The logo, the Innovation Ring,[7] was designed by Landor Associates, a prominent San Francisco-based branding consultancy. One source inside the company says that the logo is a Zen Buddhist symbol for "eternal truth", the Enso, turned 90 degrees and modified. Another source says it represents the mythic ouroboros, a snake holding its tail in its mouth. This companies logo also has been said to represent constant re-creating and re-thinking.[8][9] Carly Fiorina picked the logo because her mother was a painter and she rejected the sterile geometric logos of most high tech companies.[10]
After the logo was compared in the media to the ring a coffee mug leaves on paper, a Dilbert comic strip showed Dogbert as an overpaid consultant designing a new company logo; he takes a piece of paper that his coffee cup was sitting on and calls it the "Brown Ring of Quality".[11] A telecommunication commentator referred to the logo as "a big red zero" and predicted financial losses.[12] Source
