Old and Current Five Below Logos: Evaluating the Changes
Compare Five Below’s older and current logos, how the mark is built as vector artwork, and what those changes mean for accurate, permitted use.
Contents
The short answer
The Five Below identity the public usually means by “the old logo” is an earlier wordmark-plus-star lockup: a stacked, more novelty “five / below” arrangement with rounded, youthful letterforms and a five-pointed star, often shown in brighter multi-color treatments. The current identity keeps the same two ingredients—the words “five below” and a five-pointed star—but tightens them into a cleaner lowercase wordmark, a simpler star, and a more limited color system built around a signature pink-magenta with high-contrast black or white. For vector work, the live mark is the current lockup issued as outlined artwork; circulating copies of the older mark are frequently photographs, storefront crops, or raster previews, not editable paths, and possessing a file is not the same as having rights to modify or use the trademark.
How the mark developed
Five Below is a value retailer whose name encodes the original price idea: most items at five dollars or less. The logo has always had to read that name quickly on storefronts, bags, tags, and screens, and a star has long served as a simple graphic stand-in for “five.” That pairing—wordmark plus star—is the through-line between versions. What changed is the drawing of the type, the drawing of the star, the lockup, and the color discipline around them. Designer or agency authorship, an official redesign brief, and exact launch dates for each version are not supplied in attributable records here, so those details remain a gap. Visual comparison below is interpretation of how the marks present, not a claim about unpublished intent.
In the older lockup, “five” typically sits above “below” in bouncy, heavily rounded letters that look closer to a novelty retail face than to a geometric sans. The star is often larger relative to the type, sometimes gold or yellow, and the palette can run to red, yellow, and other bright accents in the same unit. Counters and terminals feel informal; the whole mark is built to look fun at a glance. That construction still works as a logo conceptually—name plus a five-point cue—but it is less even in stroke, harder to keep consistent at small sizes, and more tied to a multi-color application than a single master drawing.
The current lockup reads as a systemized wordmark. “five below” is lowercase, in a custom rounded sans with more even widths and simpler curves. The star is a flat five-pointed shape, commonly in the brand’s pink-magenta, and it sits beside or above the type rather than competing with it as a second colorful mascot. Horizontal and stacked arrangements both appear in public use; both are still wordmark-plus-star, not a pictorial emblem that replaces the name. Interpretation: the redesign trades novelty bounce for scale, contrast, and repeatability across digital, packaging, and signage.
| Feature | Older lockup (interpretation) | Current lockup (interpretation) |
| Name treatment | Stacked “five” over “below,” more novelty bounce | Lowercase “five below,” even rounded sans |
| Star | Often larger, gold/yellow or multi-color, more illustrative weight | Flatter five-point star, usually in the pink-magenta family |
| Color | Brighter multi-color combinations in one unit | Narrower system: signature pink with black or white |
| Lockup | Type-forward stack; star can dominate | Star and wordmark as a tighter, more interchangeable pair |
| Reproduction character | Harder to keep even when reduced or in one color | Built to hold as a single-color or two-color mark |
What this brief cannot confirm
No attributable design record in this material names the designer, studio, or year for either version, and no official palette (spot, process, RGB, or hex) or clear-space rule is supplied. Whether the older mark remains registered, licensed for heritage use, or fully retired is also unconfirmed here. Do not treat a widely posted “then and now” graphic as a specification sheet. For production color, proportions, minimum size, and approved lockups, the company’s current brand artwork is the source of truth; visual reading of public signs and packaging is only a starting comparison.
Vector construction and what “editable” actually means
A Five Below logo file is useful as vector artwork only when the star and the letterforms are real outlines—closed paths a drawing program can select, recolor, and scale without a pixel grid. A photograph of a storefront, a PNG with a white box, a JPEG from a search result, or a PDF that merely embeds a bitmap is a raster preview. Those files can look sharp on screen and still fall apart when you need a one-color vinyl cut, a large fascia, or a clean knockout. An .ai, .svg, or .eps filename does not prove the paths are live; some of those containers hold a placed image. Open the file and inspect: you should see separate path objects for the star and for each letter (or a compound path of the wordmark), not a single flat picture.
- Confirm outlines, not a linked or embedded bitmap, before calling the file a vector master.
- Keep the star and the wordmark as distinct objects so colorways and lockups can be rebuilt without tracing.
- Do not auto-trace a low-resolution old-logo JPEG; tracing invents extra nodes, broken joins, and off-model curves.
- Match the version to the job: current lockup for new work; the older mark only if a documented archival or comparison use requires it.
- Treat unofficial “free logo” packs as untrusted. They often mix the wrong era, the wrong star, and a raster preview labeled as vector.
Permission is separate from the file
Five Below’s name, wordmark, and star are trademarked brand assets. Finding a downloadable logo, including an older version, does not grant permission to modify the artwork, substitute a lookalike font, recolor the star outside approved use, or put the mark on merchandise, a website, or a partnership piece. Font files used to build the wordmark, if they are still live type rather than outlines, are a separate license. For any public or commercial use, obtain current artwork and written permission from the rights holder; historical curiosity about the old logo does not change that.
Practical implications of using the older mark
Putting the older lockup on new materials reads as unofficial or out of date, even if the name is spelled correctly. Mixing eras is a common error: current pink star with the old stacked novelty type, or old gold star with the current lowercase wordmark. Those hybrids are not the live identity. If the task is reconstruction for a legitimate comparison, timeline, or rights-cleared archival layout, draw from the highest-quality official art you can obtain, label the version, and keep old and current lockups on separate layers so they cannot be exported as one mark. If the task is a current application—signage, packaging, digital, or print—use only the current outlined artwork, in the current lockup and color system, at a size that preserves the star’s points and the wordmark’s counters.
When evaluating a file someone has labeled “Five Below old logo,” ask three questions in order: which era is this actually drawing; is it outlined vector or a raster preview; and do you have rights to use that artwork for this purpose. The first question is visual and historical. The second is a construction check. The third is legal. All three have to line up before the file is fit to use.