On a recent trip from Phoenix to San Diego via Interstate 8, as we approached the Ocotillo Wind Project   in the Imperial Valley west of El Centro, Calif., it seemed as if we were driving into a series of mega-sized Mercedes-Benz logos surrounded by a galactic, arid pinwheel display.

It was actually an up-close look at some of the 100-plus wind turbines that dominate the horizon.

According to Car-Brand-Names.com, Mercedes’ three-pointed star encircled into an orbit represents conservatism, reliability, first-class performance and breakthrough engineering.

I’m no renewable-energy scientist – but I can see how the turbine blades are just that!

There are other scientific, engineering and social breakthroughs that are somehow already represented by non-related brands that have seen everyday space infringe upon their identity, such as the checker-board-like Purina logo appearing in crosswalks and football-field end-zones around the country.

On top of that, some of these corporate symbols can mean different things, changing as often as the weather changes.  As Bill Gardner of LogoLounge.com points out:  “a cloud has a different meaning today than a decade ago. Depending on the setting and context, a teenager is likely to look at a cloud icon and think first of data storage rather than rain. Three curved lines stacked on top of or next to one another no longer conjure thoughts of rainbows, but of communication, or more specifically that WiFi is available.”

Are there other corporate logos that have become mainstream in everyday life?