The FedEx Logo's Colorful Complications

FedEx has one of marketing's most recognizable logos. It's simple: take the first syllable of each word in their name. Federal Express becomes Fed Ex. Smash them together. Put them in the proper font. And voila: you have a well-known brand.

But FedEx has long used color to differentiate which branch of their business their logo is representing.

You probably think of their logo being an iconic purple and orange:

But that’s only one of their many color patterns.

That orange is also often replaced by a litany of other colors.

What many people don’t realize—even if they've noticed the differentiating palette—is that each of these different colors has a completely different meaning.

Orange is their standard express delivery service.
Grey covers their supply chain services.
Green is ground and home delivery.
Red is freight.
Blue is “custom critical.”
Yellow is trade networks.

Believe it or not, that’s not even all of them.

But most casual observers, never realized there was more than one color option, much less that each color had its own unique significance.

Don’t worry about working out mnemonic memory devices for each pattern though. FedEx realized that no one knew the difference -- or cared. So they're officially retiring all of their logo colors save for the standard purple and orange.

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As long as we’re talking about the FedEx logo though, here’s one cool component that definitely won’t change: the arrow within.

If you know it’s there, you see it every time you look at the logo. If not, you’ll be amazed what you’ve been missing.

Check this out:

See it now?
IT WAS RIGHT THERE THE WHOLE TIME!
Hard to imagine, right?

It gets cooler still. Check out their logo in Arabic:

It points in the opposite direction and is written with a different alphabet, but it still contains that (missed-by-most, but loved-by-those-who-notice-it) arrow letting the user know it’s the same brand they can trust to get their package from point A to point B.

Who knew there was so much to such a simple logo?!

Do you have any favorite logos hiding secrets within? Share them in the comments.

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