We continue the series on walking Buffalo, from the intrepid couple who began walking every day—no matter the weather—in the early years of Covid. They think (without being systematic) they walked every street in Buffalo, and many in other cities and towns, taking over 30,000 photos, shared in this series. While not usually itineraries, we hope to encourage others to “walk the walk,” to see, observe and appreciate Buffalo—and beyond. William Graebner and Dianne Bennett are also 5 Cent Cine’s film critics, here.
Today’s Photo-Essay: Logos
One of capitalism’s small pleasures (though hardly full compensation for its many irritations and injustices) are the emblems, hallmarks, trademarks, and identifying symbols—that is, logos—that dot the business landscape. They are plentiful, if not ubiquitous, and it’s easy to see them but not see them, to pass by without paying the close attention that the most intriguing of them invite and deserve. Here we offer a sampling of our favorites, “worthy” logos deserving of a closer look.
The word logo is derived from the Greek Logos, which originally meant something narrow (text-based marks) as well as broad (word, speech, discourse, and the English words “dialogue” and “eulogy” derived from the Greek word. Only after 1930 did logo refer to abstract symbols, emblems, or icons.
Our first logo entry was seen on Broadway, a street that has known better days. The same could be said for the sport, bowling, that’s represented by the logo: a happy bowler. What once was a thriving Laux Sporting Goods store is long gone, as is the bowling culture that once nourished community in many cities, but perhaps especially Western New York. Tonawanda was once known as the “bowling capital of the world.”
Now permanently closed, The Edge of Town Restaurant and Lounge, on Genesee Street (in Cheektowaga), used as its logo an elegant (and happy) waiter, likely hand-painted, straight out of the 1930s. The photo is from September, 2020.
The Custom Hatter—a fixture on Broadway since 1989—had as its symbol the Fedora, a style seen now and then today but on nearly every male head in the 1940s. The business closed in 2025 on the death of its owner.
Shop Halz Grocery, also on Broadway, wasn’t far away from the Laux building. When we came by in March of 2020, the façade was a colorful mix of red and yellow, a board (lower right) defining the store as “Afro Asian American,” with logos for each of the three: an American flag (lower right); a pyramid and the Pan African flag (displayed upside down here) representing the Afro component and, adjacent to the pyramid, a man and a woman, apparently of Asian descent. As of 2025, the store was closed, the logos gone.
Protestant iconography is usually predictable, with Jesus, the cross, and the Bible commonly featured.
No More Shackles Holding Me Down International, a store-front ministry on Clinton Street in Kaisertown, adds a pair a broken shackles to the standard Christian iconography. The Bible contains several references to shackles, usually about Jesus Christ setting people free of bondage. The ministry’s name tracks the lyric of an Eddie James song, “Freedom”: “No more shackles, no more chains, no more bondage. I am free.”
Another religious institution, the Church Ushers Association/Of Buffalo and Vicinity (we didn’t know there was such an organization, though it’s been around since 1939) uses a handshake to express its mission, which is to foster interdenominational unity. The Association is on East Delavan Avenue.
If you’re on Genesee Street, it will be hard to miss Camellia Meats’ prominent logo:
You wouldn’t think that “contemplation” would be easily communicated through a logo. But we found two that sought to do just that. One of them, on a sign for “Safety Suggestion” affixed to a company fence in Tonawanda, seems to suggest that a safety suggestion was something to think deeply about—hence The Thinker, from Auguste Rodin’s famous 1904 sculpture.
At the Brain and Spine Center on Hertel Avenue, a contemplative figure (or so it seems), this one a woman, is intended to communicate that the procedure, whatever it might be, will result in “Peace of Mind,” or that one needn’t worry about what might happen inside the Brain and Spine Center. Another piece of logo art, this one in black and white modernist forms, perhaps designed to evoke an x-ray.
We especially enjoy clever logos, those you have to pause, if only for a moment, to enjoy fully. Leading that category is 24 Hour Door, on Sycamore Street at Eureka Place. Of course the company’s logo is going to be a door, but we appreciated the use of perspective, the imaginative way it offered both inside and outside views, and the craftsmanship, that went into the wall painting of its open door.
Pine Avenue in Niagara Falls remains a viable commercial corridor, though the business mentioned here may be closed. There, on the side wall of Frontier Vacuum (“Home of the Miele Vacuum”), you’ll find a Miele vacuum scooping up the letters of the store’s name.
There’s also action going on in the logo for the “One Step Above the Rest” Day Care, with a couple of mice (one of them in diapers), part of the logo, busily creating the rest of it.
Ehmke Well Drillers of Silver Creek must have put a lot of thought into their logo, which features a drop of water and inside it, a drilling rig.
At times “clever” can fade into “weird,” and that was our reaction to a Perry’s Ice Cream logo, seen in Niagara Falls. As one would expect, its centerpiece is an ice cream cone. But then there are two cows, actually built more like horses, one male (with mustache), the other, on the left, female (with oversized red lips and an oversized udder, shedding a drop of milk). We guess the udder is the key—that’s where the milk to make ice cream originates—but it seems a bit gross, and even kids know where milk comes from. And that doesn’t explain the presence of the “guy” animal, whatever it may be. What to make of the funny, Mexican-like hats?
Animals have a substantial presence in logos. We’ll leave you with a Pine Avenue classic, the standard-bearer for Shorty’s Patio Grill (in 2021, sale pending).
Click here to see more “walks and thoughts” by © William Graebner.