The purpose of a company logo is to represent the company’s products, services, and business philosophy in a single image. Quite often a company’s logo is the first aspect of the company a consumer encounters, and therefore creates a lasting impression in the consumer’s mind. For this reason, it is imperative that a company’s logo provides an accurate representation of the services and products it offers. It is also important for the logo to be physically appealing to the company’s target consumer base.

For example, consider the Gerber baby logo:

While the color of the logo has changed over time, the essential design—featuring an appealing portrait-style picture in a circular frame—has remained the same, and continues to be effective. The reason for the success of this particular logo has to do with its visual appeal to the current or expecting mothers that make up Gerber’s target consumer base. A logo with sharp lines and a crying baby would hardly be as effective as the featured circular portrait of a happy baby.

Now consider the evolution of the Firefox search engine logo, as shown below:

While the original Firebird logo was somewhat cartoonish and even a bit threatening, the original Firebox logo—which emerged at the same time the search engine changed its name—draws the viewer in and resembles the circular motion signally the loading of a web page. Nonetheless, the coloring of this original Firefox logo is somewhat dark and potentially foreboding, whereas the current Firefox logo is lighter and brighter, and suggestive of optimism. This evolving shift from dark to light is one of the more prominent logo trends of 2010.

View more: Logo Trending for 2010