This page only shows primary logo variants. For other related logos and images, see:
|
Nintendo Co., Ltd. (任天堂株式会社) is a Japanese multinational video game company based in Kyoto. They house various video game publishers and development studios, as well as dabbling in the cinema and theme park ventures. In the past, they've went from playing card producers to toy-makers, before settling on video games during the time where the popularity of video games in Japan exploded.
Nintendo is also home to over two dozen video game franchises, as well as some of the best-selling and most recognizable video game consoles of all time.
Yamauchi Fusajirō Shōten/Yamauchi Nintendo/Nintendo Koppai/Marufuku Nintendo Card Co. (1889–1933)/Yamauchi Nintendo & Co. (1933–1950)/Marufuku Co., Ltd. (1947-1950)[]
1889–1957 (primary), 1957–present (secondary)[]
|
|
|
Nintendo was founded on September 23, 1889 by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi, who wanted to produce Hanafuda cards for the Japanese market due to his personal love of the game and the then-recent legalization of gambling in Japan.
The first logo, which was more of a trademark, depicted the Japanese kanji fuku (福) inside a hollow circle (maru), and thus officially called the Marufuku. The name and logo acted as a brand of Nintendo rather than the face of the company itself, even though the logo was prominently shown on their first two headquarters.
Despite being deprecated as the primary logo, the Marufuku still sees some use today. Since it remains a registered trademark, it is still used on Nintendo's modern Hanafuda cards[1]. Additionally, the former site of Nintendo's second headquarters is now run by a hotel called "Marafukuro", which utilizes the Marafuku in its branding.
Nintendo Playing Card Co., Ltd. (1950-1963)[]
1957–1965[]
The design of a spade with the letter "N" inside of it had appeared on their playing cards as early as 1933, but it wasn't until the late 50s when the design was standardized into a brand logo.
As a logo, this would often appear next to a stylized wordmark of the company's name in kanji (as shown below), but was also used on western playing cards released in the 50s and 60s with the company's name scripted in English.
The last product that used this logo was the Companion, released at the end of 1965[2], although the logo appears as a cameo in Nintendo's Clubhouse games, most recently in Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics.
1957-2000 (secondary), 1957-present (corporate)[]
1957–1966[]
This logo displays the company's name in Japanese kanji. The kanji characters, in order, are nin (任), ten (天) and do (堂). The do (堂) kanji in this logo is stylized differently than the traditional design of the kanji. While Nintendo has always been written in kanji since their founding, this was the first instance where their native spelling was treated as its own brand identity.
The first instance the kanji spelling appeared as a logo was from an advert dated January 1957[3], and was often used with the spade logo on paper manuals. The last use of the logo was on a manual of Home Bowling in 1966[4].
1966-present[]
Nintendo modified their kanji wordmark later that year, by standardizing the do (堂) kanji, as well as making the font bolder and the edges of the characters sharper.
This logo first appeared on the box of the Ultra Hand[5]. As a brand logo, its use in products would be deprecated during the 1970s, although the very last use this logo saw could be seen during several end screens for Satellaview interactive programs, a SNES peripheral service that ran from 1995-2000.
On the other hand, this logo has remained as one of Nintendo's two primary corporate logos to this day (aside the racetrack); the logo can be seen on the flag and plate of their current headquarters, as well as their quarterly and annual company reports. Until 1984, this was Nintendo's only corporate logo; all of their subsequent logos were only used for toys/games, when that year, the racetrack became the new main corporate logo, while the kanji became (and still is) the secondary and traditional logo. This logo also used to be displayed as large signs on Nintendo's old production facilities (most notably their former production plant in Uji that has since become the Nintendo Museum), but they have since been torn down.
1960–1967[]
This logo displayed "Nintendo" in an extensively stylized script, with the "i" dotted with a star.
This logo was made as a modernization attempt for both the Japanese and international markets as the company entered the 60s. It was mostly used on the packaging of their playing cards (among other logos), but was also sparingly used on a few board games and toys, even after the next logo was introduced.
The logo would be used for the final time with a different font as an engraving on the bat for the "Ultra Machine" in 1967[6].
Nintendo Co., Ltd.[]
1963–1971[]
The "ng" letters inside the circle stood for "Nintendo Game", and debuted when Nintendo began making board games and mechanical toys.
Originally, "ng" actually stood for "Nippon Game", although this was merely used as a brand name so that Nintendo could distribute specific licensed products internationally, particularly the ones with Disney characters[7]. The name "Nippon Game" was phased out by 1966, upon Nintendo's release of the Ultra Hand.
The logo itself would last be used in 1971.
1966–1967[]
This text was only seen on Nintendo's toys released in 1966 and on one toy in 1967, before being immediately phased upon the revitalization of the brand's identity.
