed that “close appreciation of the insignia(logo) can often lead to the close appreciation of your brand”.

However, getting your perfect business representative or logo can make you drop some serious dimes. The more long-standing and prized a brand is the more costly its branding identity is going to be. You can’t expect to buy the logo of a well-established company like Symantec without wreaking havoc on your reserves. So, without wasting any further time let’s take a peek at some of the most ridiculously exclusive branding logos in the world and learn why they come with such a hefty price.

A Look at the World’s 11 Most Insanely Exclusive Insignias

Take a seat and hang tight as we are going to take you on a strange ride of some of the most expensive logos ever designed in the world that cost hundreds of millions to make.

1.   Symantec Brand and Acquisition $1,280,000,000

Symantec takes the top position for the most expensive logo design, paying $1,280,000,000 for their new logo and brand design, the most money ever paid for a logo in history. However, this figure also includes Symantec’s acquisition of VeriSign. Symantec’s acquisition offers access to the company’s ideas and resources while also preserving the VeriSign emblem, which was the renowned checkmark. This checkbox indicates the authentication of security licenses (SSL) for websites, which enables website security for online stores or e-commerce websites.

The checkmark is used in graphic design to convey trustworthiness, and Symantec included the VeriSign tick mark in their logo design to convey security, while the yellow color of the circle represents continuity and stability of protection, just to make you trust the company.  Read more about the top most valuable companies in the world.

2.   British Petroleum (and marketing): $210 million

The second highest-priced logo design of all time is the British Petroleum Company’s revamp in 2000, which cost $210,000,000. The goal behind this logo design is to make use of color psychology and shapes to convey that the firm is green and cares about the environment as much as possible. Green and yellow are the major colors, and the logo shape represents a blooming flower.

This Logo, however, got a lot of criticism as they had been trying to convince their clients that they were an ecological and environment-friendly company even though they were making loads of money with oil. To add more fuel to the fire, ironically the company faced the most demolishing oil spill ever in the Gulf of Mexico, 2010. Read more about the most valuable and exclusively rarest gemstones in the world.

3.   Accenture: $100 million

Accenture faced pressure to alter its brand name from Andersen Consulting in 2001 after leaving Andersen Worldwide because of a dispute with Arthur Andersen. Accenture derives its name from the phrase “Accent on the Future”.

The new logos include the brand’s name “Accenture” written in lowercase with an accent mark over it facing the right direction. The goal behind the new logo design is to emphasize the company’s ongoing search for the future, progress, and development.

Despite these principles, the new logo design got a lot of criticism since it was too basic and didn’t express enough information. Despite its simple look, the new logo design was picked after 50 other designs were rejected. Read more about the most expensive Domain Names in the world.

5.   Posten Norge Rebrand: $55 million

Posten Norge is a state-owned Norwegian postal service that has the exclusive right to distribute and transport mail weighing less than 50g across Norway, therefore they invested $55,000,000 in their new brand identity.

The logo design is very simple, consisting of a circle shape divided into halves, one of which flows into the other to convey the idea of how letters are sent from the sender to the recipient. Along with this graphic element are the words Posten Norge, which means Norway Post.

This new logo design was released in 2008, and the price includes the fact that all of Norway’s post offices were rebranded with their new look. Despite the large sum invested in this rebrand, the results demonstrate that it was a wise investments. Read more about the most expensive BMW cars that ever sold in auction.

6.   ANZ logo (Australian & New Zealand Banking): $15 million

The ANZ Logo Design was created when two huge banks united to establish the Australian and New Zealand Banking Group, a joint venture that is New Zealand’s largest bank and Australia’s third-largest.

Given the size of this organization, it’s not surprising that they spent so much money on their new logo design, which contains the letters ANZ, an acronym of their name. It’s worth noting that the color theory used in this logo, which uses white and blue to identify the organization with stability, safety, and security, are all important qualities for a bank. However, the fee does not simply cover a logo design; $15,000,000 was also invested in a massive marketing effort that began in 2010 and concluded in 2012.

