Did you know that the FedEx logo has a secret object embedded within it? Despite the logo’s ubiquity, I’ve never noticed it. Steven at The Sneeze has the story and an interview with its award-winning designer. Now that I know the object is there, it leaps out at me every time I look.
The logo reminds me of this photo by Richard Gregory, instantly recognizable to anyone who took a neuro course in college:
Can you see what it is? Give it thirty seconds. That’s just a preview, because I don’t want to spoil it for you. Click here [link corrected] for an explanation embedded within an interesting lecture on neuroaesthetics by Vilayanur Ramachandran; scroll down and you’ll see it, though the entire article is worth reading. Looking at the picture now, more than a year after when I first saw it, it’s hard to believe the subject was so elusive at first look.
Jacob Grier is a freelance writer, bartender, cocktail consultant, and magician in Portland, Oregon. He writes, eats, and drinks a lot. His articles have appeared in the print or online editions of The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The Los Angeles Times, Reason, The Oregonian, and other publications.
What the hell is it? I can’t find it in the article.
looks like a dalmatian sniffing the ground to me.
Sorry, posted the wrong link. It’s corrected now. Dante’s on the money.
Cool. No, I had never know before that that was part of their logo. Of course it was only about a month ago that I noticed that the ubiquitous Starbucks logo had a woman in the middle of it. I am not Mr. Observant shall we say.
It’s the principle of gestalt-our eye making sense of madness; though perhaps my eye enhances the madness–I still don’t see the dog, only a mean lookin’ hog.
Okay, so now I see the dog, but flip it around, so the head’s the tail and the tail’s the head, and you will see one strutting, bad-A, grimacing hog. I think I like the hog better, it has more moxie.
(Another good article on aesthetics and the brain is in a collection of essays entitled “Understanding Wisdom.” If anybody’s interested.)
I can’t turn the dog’s head into a tail, but I can see the snarling face you mention.
Ah, yes, I see a hog, one that has malformed legs and craps dalmatian heads
That’s right. A gimpy, bad-A, watch yours, dalmation-eating hog.