What do the numbers on a Margiela label mean? How did Maison Kitsuné get so foxy?.

As any overpaid, overcaffeinated marketing guru will tell you, a good logo is a powerful thing. What would Batman be without the bat symbol? Superman without the “S”? And if a logo can transform a man wearing his underpants on the outside into a superhero, imagine what it can do for a brand. It has the power to send a message. To seep into the collective unconscious. To distil a company and everything it stands for down into one single, simple symbol.

Little wonder that big businesses spend so much money on getting them right. Think of Pepsi, who in 2008 splashed an estimated $1m on a new logo that looks to all intents and purposes the same as the old one. Or London 2012, whose £400,000 logo was compared to Lisa Simpson performing a lewd act. (Don’t ask. Just google.) But for every logo dreamt up in the lab with a six-figure price tag, there’s one scrawled onto the back of a napkin that winds up being just as successful. A logo can tell you a lot about a brand – but sometimes, the story behind it can tell you even more. We’ve picked out some of our favourites.