The first Amiga logo was created by the American company, Hi-Torro during 1983. To avoid confusion with the lawnmower manufacturer 'Toro' the joystick designers made a strategic decision to change their name to Amiga Corporation. The Amiga name was chosen through the teams desire to move away from the typical company names of the past (such as International Business Machines) to one that would be more attractive to technophobes and non-computer users. This was smart thinking on their part, during the 1980's IBM still had the monolithic image conjuring images of room-sized computers and people in white coats. The Amiga brand became extremely important during the late 1980s when Commodore marketed the machine towards the home market.

Like its competitors Acorn and Apple, the Amiga name symbolized that computers were tools designed for the ordinary Joe or Jane to learn. The logo demonstrates the fashionable electric design of the early 1980's - the AMIGA brand being composed of a continuous red streak that symbolized a flow of electricity. At the time this would convey a level of complexity through the stylized font. The oxymoronic subtitle, 'dedicated to the science of fun' also attempts to create a unique 'seriously fun' image creating brand awareness for the company.  

It may be presumptuous to suggest 'The Power System' heading is an earlier indicator to the development of the Lorraine prototype.

To demonstrate the Amigas hardware capabilities, the bouncing Boing ball demo was written late one night at the Winter CES show in January 1984. At the time it was an amazing achievement that surpassed all current systems of the time, seamlessly handling real physics whilst multitasking in the background.
The original Amiga team preferred the Boing ball design, adopting as the unofficial trademark. Dozens of Boing Ball logos were made for the A1000 launch, until Commodore decided to use the checker mark.  It quickly became synomous with the Amiga hard-core, appearing in demos, T-shirts, and magazines.

Dr. Ryan Czerwinski of Merlancia Industries explains the origin of the Amiga Boing ball and checkmark

The most obvious change was the prominence of the Commodore name on the A1000 case. A raised impression of the name and "chicken-head" logo showed exactly who manufactured and sold the machine. Above this was the newly redesigned AMIGA logo, in a custom-Times New Roman font. Commodore had adopted the name of the Amiga Corporation for the computer, replacing the original 'Lorraine' project name. The new Commodore-Amiga also had a new trademark of a multi-coloured checkmark. The rainbow colours of the design symbolized the advanced graphic chipset that lay at the heart of the Amiga. In a time when the Apple Mac could only handle black and white graphics and the IBM PC was a text-based monstrosity, this was an important promotional technique. However, it did not get the recognition that it deserved in comparison to the Apple logo or Atari's 'pitchfork' design.

Whilst the checkmark appears to be a new development it firmly routes the Amigas origin in the range of Commodore machines that had been released during the past 10 years. The rainbow effect is a characteristic Commodore design that had been used in the past to a lesser degree with the C64, to create an impression of ease of use and power. To a degree this was Commodore's interpretation of the Amiga, not to be treated as a separate product for a different, high-end market but as a continuation of the Commodore 8-bit line onto 16-bit. It had worked in the past so why change their market and potential userbase? This trend was continued with a marketing style that can only be described as... interesting. Commodore did not know where to place the Amiga; it was too expensive for their traditional low-end games market, yet in their eyes it was a killer games machine. This lead to a great deal of confusion between selling for a home market or the professional.

For the release of Workbench 2 in 1989 it was moved to a prominent place on the manuals and disks. As you can see on the image (right), the impression of a rainbow plays very strongly but is not as impressive as the first design. It seems simpler and removed the warm affect of the orange.

The image changed again with the release of Workbench 3, returning to the  paint metaphor. This emphasized the immensely powerful AGA chipset with its capability of displaying 256,000 colours onscreen. At this point Deluxe Paint had become the standard art package, resulting in many professionals associating the Amiga with computer art.
The image takes on a darker mood with contrasting colours being placed together. This is quite a sharp, distinct look that manages to convey a sense of strength. The WB3 colour splash also appeared on the AmigaOS 3.1 manuals but the disks reverted back to the rainbow effect of WB2.0.

