30 Vintage Logos for Inspiration + Tips to Make Your Own

Vintage logos are powerful. If you drew one in the sand on an empty beach, a hundred hipsters would instantly emerge from the sea, looking for adventure, freshly ground coffee, and scented beard oil.

Vintage is the sign of the open road, the Walt Whitman of logo types. It insists on rugged self-reliance, a love of the good earth, and facing the unknown with whatever tools you happen to have at hand.

And while a vintage logo is sometimes hard to define, you know when you see one. So saddle up and dust off your work boots, because we’re about to go lookin’.

What is a vintage logo?

What makes a logo ‘vintage’, anyway? And what makes a good vintage logo?

At its heart, vintage logos are about storytelling. Think of the prohibition-era USA and the Golden Age of Exploration. Think mountaineers, pioneers, and Henry David Thoreau in his cabin with a Herschel backpack.

Whiskey makers, for instance, still use the same techniques they have for decades, so it makes sense to incorporate this into their brand identity.

We can see this in vintage brands like Jameson, which embodies a sense of craftsmanship, tradition, and timelessness with its logo design.

At other times, Vintage inspires a restlessness for the outdoors or adventures. A good vintage logo should make you want to quit your job immediately to hit the road and plunge into the wilderness. (Disclaimer: don’t do this, a bear WILL eat you).

Just think of Patagonia, the popular outdoor apparel and supplies company that has a vintage aesthetic to its logo. The logo represents its inception and devotion to timeless products and moments. 

Who can use a vintage logo?

From liquor companies to adventure gear and coffee shops, vintage is a versatile style favored by an eclectic group of industries.

However, it’s important to note that vintage logos aren’t industry-specific. It’s the underlying story or emotion that often makes these design elements so appealing to professional designers and brands.

But how does a vintage logo look? Here are a few pointers to get you started:

Common themes and symbols in vintage logos

A vintage design or logo often involves one or more of these visual themes:

• Adventure
• Nostalgia
• Homegrown or local
• Rural
• Rustic

They can also often contain one or more of the following logo symbol motifs:

• Faded textures
• A cursive flourish of text (the brand’s name)
• All-caps trademark text (what the company does and when it was established)
• Ropes
• Hooks
• Compasses
• Anchors
• Barley
• Wildlife or nature

As we mentioned, these aren’t hard rules, but guidelines to help you orient yourself. Here are some vintage logos made with the Looka logo maker:

Famous brands with vintage logos

Studying famous vintage brands is a great way to gain inspiration and understanding on how to design your logo. Here are a few of our favorites!

1. Jack Daniel’s

The logo reads like a six-word Hemingway story: “Old No.7 Brand. Tennessee Whiskey.” Say no more. Jasper ‘Jack’ Newton Daniel’s famous charcoal-mellowed whiskey has a classic vintage design that’s loved globally.

2. Levi Strauss

If we say “vintage” and you don’t instantly imagine yourself in a pair of Levi’s, do you even have legs? Although they recently went through a logo evolution, Levi Strauss still incorporates the original trademark on its clothing and jeans from time to time.

3. Herschel Supply Co

Two Sasky boys from the prairies of Herschel, SK, who now run one of the most successful clothing and backpack brands in the world. Herschel is a great example of a vintage logo that uses visual hierarchy to guide your eyes, something that’s a core graphic design principle.

4. Cabela’s

Now we don’t mean to curse, but Cabela’s is a gosh darn Canadian icon! With a more subtle vintage feel, Cabela’s logo uses common vintage motifs like a simple cursive wordmark logo in a vintage color palette.

5. Eddie Bauer

Another popular clothing brand, Eddie Bauer uses a cursive vintage font with the smallest imperfections to give it that hand-drawn, timeless look. It’s irreplicable and rooted in tradition, craftsmanship and history. 

