Dairy Queen

Dairy Queen, often abbreviated DQ, is a chain of soft serve ice cream and fast-food restaurants owned by International Dairy Queen, Inc., a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway. International Dairy Queen, Inc., also owns Orange Julius and Karmelkorn.

The first DQ restaurant was located in Joliet, Illinois. It was operated by Sherb Noble and opened for business on June 22, 1940. It served a variety of frozen products, such as soft serve ice cream.

The company's corporate offices are located in the Minneapolis suburb of Edina, Minnesota.

Logos
The original Dairy Queen logo was simply a stylized text sign with a soft serve cone at one end. In the late 1950s, the widely recognized red ellipse design was adopted. The initial shape was asymmetrical, with one of the side points having a greater extension than the other, especially when matched with the Brazier sign—a similarly sized yellow ovoid, tucked diagonally below its companion. By the 1970s, both sides were more closely matched, becoming symmetrical with the 2006 update (see online images for comparison). Some of the new 1950s signs continued to display a soft serve cone jutting from the right side.

"Little Miss Dairy Queen" began appearing in Pennsylvania signage in 1961.

She had a Dutch bonnet, resembling the ellipse logo, with a pinafore apron over her dress and wooden shoes.

A yellow trapezoid Brazier sign, placed below the red Dairy Queen logo, was developed in the late 1960s. It matched the roofline of the new store design of the era.

Although it had been used interchangeably with the Dairy Queen name for many decades, "DQ" became the company's official name in 2001. The font remained the same as in the original signage introduced 60 years prior. Throughout this period, the company placed the registered mark symbol immediately to the right, on the bottom side of the logo. When the company modernized its signage and logos in late 2006, it modified the font and italicized the letters, as well as adding arced lines, an orange one to represent its hot foods above and a blue one below to represent its ice cream products.

In the new design, the registered mark symbol was moved to be adjacent to the letter "Q".

The first overhaul of its logo in almost 70 years, the company claimed that the new logo would show brand growth and reflect the "fun and enjoyment" associated with its products.

Advertising industry observers have noted that the new logo was an unneeded update of a known and trusted industry brand and that its new features were distracting.

The original signage is still in use in older locations or in locations that use a "retro" design motif in the property's design. One example was the sign used at the Dairy Queen in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, which was destroyed and replaced in 2013.