The monkey is a very energetic and curious animal, known to be a symbol of playfulness and humor, so the companies, which chose a monkey for their naming and visual identity are progressive, client-oriented, and constantly developing.
Today we are going to have a look at the most famous brands and companies, which use the image of a monkey in their logos, and the animal as a mascot, or even a part of the name.
A funny and vivid monkey can brighten up any boring badge, no matter what color palette is used for it. So let’s see, how different designers adopt an image of this creature to the needs of the companies. All names in the list are arranged in alphabetical order.
Curious George
Curious George is a popular franchise, based on the books of Margaret Rey, with the first release in 2006. The books tell a story of a funny little monkey, called George, and as it comes from the name of the franchise, George is very curious. The logo of Curious George is composed of a graphical part, depicting the main hero, executed in smooth brown and creamy-beige, and lettering, set in a bold yellow cursive with a thick red outline. The little monkey has his hands spread to the sides, hugging the inscription.
Drunken Monkey
Drunken Monkey is not only one of the Asian martial arts styles but also the name of an Indian chain of smoothie bars. The logo of the company looks very cool and progressive, even though it is executed in a black-and-white color palette, with just slight pink touches. The badge is composed of a two-leveled inscription in a bold geometric sans-serif typeface and a graphical emblem on its right. The emblem depicts a monkey with a long curved tail, and pink solid circles on the cheeks. The animal is smiling and looks very friendly.
Mailchimp
Mailchimp is, probably, the most famous email marketing platform, which was created in the USA in 2001. The relation of the company’s identity to a monkey can be seen already in its name — with the “chimp” part standing for “chimpanzee”. As the logo of the service, it features a modern and bold emblem in a black-and-white color palette, placed above a bold lowercase lettering in a smooth and stable sans-serif. The emblem of Mailchimp depicts a winking monkey in a cap. It’s like the animal it letting you know, that he will take care of all your marketing needs.
Monkey Monk
Monkey Monk is the name of an adventure park in Chennai, where everyone can feel like a monkey, climbing, jumping, and running through various outdoor activities. The visual identity of the park depicts a funny caricaturish monkey warrior, dressed like a Buddhist monk, with a long stick in his hand. The animal is very fit and looks like it is ready to show all the possibilities of his body straight away. The emblem can often be seen with bold brown sans-serif lettering, set in two levels against a white background.
Monkey Shoulder
Monkey Shoulder is a brand of whiskey, which was founded in 2005, and gained worldwide popularity in no time. And, of course, a significant part of the whiskey’s success was due to the unusual name and logo of the brand. The Monkey Shoulder logo is composed of a graphical emblem, depicting three silhouettes of monkeys with long curved tails, and a logotype, written under the image in a bold stencil serif font with the contours of the letters slightly blurred. When placed on a bottle, the emblem gets voluminous and gains dark gold or copper gradients.
Nick Jr.
The visual identity of Nick Jr., a popular cable tv channel for kids, has not one, but two monkeys in it. The badge features a large orange silhouette of an animal, placed on the left of a smaller blue one, making up a parent and a child image. The white “Nick” in smooth sans-serif is written across the chest of an orange monkey, while the white “Jr.” in the same style and font — on the blue, Junior one. The badge looks bright and memorable and evokes a sense of energy and fun, not only due to its color palette but also to the main characters.
Stoopid Monkey
Stoopid Monkey is the former name of Stoopid Buddy Stoodios, an American animation studio, which was established in 2005. The logo of the company during the Stoopid Monkey years was composed of a monkey caricature, placed above the two-leveled lettering in white and black. The animal looked playful and kind, smiling and looking to the side like it was inviting you to play together. As for the lettering, the top part was set in a bold white sans-serif, with the outlines of the letters shadowed, and the “I” replaced with an exclamation sign, while the bottom line was written in plain black, with the uppercase “E” having its vertical bar removed.
Super Monkey Ball
Super Monkey Ball is the Sega series of video games in an arcade-style, which was first released in 2001. Today the arcade is available on various platforms, including mobile operating systems, and consoles, such as PlayStation and Xbox. The visual identity of Super Monkey Ball is composed of a diagonally oriented solid yellow banner with rounded sides, where the black sans-serif lettering in two lines is accompanied by a funny stylized image of a monkey head. The animal has its hair elongated and curved up, and the enlarged ears drawn in spirals.
Tractor Monkeys
Tractor Monkeys is the name of a comedy tv-show, which was created in Australia in 2013. The visual identity of the series was as bright as the show itself: the bright yellow trapezoid, overlapping a pink one, with stylized lettering, cut out on solid black rectangles of different sized, and followed by a black drawing of a monkey head in the upper right corner. The monkey here looked pretty sarcastic and ironic. It was not smiling with its mouth, but the eyes of the animal were saying enough.
Yellow Monkey Studios
Yellow Monkey Studios is a company, engaged in the development of video games, and its logo looks pretty progressive and cool, with the two-leveled lettering in a bold narrowed sans-serif typeface, where the lowercase characters of the top level are set in white and outlined in gray, and the bottom ones are drawn in plain gray. The lettering is followed by an enlarged caricature with a monkey head in gray and yellow. The animal is drawn in a modern minimalistic style and has its face looking not very pleased, which adds more fun and playfulness to the badge.
