0960: "Subliminal"

[yunghei]

Does anyone else see the spoon on the fedex logo?

Also, Colonel Sanders is sponsored by Adidas.

[gnoitall]

Get Out of My Infantry Combat Vehicle Design Studio, Randall!

Cuz you're not good at designing armored cars.

But the rest? I have to agree with the punchline: it takes some kind of neurochemical imbalance to convert figure-ground dichotomy to that particular scene.

[dp2]

Red Dog beer logo upside down == Batman in a 69

[dp2]

No fan of musicals, I've always liked the Miss Saigon poster, which in a single blob depicts a face, a helicopter, and a Vietnamese letter/character (though I don't know what the last one means).

[bmonk]

Reminds me of the hidden bear in the Toblerone logo. Which, incidentally, is the Swiss national animal.

Not quite. Switzerland doesn't have a national animal. The bear is the heraldic symbol of the canton of Bern where the Toblerone company is based (and Bern is a form of the german word for bear).

Of course, the Swiss are strange anyway. IIRC, they once fought a war over the gender of the bear in one of their cantonal coats of arms.

[Coffee]

Spoiler:

!lanimilbuS
nac ouy sa gnol sa rof ,lanimilbus eht otni eratS

Okay, so... maybe they are giants.

[AvatarIII]

Red Dog beer logo upside down == Batman in a 69

i decided to look that up and for a while i wasn't seeing it, and then all of a sudden.... lol,

[scalziand]

BILLY MAYS HERE FOR FEDEx..



oh, you mean Willie, not Billy Mays.

[Роберт]

lol

The 'L's are arms and the 'O' is his head. He's drowning. Jump in and save him! ~lol~

[A_of_s_t]

It took me forever to figure out it was still supposed to say Fed Ex...

I didn't get it until I read this... Thanks for pointing that out, it definitely adds something to the comic.

What's sad is that this comic doesn't make any sense unless you figure out that it says "Fed Ex". I think it could have been a good joke, it was just poorly executed.

[Qaanol]

I wonder if Randall could explain the USPS logo too. I've never been able to tell what it's supposed to be.

I can’t tell if you’re serious, so I’ll take it at face value. It’s the disembodied head of a raptor. True fact.

I thought it was a Bald Eagle breaking the sound barrier.

That is entirely consistent with my description.

[xkre]

I still think the Bethesda Game Studios logo is one of the best "can't unsee" logos.
I'd link it but I don't have 5 posts yet.

[google it here]

Also if you can't see it

Spoiler:

THE
GAME

[madjo]

Reminds me of OGC... can't unsee that one either:
http://blogs.birminghampost.net/business/2008/06/ogc-gave-me-ocd.html

dangit, I even see it in plain text.

[Uzh]

Reminds me of OGC... can't unsee that one either:
http://blogs.birminghampost.net/business/2008/06/ogc-gave-me-ocd.html

dangit, I even see it in plain text.

Plus, you can see it in the actual logo: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1b/Ogc.svg
The serifes even make it more - ahm - interesting.

Georg

[from canada]

oh man randal is such a genius!

DRUGS!!! lolOLoLoLolOlOLOLolOLoLOLol amirite?????

[WildBidoof]

Great now i see that stupid arrow every time.

[TheSoberPirate]

I wonder if Randall could explain the USPS logo too. I've never been able to tell what it's supposed to be.

I can’t tell if you’re serious, so I’ll take it at face value. It’s the disembodied head of a raptor. True fact.

I thought it was a Bald Eagle breaking the sound barrier.

Ha, I get it. At least one person around here appreciates bird jokes.

[rhomboidal]

Now I can't wait for my next FedEx delivery to show up in an armored assault vehicle. No need to ring the doorbell.

[cream wobbly]

The designer, Lindon Leader is interviewed here: http://www.thesneeze.com/mt-archives/000273.php

He states at one point, "if you do see the arrow, or someone points it out to you, you won't forget it."

He's wrong, of course. (Or I wouldn't be here mouthing off.) I repeatedly notice it, then promptly forget it. I don't suffer any memory problems. It's just unimportant. Insignificant. Sorry chump. I like the pre-gradient UPS logo better anyway.

In the same way, if someone describes a vulgar act to me, I don't picture it in my mind; yet I'm able from time to time to memorize things photographically. This is great fun at parties, where I'm the one not throwing up. (For bonus points, define "vulgar act".)

What Leader should have said is:

"if I see the arrow, or someone points it out to me, I won't forget it. I imagine you are the same way."

[cream wobbly]

lol

The 'L's are arms and the 'O' is his head. He's drowning. Jump in and save him! ~lol~

You need deodorant?

[cream wobbly]

Arrow is highlighted. Source)

Personally, I didn't find this comic that funny.

More weird logos.

Wow. They really like their design intent obvious, don't they? They'd talk about the old BR logo like it was "brilliant" and "clever"; or they'd completely miss the lousy design of the original BT logo, which actually spells out "DT" in Morse code – i.e. horizontal " – · · " followed by " – " in the vertical.

[bigjeff5]

It took me forever to figure out it was still supposed to say Fed Ex...

I didn't get it until I read this... Thanks for pointing that out, it definitely adds something to the comic.

What's sad is that this comic doesn't make any sense unless you figure out that it says "Fed Ex". I think it could have been a good joke, it was just poorly executed.

It... it says right in the comic that it's the FedEx logo - Randall already pointed it out for you. If it's sad that it needs to be pointed out again to certain people, I don't think that reflects negatively on the comic at all.

