The Factory Records logo by Peter Saville.

The Dead Kennedys Logo by Winston Smith.

While there are many references on the web stating that the Death’s Head insignia was designed by long time “Frisco” Hells Angels President Frank Sadliek, Sadliek himself claims this is untrue. The image which appears on the membership card, as well as other Hells Angels ephemera, was drawn in 1953 by a man whose real name is lost or unknown, but was known to those at the time as “Sundown”. Frank had the original printer’s negative from which the “Frisco” Hells Angels membership cards were offset printed. This may be …

The Black Panther Logo by Ruth Howard and Dorothy Zellner.
“Alabama was notorious for using the so-called “literacy test” to deny Blacks the right to vote. In truth, the state’s “education system” was so abysmal that many Blacks and poor whites were illiterate or semi-literate. But the white power structure made sure that illiterate whites were allowed to register and vote regardless.
Because so many illiterate whites were unable to read the names of the political parties or candidates on the ballot, Alabama law allowed each party to have a picture symbol, …

The Steal Your Face logo by Bob Thomas and the infamous LSD chemist Augustus Owsley Stanley.
From Rolling Stone’s 40th Anniversary Summer of Love Special Edition (July 12 – 26 2007), Robert Greenfield* writes:
“While driving to work one day in his MG, Owsley saw an orange and blue logo with a white bar across it on a building. He thought it would look cool if the logo was red and blue with a white lightning bolt through it, so he had someone spray-paint a basic version of it on the Dead’s …

My friend West keenly observes that it is a rare case to see a street kid downtown that doesn’t bare some form of the Misfits skull, which is how the logo came to be the 8th addition in our ongoing series Great Counterculture Logos. As for its own origins, the image was adapted by Glenn Danzig from The Crimson Ghost, a 1946 movie serial about a cloaked villain’s attempts to obtain a counter atomic device known as Cyclotrode X.

The Revelation Records logo by…well, a few different people actually. Jordan Cooper explains:
We used stars on the first few releases as a background which was Ray‘s idea. He liked how Dangerhouse had black and yellow bars as their background on the labels so he wanted us to have something to identify Rev with like that. We got a Letraset sheet of stars and used it on the first three records we put out. The fourth record was going to be the Gorilla Biscuits 7″ and their friend (who would later …

Those of you who visit this site on a semi-regular basis will be aware of a series that I have been posting to since this past November titled Great Counterculture Logos (the irony of this moniker has never been lost on me btw) and, more recently, of the email that I received from artist/designer Paul Pascarella in which he descibes a little of the process that went into the creation of the Gonzo Dagger (Part 5 in said series). There was also mention in that correspondence of a portrait that …

The Public Image Ltd logo by Dennis Morris and John Lydon.

The Gonzo Fist by Paul Pascarella .
Paul Pascarella writes:
I would just like to be clear on the logo that you are refering to, the Gonzo fist, or the actual Gonzo logo with fist, name and dagger blade. The two thumbed fist with peyote button was originally designed by Hunter and a local Aspen artist named Tom Benton. It was first used I believe as a Freak Power symbol when Hunter was running for Sheriff in Aspen in 69′ when Benton designed the poster.
The actual Gonzo logo that you …