Is This Apple’s Logo In 2042? [GRAPHIC]

“Nothing wrong with a good logo,” someone probably once said. It’d hard to prove that hypothetical person wrong, especially when five-year-olds appear fully capable of identifying and interpreting them.

And although there’s no one rule to a finding the right look, the general trend is in one direction: simplicity.

At least, that seems to be Stocklogos.com Ivan Raszl’s point in his graphics depicting the evolution of iconic logos and his guesses for where they’re going — the Starbucks logo devolving into a green circle by 2041, IBM into a blue block, and Apple an indiscriminate red crescent.

Levity aside, Raszl may be on to something. As design critic Steven Heller argues, “logos should be simple. They should not require a great deal of interpretation.” And of course, Raszl’s prediction for the Microsoft logo of 2020 is already reminscent of the new logo announced for the company’s Windows 8 operating system: A simple square with a cross meant to represent window panes.

Check out how far these iconic corporate logos have come — and where they could go:

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