We encounter thousands, if not tens of thousands, of logos in our lifetime—some more recognizable than others.
And despite seeing some of them on a daily basis, sometimes they harbor hidden details we never even notice. That is, until a video goes viral on social media pointing them out and making us feel very silly indeed.
One of those moments happened to me recently while scrolling Instagram, and it really made me think, ‘I was today years old.’
An eagle-eyed Aussie discovered a quirky design feature in the 7-Eleven logo and shared his discovery online.
He starts the clip (which has 16 million views and counting) by standing outside the convenience store chain and looking up at the sign, confused.
The blogger then flips the camera around and lingers on the illuminated sign. “Have you seen it yet?” he asks his viewers.
It took me a moment, but then I finally spotted it, too.
The ‘n’ at the end of the word ‘eleven’ is in lowercase while the rest of the word is capitalized, so it reads ‘ELEVEn’.
Mind = blown.
In the caption, he shares some of the countless questions he, and we, have, such as, ‘How did we miss this?’ and ‘Has it always been this small?’ and ‘Was it ever big?’.
People were equally astounded and one comment with 16k likes summed up many people’s feelings. “Now I can’t see it,” they wrote.
Another person added: “It kind of hurts my heart to see incorrect grammar.”
“This is incredible, never noticed!” replied a third.
Then came the theories… “It’s because lowercase looks more gentle,” said one.
Someone else wrote: “Probably to be more memorable.”
Then 7-Eleven themselves entered the chat and set the record straight.
The brand account commented: “Legend has it, the original owner’s wife thought the logo looked more graceful with the lowercase ‘n’ as opposed to the harsher edges of the uppercase.”
So there you have it! We’ll never look at the logo the same again.