Recognise this face?

Blink and you might have missed it, but social media giant Facebook changed its logo recently and you probably didn’t even notice. There was no fanfare, no press release, no social media campaign. In fact, comparing the old and the new designs, you could be forgiven for wondering what’s changed!

Every single one of the most successful brands in the world has a memorable logo – think of big names like McDonalds, Burger King, Coca Cola, and Apple just for starters.

Your company’s logo is the face of your business, the visual “hook” that helps customers to recognise you, recall what you do, and separate you from your competitors.

In a controversial decision by the General Court of the European Union, Microsoft has been blocked from filing a trademark application for its video chat software Skype.

Lexmark, with its familiar logo with red diamond, is a brand that has been synonymous with printers and printing ever since its divestiture from computing giant IBM in 1991.

Former First Lady Hillary Clinton announced that she would be running for the US Presidency again this year – and of course, every good marketing campaign needs a logo. Here’s Hillary’s:

In 1984, sports photographer Jacobus Rentmeester took a series of photographs for a pre-Olympics feature published in LIFE Magazine. The series depicted the iconic basketball player Michael Jordan as he approached the net for a slam dunk.

Last week it was announced that DC Comics, the publisher behind the Batman comics, had filed a lawsuit against Spanish soccer club Valencia to stop them using a new logo design.

Though the bat symbol has been a part of the soccer team’s branding since its inception, the design was recently revamped and a new application for copyright was made. This roused tempers at DC Comics, which countered the claim saying the logo was too similar to the Batman brand.

You’d expect a large consumer brand at the top of its game to have a huge branding and advertising budget. But back in 1981 – the heyday of the Sony Walkman – global electronics firm Sony decided to hand over a planned logo redesign to its customers.

But it turned out that crowdsourcing a logo was a really bad idea.

Inspired by the success of the recent rebranding of Taco Bell, now it’s Pizza Hut’s turn to get a new look.

Though the essence of the brand – the sloping, brush-stroked script and red ‘hut’ roof – will not change, the new logo is flatter, more one-dimensional and features a simpler colour palette. The new background to the red and white logo is inspired by a swirl of tomato sauce on a pizza base.

Anglo-Irish pop sensations One Direction are never far from the media spotlight, but this week one member of the five-piece band was involved in a heated debate with a journalist – over a logo.

Louis Tomlinson, 22, heart-throb for millions of young teenage fans all over the world, was recently papped wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with the original 1977 Apple logo, featuring its then trademark rainbow-coloured stripes.

The dust has barely settled on the Brazilian soccer pitches that hosted the World Cup competition this summer, but Russia has just launched the logo design for the next tournament in 2018.

Superheroes are so hot right now.

Over the last few years, it seems as though a new big screen adaptation of a Marvel comic book favourite has been released every other week. As well as the Spiderman and Superman remakes, recent cinematic highlights have included Iron man 3, Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy. Further comic book releases are due to hit our screens in 2015.

But it’s not just the big screen that is enjoying Marvel-lous success. Off the back of the success of TV boxset series such as Breaking Bad, Homeland and The Wire, we are now entering a new era of serial comic book adaptations for the small screen. Gotham, a Batman spin-off charting the rise of Commissioner Gordon before Batman’s arrival in the city is due to hit screen very soon, and press coverage has started to ramp up for the launch of another superhero TV series in 2015: Daredevil.

In 2009, Pepsi spent a rumored one million dollars to revamp their logo design. The company was ridiculed in the mainstream media for the exuberant amount of money it spent and insult was added to injury when graphic design artist Lawrence Yang further ridiculed the design by creating a sketch of an obese “Pepsi Man,” highlighting the negative health effects of sugary soft drinks.

For a dedicated football (soccer) fan, seeing your country win the coveted Jules Rimet trophy is literally The Best Thing Ever. Though my team, England, crashed out of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in the early stages, the excitement and passion of “the beautiful game” continues and many are eagerly awaiting Sunday’s final battle between Argentina and Germany.