A mountain is an ambiguous symbol. On the one hand, ancient peoples represented mountain peaks as sacred places where the gods lived. An example is Mount Olympus, where, according to the Greeks, Zeus ruled. On the other hand, in many cultures, cliffs and hills were considered a haven for evil forces, as witches and sorcerers gathered there on certain days to perform their rituals.
Of course, the associations have changed in the modern world. Now, mountains symbolize purposefulness, reliability, permanence, stability, steadfastness, superiority, and eternity. White snow-capped peaks represent purity; a difficult ascent is compared to a spiritual ascent. In turn, the peak is a desirable goal, which is comparable to the realization of a cherished dream.
Immutability, stability, confidence—all these qualities are embodied in logos depicting mountains. No wonder they are part of the visual identity of many companies, including world-famous ones. The image of an invincible peak strengthens any brand’s image and creates a sense of strength and invulnerability. Let’s look at the most popular mountain emblems used or used in the past that have gone down in history as successful examples of identity.
Mount St. Mary’s Mountaineers
When creating Mount St. Mary’s Mountaineers emblem, the designers decided to play with the team names. To do this, they slightly raised the central part of the phrase “THE MOUNT,” creating the likeness of a hill and depicting a mountain peak on top. The triangular hill symbolizes Mount St. Mary’s, after which the university and its athletic program were named. The interior of the figure is brown, but white lines pierce it. This is what stylized snow looks like in the artists’ imagination. The letters have a light beige gradient. The base of the inscription and the general outer contour are dark blue. The triangular serif font balances the pointed shape of the mountain.
West Virginia Black Bears
The West Virginia Black Bears baseball team has a logo containing its name, divided into two parts. The first half is in an orange ring surrounding black and blue mountains. Such a landscape is characteristic of West Virginia, as the official nickname of the area is the “Mountain State.” Sharp peaks rise against the moon’s background, depicted as a baseball. A disgruntled bear’s head is drawn in the lower half of the circle, and below it is a white handwritten inscription “Black Bears.” The words are raised diagonally as if it were also some sort of elevation.
Johnson City Cardinals
The designer of the Johnson City Cardinals team logo depicted a chain of seven mountain peaks. This refers to the landscape where Johnson City is located – the valleys at the foot of the Appalachian Mountains. The name of the locality is written in white letters along the dark blue horizon, and below that is the big red word “Cardinals.” On the right, the artists drew a cartoon bird from the Cardinals family. Its wings resemble hands as it holds a baseball bat. At the same time, the flying white ball gives the emblem energy and dynamics.
Toblerone
The Toblerone chocolate bar brand has perhaps one of the most famous logos on this list. It is known by sweet lovers and those who have only seen triangular chocolate on store shelves. The symbol represents a yellow mountain peak with white stripes of snow that form an invisible silhouette of a bear. It is a stylized Matterhorn, the most famous pyramidal mountain in the Pennine Mountains. Under the bottom is the manufacturer’s name, for which the designers used a bold design typeface. The letters with red gradients, golden outlines, blue shadows, and short triangular serifs make the composition three-dimensional.
Idaho Falls Chukars
This professional soccer club loves its homeland, so it dedicated an entire emblem. Since the city of Idaho Falls is located in the Rocky Mountains, the emblem of the Idaho Falls Chukars sports team contains an image of a chain of mountain peaks. White represents snow, and gray represents the rocks protruding from the mist. “Chukars” is written in stylized black letters in the foreground. In the curve of the letter “Ch,” a formidable bird with red eyes and a beak is drawn. The first two words of the name are colored in the same dark crimson hue and are slightly higher on the background of the mountains.
Tipos Extraliga
In the Slovakian ice hockey league Tipos Extraliga, the emblem is associated with frosty freshness, ice, and cleanliness. The base has the shape of a shield with a sharp bottom. The upper half depicts three blue mountain peaks with white snow caps. On them, the word “TIPOS” is written in bold italics and “Extraliga” in thin, straight letters. The second part of the shield is red with a gradient. The white silhouette of a hockey player, dressed in full equipment, holding a stick, and about to score a puck, stands out well against this background.
