3M Logo Design History - The Prolific Evolution of the 3M Logo 1906-2012

3M Logo Design History Tour: The Prolific Evolution Of The 3M Logo Design, 1906 – 2020

We start this logo evolution of the 3M logo design with the most recent, which was introduced back in 1978. 3M the company quite possibly winner of logo with the most brand logo updates ever?

The evolution of the 3M logo looks like a successful exercise in yo-yo backwards-forwards brand logo design.

We zip from round contained logo designs (1938) to plain typographic designs (1937), oval contained designs (1952) and frilly leave edged designs (1954).

From this linear display it really does look a little random.

Some of the logos are clearly alternative lock-ups rather than different logo designs which I presume are the ones labeled: I, II, III & IV, as well providing alternative designs for other 3M sub brands? Need to research this more closely.

What’s interesting is to see how close they got to the current logo design back in 1937 & 1952 with a typographic solution.

Some of the middle era designs are just rather odd when you compare to designs previously used as well as the actual technical accuracy of them.

And what the hell happened in 1961?