I saw it immediately, since, you know, it mentions that it's the FedEx logo in the comic and all.

[stationary]

No one else has pointed out the spoon that also exists in the Fed Ex logo? Between the e and d. You know, because of the "fed" part. I love that lesser known part about the logo.

I registered just to say that I've been staring at that logo all day, every day, for over 11 years, and never noticed that.
Mind? Blown.

[Linux0s]

Seems the original designer of the FedEx logo isn't fessing up to any mushrooms:

http://www.thesneeze.com/mt-archives/000273.php

[A_of_s_t]

I saw it immediately, since, you know, it mentions that it's the FedEx logo in the comic and all.

He could have said he was going to draw an apple, and then drew an apple the same way, and it still wouldn't have been clear to me. Not everyone can tell that this is supposed to be the FedEx logo:

[Kaeetayel]

I saw the tank and the arrow when I saw the logo. Nothing else though.

[solobutterfly]

I'll tell you what I can't unsee in the FedEx logo that I didn't notice for years, the fact that the bottom of the e and d do not sit on the same baseline as the rest of the letters.

[Sprocket]

and the strychnine.

[Qaanol]

and the strychnine.

Added to “List of quotes that are applicable to every situation.”

[yjester]

I didn't like this comic specially, too overthought. Still, the theme is nice!


Xilinx, an FPGA manufacturer.

Spoiler:

At my research group, some people only saw the capital Sigma, and others only saw the protruded X. I didn't remember it had two colors, that makes it easier...

CPTM, train company of São Paulo's old logo.

Spoiler:

There's a double-headed arrow. Took me a decade to find out. Their new logo is weaker:

Spoiler:

Chico Xavier, famous Brazilian spiritism-whatever. That's so obvious it was hard to find an image at Google's search that didn't pointed it out!

[InDirectX4000]

Nobody else notices the Anonymous reference...?

[rpgamer]

Arrow is highlighted. Source)

Personally, I didn't find this comic that funny.

More weird logos.

oh.. *that's* wtf they are talking about.. christ that's so obvious I automatically discounted it and was looking for an arrow somewhere.. that is *so* not hidden

Was thinking this myself. That arrow hardly seems subliminal.

[arthurd006_5]

I don't know if this strip has caused this or not (probably not) but if you go to Google Image search and search for "tostitos logo" guess what the fourth result is
- Roger

Be aware of the filter bubble. Different people see different things, depending on what they've looked at in the past.

[arthurd006_5]

I wonder if Randall could explain the USPS logo too. I've never been able to tell what it's supposed to be.

I can’t tell if you’re serious, so I’ll take it at face value. It’s the disembodied head of a raptor. True fact.

I thought it was a Bald Eagle breaking the sound barrier.

That has so got to exceed VNE.

[westrim]

In this forum thread, people assuming that their experience seeing/not seeing images in logos is the most legitimate one and anyone that doesn't conform is feeble minded/ on shrooms. One is noted below, but if I tried responding to all of them I'd be here an hour.

As for the comic, it was innovative. The first e took me a while, since it was tilted, but the rest I managed to reconfigure my brain for on the second or third pass. I wonder if I could Google it properly that I'd find any reference to those images being seen in a FedEx logo before, but I imagine Randall was looking at the logo and thought "hey the arrow. I wonder what else I can morph it into?" I caught that it was FedEx before looking at the alt/title text, from the color combo.

He states at one point, "if you do see the arrow, or someone points it out to you, you won't forget it."

He's wrong, of course. (Or I wouldn't be here mouthing off.) I repeatedly notice it, then promptly forget it. I don't suffer any memory problems. It's just unimportant. Insignificant. Sorry chump. I like the pre-gradient UPS logo better anyway.

What Leader should have said is:

"if I see the arrow, or someone points it out to me, I won't forget it. I imagine you are the same way."

Pedant goes "whaaaa" and cries that not everyone forms a sentence to cover their ass. Accuracy in language isn't an on/off switch and his statement is perfectly valid, even if it's not your personal experience. You're wrong, because you assume it applies only to you- he's mostly right, because his statement applies to everybody.

Also, you can say more than one thing in a post or edit it; posting multiple times back to back is for chumps.

[SirMustapha]

Pedant goes "whaaaa" and cries that not everyone forms a sentence to cover their ass. Accuracy in language isn't an on/off switch and his statement is perfectly valid, even if it's not your personal experience. You're wrong, because you assume it applies only to you- he's mostly right, because his statement applies to everybody.

A phenomenon also known as "What do you mean, people are not computers??".

[severach]

I'll tell you what I can't unsee in the FedEx logo that I didn't notice for years, the fact that the bottom of the e and d do not sit on the same baseline as the rest of the letters.

Do you see anything else down there?

[Kapten-N]

First, a tiny nitpick: if that's supposed to be the aactual Guy Fawkes, why is he wearing a Guy Fawkes mask as indicated by the straps along the sides of his face?.

You don't think Guy Fawkes actually looked like that do you? He was wearing a theatre mask when he attempted to blow up the British parliament.

[Squall83]

So... is there an arrow in this comic's version of the Fed Ex logo?

Even though I've read better xkcd comics I have to thank the autor for making me curious enough to visit the forum again and read up on a bunch of links posted here.^^

[Weertolon]

So... is there an arrow in this comic's version of the Fed Ex logo?

That's a good question - everyone tries to find out that