Evian
Evian is one of the few non-sports brands on this list. It manufactures bottled mineral water produced in the mountainous region of France – in the heart of the French Alps on the border with Italy. Considering the brand’s specificity, designers created a logo for Evian with the image of mountains. There are three gray peaks of indefinite shape. The developers of the emblem made the background completely white to show that the rocks are covered with snow. And at the bottom, in lowercase but large letters, sans-serif, the brand’s name is written. The red color of the word creates a contrast.
Sierra Mist
Sierra Mist is another carbonated water brand diluted with lime and lemon juice. Here, the snow-capped peaks on the logo are not associated with particular mountains. In Sierra Mist, the logo symbolizes the freshness of the drink and its ability to quench thirst. For this purpose, the rocky peaks are combined with a slice of citrus, which in its yellow-green color simultaneously resembles lime and lemon – a three-level diagonal inscription between white-gray mountains and a multicolored slice of fruit. The first two lines contain the brand name, consisting of bold letters with triangular serifs. At the very bottom is the phrase “LEMON LIME SODA.”
Coors Light
For Coors Light beer, the mountain logo shows the freshness and coolness of the alcoholic beverage. In one version, the peaks were depicted as two connected triangles in light gray, which served as the base for the dark red word “Coors,” written in italics. The other half of the name was located slightly to the right on the same line. The designers rendered it in dark gray capital letters, using a bold sans serif font with clipped lines on some glyphs.
Asheville Tourists
The Asheville Tourists baseball club logo also features mountains, although they look more like high hills here. Their silhouette is dark blue, and the designers decided to depict a night landscape with stars, a moon, a comet flying by, and a falling balloon. The moon casts a silvery blue light on the tops. The emblem is the same color, and the word “ASHEVILLE” is drawn at the top. On the background of the circle with picturesque nature is a stylized inscription “Tourists.” It is handwritten and contains the letter “i” with a five-pointed star instead of a dot.
Salem Red Sox
The Salem Red Sox team logo is a tribute to the city where the baseball club is located. Its stadium offers a picturesque view of the mountains, in which a dark ridge rises on the horizon. Thus, the sports team’s emblem contains several blue mountain ranges varying in shape and shade. A misty outline occupies the upper half of the horizontal oval, and the lower part is painted with a solid dark blue color. In the center, the phrase “RED SOX” is written in shaped font, separated by an image of red socks. Above it is the arched word “SALEM.” The lower part is occupied by two lines: “EST. 2009” and “VIRGINIA” with the letter “G” in the form of a swirling arrow.
Colorado Springs Sky Sox
Colorado Springs, like Salem, has its professional baseball team called the Sox, specifically the Sky Sox. When creating the Colorado Springs Sky Sox emblem, the designers used the Rocky Mountains on the eastern spurs, where the sports club’s hometown is. The mountains on the emblem are depicted as craggy peaks with dark and light blue stripes. The team’s name is written below in white letters with a pink outline resembling teeth. Directly above them are two stylized eyes with cloud-shaped eyebrows.
Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference
Naturally, the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference logo features mountains, as they are mentioned in the name. The designers made them the top of a rhombus, and in the lower half, they depicted a landscape of dark blue Christmas trees against an orange sky. The three mountain peaks have the same color scheme, which gives the impression that the morning sun is falling on them. The rhombus structure is broken by the white abbreviation “RMAC,” located inside a dark blue plate in the center of the emblem. The small triangular serifs fit perfectly into the overall geometry.
Aquafina
This list includes another brand under which purified bottled water is sold. Aquafina’s mountain logo symbolizes freshness, pleasant coolness, and quenching thirst. At the same time, there is no direct connection with mountain mineral springs, as all bottled water is tap water. The artists depicted the two peaks with a light gray gradient against the background of the rising red sun. Blue lettering was added at the bottom in large but rather thin letters for balance. A special font was designed for the brand name, so the two “A’s” are disproportionate.
Prudential Financial
In the case of Prudential Financial, the logo is a stylized image of the Rock of Gibraltar. The famous peak is represented in the form of white and blue spots and stripes, which are placed inside a circle. It became the symbol of the investment and insurance company after one of the advertising agents passed by Snake Hill and was inspired by the beauty of the local landscape. This happened in the 1890s. Since then, the emblem has changed many times until the modern version appeared – a simplified pictogram signed at the bottom with the word “Prudential.”