1967–1976[]
|
|
|
The release of the Ultra Machine in 1967 gave way for a rebranding of Nintendo that streamlined its visual identity; the company's name in sharp, bold letters. The typography of the logo is a precursor to the current wordmark, evident by the shape of the "t".
Despite a streamlined brand identity, Nintendo would experiment with the style of the logo throughout the logo's use, by placing the wordmark in or around specific shapes. The variations are listed below:
1968[]
|
|
|
This logo placed the wordmark in a squished hexagon border, and was only seen on the "People House", as well as adverts for the N&B Block sets of the year.
1970–1974[]
|
|
|
This logo was the most common variation of the 1967 wordmark, seen on nearly every Nintendo product in the early 1970s. The wordmark was placed in a giant, stylized "N". It acted as a replacement for the "ng" logo upon its deprecation around this time. This logo would be used until 1974.
1972[]
|
|
|
This logo placed the wordmark underneath a giant circle with a more basic "N" shape highlighted inside. This logo was only seen on a single product: the "Wild Gunman Game".
1972[]
|
|
|
This logo placed the wordmark in a thin, rounded rectangle border, or "racetrack" and is vaguely similar to the Nintendo logo of today. This logo was only seen on two products: the "Ele-Conga" and its accessory "Autoplayer".
1973–1975 (secondary)[]
This logo displayed the company's name in Japanese katakana. The katakana characters, in order, are ni (ニ), n (ン), te (テ), n (ン), and do (ドー).
Starting in 1973, Nintendo began displaying their name in katakana alongside their English wordmark on boxes only. This lasted for two years, and Nintendo would revert to using kanji as their native spelling afterwards.
1976–present[]
This wordmark is a modified iteration of the logo from 1967, in which the text was made thinner and the proportions of some elements (most notably the "t") were adjusted.
This logo was first seen on the "Custom Gunman" and "Custom Lion" toys in 1976[8], and has also appeared on the Color TV-Game and the Game & Watch, Nintendo's first venture into home consoles and electronic toys respectively. This wordmark has remained unchanged for nearly half a century since its introduction, despite the wordmark no longer used standalone since the Game Boy Advance, though it remained as the signage on top of Nintendo's headquarters in Kyoto until 2019.
1979–present[]
Similar to the logo used for the Ele-Conga, this logo encircles the Nintendo wordmark in another "racetrack" border. The two key differences are the new wordmark (reused from 1976), and the border being thicker to match the thickness of the font.
This logo was first seen on the cabinet of the obscure arcade video game Space Launcher[9], but this was only seen as a variant of the 1976 logo at the time. It wouldn't be until the releases of Donkey Kong in 1981 and the Family Computer in 1983 where the racetrack was standardized, although it is worth noting that the border used on Famicom packaging was extended beyond the width of the text.
As a print logo, this logo has remained unchanged to this day, but as a company logo, Nintendo would alter the appearance of the logo over the years. The major iterations are listed below:
1984–2007, 2007–present (secondary)[]
|
|
|
This logo colored the border and text from black to red, and filled in the empty space inside the border with white.
This logo was adopted upon the release of the arcade version of Punch-Out!! on February 17, 1984. That year, this logo now became the new unified corporate logo for the company (the kanji was relegated as a secondary and traditional logo), ending years of Nintendo using tons of different short-lived logos used for various products. The most prominent use of this logo was for just about everything relating to the Nintendo Entertainment System (the version of the Famicom released for NTSC and PAL countries), including boxes, marketing, and cartridges. This logo would continue to be seen on Nintendo products for the next three console generations that followed.
Although this logo is rarely used today for retro-themed merchandise, the use of it as the primary logo was deprecated by the following logo:
2004–2016, 2016–present (secondary)[]
|
|
|
To coincide with the release of the Nintendo DS, Nintendo once again refreshed their brand image for the 2000s, as it was common to do so during this time. The red in the border and text was changed to light grey and the white background inside the border was removed. The theming of this logo would be shared by the subsequent releases of the Wii and the Wii U.
Despite no longer being the primary logo of Nintendo, some of Nintendo's international divisions still use this logo to some capacity. Most notably, however, this logo remains as the signage on top of Nintendo's offices in Kyoto.
2016–present[]
|
|
|
The current logo of Nintendo reverses the colors used in the 1984 variant; the border and text are now white, which is placed on top of a red background.
This variant was introduced in adverts on May 11, 2016 as part of another rebranding effort, accompanying the slogan "There's No Play Like It" (a slogan that has since been deprecated). The branding slowly crept into the branding for the Nintendo 3DS, as well as amiibo.
This logo mirrors the branding of the Nintendo Switch, although it can be assumed that the branding of the Switch came after the logo despite the Switch being in development during the launch of this logo, since a leaked prototype of the Switch (which was codenamed "NX") indicated that the original branding was going to be blue[10]. The theme of this logo will continue to stick around for the Nintendo Switch 2.
