It's one of the most famous food logos around, and, you might think, one of the most literal. The logo for Domino's is simply a domino, right? Sure – but it turns out there's a special meaning behind those three dots.
Established in 1960 (as DomiNick's Pizza), the pizza joint's logo hasn't changed a whole lot over the years, aside from the original all-red domino switching to red-and-blue. But if the original design philosophy had remained, we might be looking at a whole lot more dots. (Looking for inspiration? Check out the best logos of all time.)
The original 1965 Domino's logo (Image credit: Dominos)
According to Logopedia, the dots on the domino represent the pizza chain's original three locations. And the company planned to add a new dot for every new restaurant it opened. Which means today's logo would feature over 15,000 of the things.
Thankfully, it seems that idea was swiftly abandoned – the first update to the logo, revealed in 1970, still features just three dots. But it wasn't until 2012 that the famous duo-tone design that we recognise today appeared – this was when the red domino became half, blue. It was also the year that 'Pizza' was dropped from the brand name.
The evolution of the Domino's logo (Image credit: Dominos/1000 logos)
Indeed, we've seen plenty of hidden logo messages pop up over the last few months – some intentional, like the brilliant Bluetooth design, some not so much (looking at you, Tesla). If you're inspired to create your own, take a look at our guide on how to design a logo.
Daniel John is Senior News Editor at Creative Bloq. He reports on the worlds of art, design, branding and lifestyle tech (which often translates to tech made by Apple). He joined in 2020 after working in copywriting and digital marketing with brands including ITV, NBC, Channel 4 and more.