Colorado Rapids
The designers who developed the mountain emblem for the Colorado Rapids team dedicated it to the landscape features of Colorado. This is another case where geography is directly reflected in the brand’s visual identity. The mountain peak is depicted as a jagged triangle. Its left side is light gray, the right side is light blue, and a white line is drawn on top to simulate snow. In the center is a soccer ball hovering over “96”. At the top, in white letters, is the team’s name. All of this is placed within an uneven maroon rhombic shield.
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures has a simple but recognizable logo. It features a white mountain silhouette against a black semicircle in an arch of 22 stars. The image is believed to be of the summit of Mount Ben Lomond in Utah, where the founder of the Hollywood film company is from. The brand’s name is written in white handwriting above the mountain.
Brumbies
Australian rugby club Brumbies chose a galloping blue horse as the star of its emblem. Its name is associated with wild horses, which used to be domestic but then ran away or were released. The mountains, with their gray peaks and white patches of snow, are depicted in the background. Those who created the Brumbies emblem decided to depict the stylized Brindabella Ranges, which are located near Canberra, the rugby club’s home.
Pacific-12 Conference
The Pacific-12 Conference logo looks powerful and modern. Its base is a triangular heraldic shield with a black outline. The inner part contains a bright blue numeral “12” in a white circle and light-colored letters “PAC” formed by negative space on a dark blue background. White lines stretch upward from the circle between the two “A” diagonals. They form a right angle, similar to a snow-covered mountain peak.
Pacific West Conference
The PacWest is another association of sports teams using a mountaintop emblem. Designers created a round-shaped emblem for the Pacific West Conference and placed it in a thin black ring. The blue circle contains white elements – called negative space. Three angled lines at the top form silhouettes of mountains, and a wavy stripe drawn below them resemble hills on the horizon. Below is a two-line inscription: “PacWest CONFERENCE.” Its sans-serif font looks balanced against the abstract background.
Appalachian League
In the case of the Appalachian League, the logo resembles a rondel in its structure. The central circle depicts the Appalachian Mountains, after which the sports organization was named. They are colored green and rise against an orange sky, while the foreground is occupied by a forest in the form of a solid dark spot. In a black border separated by two green lines is the phrase “APPALACHIAN LEAGUE” in white. There are also two ribbons labeled “EST.” and “1911”.
Outback Bowl
The Outback Bowl logo also featured a mountain, but it was depicted as a long dark red band with uneven hillocks. A brown boomerang, stylized as an American soccer, flew overhead. At the bottom was the name of the championship. The base was a yellow oval in a silver gradient frame. This emblem is no longer used as the annual competition has been renamed the ReliaQuest Bowl.
Big Sky Conference
This organization’s emblem is an expanding blue polygon with lettering. The letters in the top line gradually enlarge to show perspective and depict three-dimensional space on a plane. Below are white mountains with light blue peaks. The designers who developed the logo for the Big Sky Conference gave the landscape an abstract look.
Northwest League
Todd Radom, a renowned sports emblem designer, created an emblem for the Northwest League featuring mountains, water, and trees to match the geographical features of the Northwest region. These elements are placed in a ring that bears the name of the baseball league. The bright color palette looks stylish and modern.
Northwest Conference
The Northwest Conference logo is also not without a picturesque mountain; only here is it presented as a single dark gray band. On the left is an abstract green Christmas tree and a blue river below it. At the bottom, the abbreviation “NWC” is written in block font. The second line contains the full conference name.
Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference
The mountain logo homages the home region in which the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference is located. The three white and gray peaks stylize the Allegheny Mountains, part of the Appalachian Mountains. The emblem includes three silver stars and the sports organization’s name in white sans-serif letters. The base is a dark blue circle with the crossed inscription “AMCC.”
National Park Service
This federal agency manages all coastal conservation areas and national parks in the United States. Therefore, the National Park Service logo consists of elements related to nature. On the horizon, you can see a mountain with a snow-covered peak, and in front of it are a tall tree and many small fir trees. In the background of the picturesque landscape grazes a lonely buffalo. The drawing has the shape of an inverted arrowhead and is executed in white sans-serif font.
AIA
American International Assurance is the largest insurance company in Hong Kong and Asia. It provides life insurance and financial services. The AIA logo contains an image of Mount Everest in a white circle with a dark red outline. The summit is painted in the same colors and appears three-dimensional due to the negative space. In this case, the mountain symbolizes confidence, strength, hope, stability, and inviolability.