7.   BBC logo: $1.8 million

When it comes to media and news, the BBC is a name that rings the bell. BBC is often linked with the most up-to-date information among users, and they intend to keep these characteristics in their new brand design.

The BBC has had several logos throughout its history, but since the late 1950s, it has not made any subtle changes to its design to maintain awareness; the latest alteration was done in 1997, and in this new version of the logo, they went away from italic lettering and simplified it.

The new BBC logo is simpler, employing white light lettering in contrast with black bold squares. The designers of this logo were searching for minimalism and used squares to express unambiguity and trustworthiness, which are very important for a news company.

8.   CitiBank logo: $1.5 million

CitiBank’s current logo design, one of the priciest in history, cost the company around $1.5 million. The company has a large worldwide footprint spanning 19 nations. With this in mind, it’s no surprise that the corporation refused to cut costs with its logo design.

Interestingly, the logo acquisition was part of Citibank’s $10 million brand renewal program, which was done to improve the company’s image. The Pentagram firm made the simple yet powerful wordmark. According to some old stories, Paula Scher first sketched the logo on a napkin, which caused Citigroup to refuse to pay the high sum for such a little piece of work. But, finally, the brand moved forward and adopted the new identity.

8.   Pepsi Logo Rebrand: $1 million

Everyone is familiar with Pepsi since it is a well-established firm in the global market, and it is also widely recognized for competing with Coca-Cola to control the sweet carbonated beverages industry. That background helps us understand how much Pepsi paid for its new logo, brand, and identity design. The million-dollar logo was developed by Peter Arnell of the Arnell branding firm. The picture was designed to be flat and simple, highlighting the brand’s modern and friendly nature.

The uppercase letters were switched with lowercase ones, and the image’s curves were polished. While Pepsi’s new design may not have allowed it to outperform Coca-Cola, everybody has seen it as a huge branding success.

9.   London 2012 Olympics logo: $645,645

Every four years, there is a major event in the world, and it is the Olympics. Because of the large sums of money earned and the competitive nature of the host cities, which want to host a better Olympic Games than the previous one in order to improve their reputation, the city that hosts this event makes a significant investment every four years.

This investment includes not only sporting facilities or tourism attractions but also logo design, brand and identity design. For example, the city of London paid $625,000 for the Olympic logo design. The designer’s intention was to evoke the cubism art style while also recreating the London building style. However, the abstract design of the logo caused a lot of criticism, and many people disliked it since it lacked cultural awareness and historical monuments.

10. The City of Melbourne Logo: $625,000

Towns and communities are occasionally willing to spend a bit extra money on their logos. After all, a suitable image for your region can promote tourism, which often generates millions of dollars in income each year. In 2009, Melbourne opted to change its previous sign with an artistic-looking “M”.

According to the government committee responsible for Melbourne’s logo design, the city was developing and required a fresh image to help it stand out as a “trendy” and “progressive” destination. The new logo layout for Melbourne City was created by Landor Associates’ Sydney office for such a hefty price.

However, when the prices became public, people in Melbourne were outraged that the city was spending so lavishly in a time of budget constraints and job losses caused by the global financial crisis. Officials justified the tax, claiming that branding benefited Melbourne’s companies and tourists.

11.  Belfast Heart logo: $530,000

Belfast, Northern Ireland’s capital, launched a new logo in 2004 that has lowercase characters stacked playfully on top of one another. Critics criticized the logo, which was designed by local business Tangent following a $530,000 contract, for being dull in light of the city’s rich culture and history. The expense exceeded Belfast’s initial budget of $120,000. Officials blamed the delay on the project’s lengthy presentations, testing, and approval processes. In the end, Belfast received little value for their quarter-million-dollar symbol.

This simple yet successful logo used the word “B” and a heart to communicate the city’s friendly and welcoming nature. Notably, the design appears to have a “Plan B” when the city’s Lord Mayor rejected the original sign. Interestingly, Belfast has just altered its logo. The heart has been replaced with a “starburst” form in the new picture.