When Gateway bought the Amiga the disks and box were redesigned again abandoning the colour splash and using a number of small squares. This is probably the last time that the colour splash will be used on the Amiga packaging rendering it an image of the past.

As shown by the associated images, the console all-in-one design of low-end Amigas is a progression on the earlier Commodore 8-bit design, even down to the gaps at the top of the system to allow air to circulate. The general layout of the A500 keyboard has a similar design, taking into account the space required for extra keys. The keyboard also gains a more professional feel to it, making it more useful for a home-office than the C64. The addition of a numeric keypad, extra function keys, and drive lights attempt to provide some additional functionality, providing real-world benefits rather than the aesthetic features that Commodore viewed them.

When the A500 was launched the checkmark that had played such an important part on the A1000 casing temporarily went missing. It could be found on the packaging but was not present on the Kickstart 1.x boot screen or the actual A500 casing. All that graced the machine was the word 'Amiga' embedded into the top of the casing, as well as the Commodore 'chickenhead' symbol and the name of the machine (A500). This played a major part in Commodores' plan to associate the Amiga with Commodore and all that they stood for as well as marking a turning point in their attitude towards Amiga. This time the Amiga was sold on its own merits rather than the Commodore brand name.

However, whilst these designs were fine for earlier 8-bit models it is a topic of debate whether the Amiga should have been graced by their inclusion. In particular, the A1200 should have had a more professional look using a pizza box design, a less-expandable desktop case with an external keyboard. This had been moderately successful with many of the Apple 68k machines and would have made it more attractive to an office environment. This may have helped to move the Amiga away from the game console image that it gained during the late 1980's.

During 1991 and 1992 Commodore used surface mount technology that reduced the hardware size further. This tactic produced the A600 and A1200 - two low-end machines that offered new technology in a familiar wedge-like case. In particular, the A600 design removed the numeric keypad and shrank the keyboard to C64 proportions. The result was a severely cut down A500 that retailed at exactly the same price.

The last Amiga computer to be launched - the A1200 - followed a similar trend with a distinctive look.  Fortunately, the cream-coloured casing had been replaced in favour of a white-professional looking design that improved on the rounded edges of the A500. The moulded AMIGA logo also returned into the case.

During the 1990's it finally dawned on Commodore that they should begin to alter the basic design of the Amiga. Their solution was the CDTV - a black unit inspired by the video player - that was aimed at a market that would be known as the 'Digital Convergence' market. The CDTV was designed to be a home entertainment unit rather than a computer, blending with the stereo and the TV, hence the black design. In their attempt to distinguish the machine from the standard Amiga, Commodore insisted that it must be located a few meters away from other desktops. While it looked the part, the machine flopped as a result of its high price tag, disappointing system specs and a misunderstanding market: Amiga owners did not buy it as it was not sold as a computer and lacked Amiga references; while ordinary customers did not buy it because it was not a computer. 

In retrospect the machine was ahead of its time, aiming towards a market that would not solidify until the late 1990s. Audio compact discs were just catching onto the market, it was not until 1994 that CD-ROM really took off in significant number. Its low-processing capabilities also limited its ability to catch the publics imagination.

A few months later an individual named Karl Jeacle found an advert for Dianetics and commented on Usenet that their logo looked exactly the same to the Amiga. Using the subtitle of 'The modern science of mental health' it is hardly the image that a computer that is trying to make its way back into the limelight should portray.

Contender 2. The Red Square

As a result of the questionable design promoted by the beehive design, Amiga Technologies issued a second wave of designs, choosing an Amiga wordmark. In a press release FrogDesign stated the new logo would create a positive response:

The new logo has a very European feel to it, and is partially based upon the design principles of the Escom trademark. They both share the same colour scheme but use them to create different moods. The black text of the AMIGA creates a bold and strong impression with the red square giving an interesting angle to the work. Or it could be crap.

For better or worse, the wordmark logo has accompanied the Amiga beyond the Escom era, becoming an important image during the Gateway tenure and the current Amiga Inc. generation.