The logo of Héðinn depicts a blacksmith with hammer raised above the anvil. According to research by Goddur (Guðmundur Oddur Magnússon), research professor at the Iceland University of the Arts, it first appeared in print in 1952.

The creator of the logo is Helga Markúsdóttir, daughter of Markús Ívarsson, who had founded the machine shop 30 years earlier.
Helga’s story is remarkable. In Goddur’s research, it is noted that Helga, along with Ágústa Pétursdóttir, was among the first Icelanders to study applied graphic art—what later came to be known as graphic design.

Helga (1918–1971) studied applied graphic art at Tekniske Skolen (later Konstfack) in Stockholm from 1933 to 1936, during the flourishing of the Art Deco style—and indeed, Héðinn’s logo was drawn in that very style.

In addition to Héðinn’s logo, Helga also designed, among other things, the logo of the biscuit factory Frón, which still thrives today in its original form.
When Helga was fourteen years old, in 1932, she went to Sweden with her older sister and spent a year at a home economics school in Vadö before beginning her studies in graphic art. Back home, she had studied drawing in courses with Soffía Stefánsdóttir. Art was always a major part of Helga’s childhood environment, as many of the country’s leading artists of the 1920s were frequent visitors to the household, her father being a passionate art collector.

It may well be that the inspiration for Eldsmiðurinn (The Blacksmith) came from Ásmundur Sveinsson’s sculpture Járnsmiðurinn (The Ironworker), but the style is very different, says Goddur, who kindly granted access to his material on Helga for the compilation of this book.

Héðinn’s logo first appeared in print in 1952, but then as combination of lettering with lines and Eldsmiðurinn did not appear until after 1960.