Misc
How the World’s Most Iconic Logos Evolve Over Time
For many of the world’s most iconic companies, the value of a brand is immeasurable.
Companies like Apple or Mercedes-Benz work endlessly to forge identities that allow them to be instantly recognizable to consumers. They want a logo that communicates their mission, value proposition, history, and legacy – and to do this, many of these companies continue to use icons, symbols, or colors that are decades old.
But this doesn’t mean that their identities and logos are static. In fact, many of these world-class brands have actually changed dramatically, while still incorporating important elements from their company histories.
How Logos Evolve
This infographic comes to us from The Logo Company, and it is a compilation that shows how logos evolve over time:
Even today, many of the world’s most iconic companies have logos that pay tribute to their rich histories. And though some of the imagery may stay the same, the logos continue to evolve to reflect the values and new design aesthetics of modernity.
For example, the identity of Royal Dutch Shell has been based around the image of a shell for well over a century. Between 1900 and 1930, the company represented itself by using realistic drawings of scallop and pecten shells:
The distinctive yellow and red colors were first added to service stations in 1915, and the shades eventually made it into the official logo itself by 1948. Today’s version of the Shell logo is ultra-simplified, and the brand is so recognizable that the logo often appears without the name of the company.
Pepsi’s brand history is another great example of how logos evolve while still paying tribute to company origins. The signature red, white, and blue combination comes from 1941, when the company changed the colors of its bottle cap to support America’s war effort. Since then, the Pepsi logo has used some mix of these colors, usually with a globe and swirl involved.
The most recent update to the logo in 2008 costed hundreds of millions of dollars, receiving heavy criticism from the design and business communities. However, for those that want to dive deeper, the rationale behind the redesign is quite interesting in itself.
Regardless, Pepsi’s brand has continued to evolve while maintaining at least some element of nostalgia from the company’s history. Whether it is effective or not is a story that will continue to be debated.
Technology
Charting Grand Theft Auto: GTA’s Budget and Revenues
Dive into the GTA budget through the years, with GTA VI set to be the most expensive video game of all time.

Charting Grand Theft Auto: GTA’s Budget and Revenues
Over 10 years since the launch of Grand Theft Auto V (GTA V), the second most-sold video game in history, Rockstar Games has announced its sequel GTA VI will be “coming 2025.”
As the anticipation only grows for this next big entry in the franchise, we take a look at the GTA budget through the years. How much have the last two games cost to make, how much have they earned, and how do they compare with the latest entry?
Data for this visualization comes from Statista, TweakTown, and Twitch Metrics.
How Much Has GTA VI Cost to Make?
The GTA franchise has grown enormously in scale from humble beginnings as a top-down, 2D video game in 1997. Fifteen installments later, the upcoming release, GTA VI, is estimated to be the most expensive video game to be made yet.
Here’s a look at how much GTA VI and the last two major releases cost, and how much revenue they’ve earned as of August 2023.
Year | Title | Production Costs ($) | Revenue ($) | Copies Sold |
---|---|---|---|---|
2025 (est.) | GTA VI | $2B (rumored) | N/A | N/A |
2013 | GTA V | $265M | $7.7B | 185M |
2008 | GTA IV | $100M | $2B | 25M |
In 2008, GTA IV cost around $100 million—already a budget that rivalled big Hollywood releases. However with 25 million copies sold, the game earned nearly $2 billion—a five-fold return on its production cost.
Five years later, GTA V (2013) cost more than $200 million to make—twice GTA IV’s budget. A decade after its release, GTA V has generated close to $8 billion, with hundreds of millions in annual revenue from subscriptions and in-game purchases—a model that its successor is sure to follow.
In fact, subscription fees and in-game purchases represented 78% of Take-Two Interactive’s (parent of GTA developer Rockstar Games) revenues in 2023.
Analysts estimate the to-be-released GTA VI’s costs at $2 billion, including marketing and other expenses. A massive open-world (set in the Miami-inspired “Vice City”), cutting edge graphics, and a reportedly brand-new game engine are all reasons for the game’s outsized budget.
For comparison, the current most expensive games to have been made include Red Dead Redemption 2 (also by Rockstar) and Star Citizen, both reportedly with a $500 million budget.
Meanwhile, Take-Two Interactive shares are up more than 50% for the year.
-
Markets1 week ago
Recession Risk: Which Sectors are Least Vulnerable?
-
Revenue2 weeks ago
Ranked: The Biggest Retailers in the U.S. by Revenue
-
Globalization2 weeks ago
The Top 50 Largest Importers in the World
-
Maps2 weeks ago
Mapped: Which Countries Recognize Israel or Palestine, or Both?
-
Education2 weeks ago
Ranked: America’s Best Universities
-
Countries1 week ago
Ranked: Share of Global Arms Imports in 2022
-
Countries1 week ago
Ranked: Share of Global Arms Exports in 2022
-
Globalization1 week ago
Charted: The Industries Where Asian Companies are the Strongest