6. Sailor Jerry’s

You’ve just pulled into port after spending a long week tangled up in the main sheet. Your poop deck is swabbed, your new tattoo is peeling because you forgot to keep it out of the sun, and your Dropkick Murphy’s CD got eaten by a narwhal. At least while you’re drowning your sorrows, you can admire one of the best vintage logos ever.

7. Nellies

Nellie’s is like your grandma’s secret cleaning product recipe. Without any complicated (and harmful) chemicals, Nellie’s was made to honor that simplistic way of cleaning and living. The branding reflects a retro 1950s style with a simple cursive font and a mascot logo of Nellie. Simple products and a vintage logo do the trick in this case!

8. Altoids

Bad breath has plagued people for centuries. Altoids ushered in a new century of minty-fresh breath. Its simple tin box branded packaging and capitalized serif font vintage logo have the perfect look of tradition and old-world craftsmanship – along with a tried and tested mint formula!

9. Trader Joe’s

Like walking to a farmers market on a Sunday morning, Trader Joe’s aims to preserve that traditional and community-oriented feel with its old-school logo and unique product offering. The straight-edged font style and simple vintage color palette give it that approachable and established look.

10. Peroni

Few traditions have been around longer than beer making. The Italian company, Peroni has been around since 1846, launching its beer in 1963. It has kept its historic emblem and used a simple wordmark logo and decorative ribbons to portray its tradition and long-standing reputation. The vintage logo is a natural choice when you’ve been around this long!

11. Denny’s

If you live in North America, you’ve likely been to a Denny’s. The classic 24-hour diner uses a logo that’s exactly that, classic. The bright yellow and red with the outlined font is an ode to the golden era of the 50s drive-in diners and date nights. 

12. Ben and Jerry’s

Ben and Jerry’s doesn’t cut corners regarding taste and tradition, so its logo has to do the same. Its handmade-looking logo creates a fun and artisanal look that makes you feel as if they churned the milk in the founder’s backyard. The playful fonts and colors also add a nostalgia for being young again.

13. In-N-Out

Not a diner but rather a popular fast food joint in the US, In-N-Out uses bright red and yellow brand colors with an outlined arrow to create a retro aesthetic. The simple all-caps font also contributes to the look through its graphic rudimentary.

Vintage logos for retro inspiration

It’s not just famous brands that use vintage logos. Let’s look at a few more inspirational examples to help you understand why these vintage logos work!

14. Graphic display fonts

Gothic, calligraphic fonts create a vintage logo aesthetic due to their hand-painted, bespoke appearance. Choosing this type of display font can be the defining design choice for creating a vintage logo aesthetic. We designed these on the Looka logo maker!

15. Frankowitsch

A simple red cursive font paired with pastel colors and vertical stripes is all you need to think of a summer’s day in a European seaside town. This professional design and logo capture a traditional look while using pastels to remain playful.

16. Boa

Source: Boa by Robyn Gardner on Behance

Sometimes a vintage font is all you need to make things look classic. Boa uses a neon green to give it a modern pop but sustains its unique antique-like look.

17. La Diplomate

Source: behance.net/gallery/10326055/La-Diplomate

A beautiful prohibition-era vintage style with overtones of art deco, this tea seller in Bordeaux has a fantastic logo and brand identity to match. Rice Creative has done a great job using color and line to encapsulate their client’s customer experience; a bright gold against a dark palette invokes the richness and aroma of the fine tea that La Diplomate sells.

18. Farm Boy

Farm Boy is an organic market-style grocer based out of Canada. Its logo perfectly encapsulates vintage style with a rough, imperfect sketch, all-caps serif font, and curved container.

19. Pera Cafe

Source: Cafe Pera on Behance

This vintage logo is elegant and dainty, using a delicately drawn logo symbol to differentiate itself and highlight its attention to detail. A simple serif font and minimalist color palette can create a luxurious look that oozes tradition and class.

20. Attitude Denmark

A great, Herschel-esque clothing logo. The designer for Attitude Denmark does a great job showing how even simple arrangements of text and texture can combine to give a vintage feel.

