Turns out the Domino's pizza logo has a surprising secret

It's one of the most famous food logos around, and, you might think, one of the most literal. The logo for Domino's is simply a domino, right? Sure – but it turns out there's a special meaning behind those three dots.

Established in 1960 (as DomiNick's Pizza), the pizza joint's logo hasn't changed a whole lot over the years, aside from the original all-red domino switching to red-and-blue. But if the original design philosophy had remained, we might be looking at a whole lot more dots. (Looking for inspiration? Check out the best logos of all time.)

According to Logopedia, the dots on the domino represent the pizza chain's original three locations. And the company planned to add a new dot for every new restaurant it opened. Which means today's logo would feature over 15,000 of the things. 

Thankfully, it seems that idea was swiftly abandoned – the first update to the logo, revealed in 1970, still features just three dots. But it wasn't until 2012 that the famous duo-tone design that we recognise today appeared – this was when the red domino became half, blue. It was also the year that 'Pizza' was dropped from the brand name.  

Indeed, we've seen plenty of hidden logo messages pop up over the last few months – some intentional, like the brilliant Bluetooth design, some not so much (looking at you, Tesla). If you're inspired to create your own, take a look at our guide on how to design a logo.

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