Subway Logo History
Did you know that Subway is one of the restaurant logos with the most establishments?
With its appealing, healthy menu items and speedy and convenient service, there’s no wonder why this restaurant food chain is among the famous logos worldwide. Are you planning to create your own business soon? Our logo maker is here to help you.
But have you ever wondered how did the Subway logo become successful? Grab your sandwich and relax as we discover this brand and how its logo has evolved. Let’s start!
A Brief History of Subway
Next to Mcdonalds, you’ll see the Subway logo in the number two spot of the largest fast-food restaurant chains, and it’s not hard to see why.
Before we dive into its logo history, let’s get to know Subway first – how did it all start?
Subway is an American fast-food restaurant specializing in mouth-watering, healthy sandwiches and salads. You can find the Subway logo in more than 41,600 establishments in more than 100 counties worldwide.
Born into a low-income family, Subway’s founder, Fred DeLuca, raised money to fund his studies in schools with the best medical logos by working part-time wherever possible. After hearing about his dream, a family friend offered Fred to earn and save money by making sandwiches, where he received $1,000 to open his business.
So Fred started his first sandwich shop in 1965; the rest was history!
Subway Logo History
If you look at the current Subway logo and compare it to the first-ever logo of the brand, you probably wouldn’t be able to identify it!
Let’s look at how this fast food logo company has changed over the years:
1965-1968
The first sandwich shop, ‘ Pete’s Super Submarines, used a wordmark logo containing its name. Where did the name come from? Instead of using Fred’s name for his first shop, the name was to honor the person who gave him money to start his business – Reteg Vzska.
This logo version has two parts: The first part of the inscription has the word “Pete’s” in a blue logo
and large font to honor the shop’s sponsor. The second part contained a red logo of “Super Submarines,” where the term submarine refers to the shape of the bun sandwiches.
The symbol varies in thickness, which represents the different slicing and filling options you can choose from for their sandwiches.
1968-1969
When talking about Pete’s Sandwich store, people keep hearing the word ‘pizza’ just by saying the name. Fred renamed the brand ‘Subway’ to avoid confusion and devised a new logo in 1968.
The logo was a stylized yellow “Subway” inscription in a smooth and modern sans-serif typeface with the letters ‘S,’ and ‘Y’ elongated and curved and thin delicate arrowheads at their ends.
Although this version only lasted a year, it became the foundation of the brand’s following logo versions.
1969-2002
From a simple yellow logo, the new version consists of a thick wordmark and is now a white-and-yellow logo, splitting the brand’s name into two parts. The inscription has a solid black background and is horizontally stretched to almost look like a long sandwich bun.
2002-2015
In 2002, the company introduced two more color palettes: white and yellow wordmarks with a green outline. This redesigned version has a bold and italicized sans-serif font with no space between the letters.
2015-2016
This 2015 version still features the italicized sans-serif font as the previous logo, but you can quickly notice the difference between the two. From a yellow-and-white wordmark, it’s now a green logo!
In addition, the lines are thinner and have some space between the letters. This version looks friendly and inspires a sense of joy and happiness in its customers.
According to color psychology, green logos are perfect if you want your business to represent eco-friendly products and services, health, and wealth or if you have nature logos.
2016-Today
The current Subway logo is a modernized version of all its previous emblems – a bold inscription in a rounded sans-serif typeface. The wordmark is divided into two parts: the left is solid yellow, and the right is green.
The arrows on the ends of S and Y are now massive and sharp, adding strength and progressiveness to the company’s overall design.
Subway Logo Design Elements
If you look at the different historical versions of the Subway logo, you’ll notice that only the first version has a different look because of its name. But the other versions are the same – with a little tweak in color and style compared to the latter version.
In this section, we will discuss the different design elements of the Subway logo:
Font
Since its first logo, many changes have occurred regarding the wordmark’s shape, style, and character proportions. But throughout its versions, the brand used a sans-serif typeface, which explains its clear and clean lines.
The letters “Y” and “S” consists of iconic carrows, while the “W” featured curvy lines; its sleek and angled version existed from 2002 to 2017.
Color
The current Subway logo has a green and yellow logo. If you look at these two colors separately, they might seem too bright, but Subway’s logo is not excessively bright or distracting.
But wait, it’s not all just for appearance! These colors play a role in the brand’s marketing strategy.
The color green in the logo attracts and convinces customers to buy from Subway for a healthier alternative meal compared to unhealthy fast food restaurants. Meanwhile, the yellow logo represents joy and optimism – the emotions you feel while biting the Subway sandwich.
Design Your Fast Food Logo Today!
And we’re back! What a trip full of knowledge about the Subway company and tricks and tips when designing your logo. Now we’re craving a sandwich – food logos like this make you hungry, right?
We hope you got inspired by Subway’s history and how its logo became one of the most popular today. Comment down below on which famous company we should discuss next time!
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