21. Farmers Union

https://instagram.com/p/BrGymkKBOmh/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=5e7dcchbfo2u

Cbt.design incorporates subtle color tones into this vintage-inspired logo. The muted pastels and faded textures give just the right feel for Farmer’s Union Coffee Roasters.

22. Aster and Golden vintage logo

This font has an industrial look to it – with powerful block-like capitals creating a solid look that’s a good fit for a vintage furniture business! The mustard yellow and black color combination gives a bold impression, with the orange slogan striking the perfect balance in the layout.

23. Scripted vintage logo

Adding a monogram logo design gives this butcher great flexibility for different platforms. Think about what elements you might take from your ‘full’ logo to use in a monogram. What is the defining feature of your logo? Could it be turned into a monogram somehow?

24. Butters Bakery

Designed on the Looka logo maker

Handcrafted-looking logos are the quickest way to communicate a traditional business or product. Butters’ faded and hand-drawn monogram logo looks weathered and established, with the capitalized letters further adding an unapologetic feel.

25. High Tight Barber Shop

Kowaleski and Co. (whose own logo is awesome) have an amazing range of vintage logos, from barbershops to indy grocery stores. The details of the High Tight logo make it almost feel like a hand-drawn art piece.

26. Caffeine Tattoo

Source: behance.net/mateuszwitczak

Truly stunning text pieces by Polish designer Mateus Witczak. Witczak uses a tattoo-script-inspired style to tell stories using just words and their shape. A unique take on using shape to convey meaning in logos, similar to what tattoos themselves are meant to do.

27. Morridge Coffee

Source: Morridge Coffee by Sadi Agency on Behance

Logo shapes and containers are a great way to add character and uniqueness to a logo design. This half-oval shape with curved text and layers is enough to distinguish this logo no matter where it is. The highly detailed symbol illustrates traditional craftsmanship that places it in the vintage realm.

28. Looka vintage logo

Made by our very own logo maker, this logo combines a vintage color palette with an old-style film camera and heavy typeface for that ultimate vintage feel.

29. Open Bar Tavern

Source: dribble.com

One more for the road. Notice how this hand-drawn proposal piece by Dalibor Momcilosvic incorporates the word ‘tavern’ into the flare of the cursive text. It’s a great example of how much creativity can be added to vintage logos.

Tips for designing a vintage logo

Our first logo design tip is for you to ask yourself: is vintage the right style for my industry? If you work in Cybersecurity, the chances are it’s not.

Vintage pairs well with services and products with history, traditions, and old methods that have evolved. Such as: 

• Coffee shops 
• Alcohol brands 
• Bakeries 
• Restaurants 
• Clothing brands
• Tattoo parlours

Start building a visual catalog for yourself. Collect as much classic visual inspiration as you need to help you decide on:

Make your vintage logo!

Just to show you that anyone can make a vintage logo, here’s one I rustled up in 5 minutes using our logo maker.

I kept things simple, using basic but effective elements to tell a story. The inkwell for the i-dot was easy to achieve by adding a symbol and getting creative with the positioning.

• For the text, I chose a vintage font and only capitalized the ‘O’, giving it a bit of dynamism and setting up the shape of the logo nicely.
• For the trademark text, I told a story about what I do. ‘Copywriter’ is about as interesting as the resume it’s written on, so I switched things up and told a story.
• For colors, I chose a nice complimentary setup between a rich, dark teal and a bright but muted yellow.

With a little flash of character, anyone can make a vintage logo in no time!

Tell your story with a vintage logo

Ultimately, vintage is a style that tells a story, and a vintage logo is a great way to start that story. If you’re looking to capture a sense of adventure, or perhaps a nostalgia for bygone days, a vintage logo is a great way to do just that.

Overall, the best way to create a logo is to fall in love with the process and tie it to your brand personality. Yes, it’s about your customers, but it’s who you are and what you stand for that resonates with your customers most.

So embrace that wanderlust, journey back into the past, and make a powerful vintage logo design for your business today!