Myths and legends of world famous brands. The history of fashion brand logos

Major brands, their logos, products and even slogans are known to almost every inhabitant of the planet. Often, most even know the names and faces of the founders of these companies, since it is difficult for such popular personalities to remain in the shadows. After all, not everyone can create a transcontinental empire.

Nevertheless, there are also such creators who do not like to bask in the rays of glory and popular love. They have enough of the success that the business brings, and the fact that the name of the creator is not written on every billboard does not bother them. It's time to pay tribute to these great people and tell a little about them.

Ferrero - Michele Ferrero

The creator of Kinder Surprise, Ferrero Rocher, Rafaello and Nutella took over the family chocolate business back in 1957. His ideas helped the business grow stronger and eventually turn into a world-famous and beloved brand. Yes, Tic Tac is also Michele's idea. Unfortunately, the creator of the sweet empire passed away at the age of 89.

Lacoste - Rene Lacoste

And the tennis player became the creator of this world-famous brand. In the 1920s, tennis was played in long-sleeved shirts. For one of the tournaments, Rene himself sewed a short-sleeved polo shirt from lightweight knitted fabric. In 1933, Lacoste retired from the sport and organized his own company. Since during his sports career he was nicknamed the Alligator, it is clear where the logo came from.

Nike - Phil Knight

In his youth, Knight was fond of running, but the quality of sports shoes did not suit him at all. Then he founded the company Blue Ribbon Sports, which was engaged in the import of sneakers from Japan. Then, due to supply problems, Phil decided to start his own shoe company. Initially, it was supposed to be called "The Sixth Dimension", but his acquaintances dissuaded him, and today we have an easily recognizable brand.

Pandora - Vinnie and Per Enivoldsen

In 1982, a small jewelry store appeared in Copenhagen, selling jewelry from Thailand. It was opened by the Anivoldsen spouses. For five years, the store has grown into a large company and it was decided to produce jewelry own production. Service became available in 2000 self assembly decorations, and since then the Enivoldsens are the richest people in Denmark.

Instagram - Kevin Systrom

The creator of the most popular photo network was a student at Stanford when he became interested in photography. Some time later, he managed to get money, and with his friend Mike Krieger, he began developing a suitable platform. To stand out from the competition, the guys came up with special filters. The brand later bought Facebook for a billion dollars, and the number of users is growing by leaps and bounds.

Zara - Amancio Ortega

In the 70s, Amancio and his wife sewed custom-made nightgowns in their own living room, but after a series of failures, the couple decided to start selling the goods on their own. The first store appeared in 1975 in La Coruña. Since then, the company has been renamed Intitex and opened a number of stores: Zara Home, Stradivarius, Pull and Bear, Bershka and many others. In August 2017, Ortega was even recognized richest man planets.

Starbucks - Howard Schultz

In 1971, the first Starbucks opened in Seattle, a store selling coffee beans and equipment. Only 16 years later, when it was bought by Schultz, who then owned the Il Giornale coffee chain, the establishment began to change. Drawing inspiration from classic Italian coffee houses, Howard Schultz was able to build a world-famous empire.

Hard Rock Cafe - Peter Morton & Isaac Tigrett

The Doors, while recording the Morrison Hotel album, stumbled upon a small establishment called the Hard Rock Cafe. They thought it was a funny coincidence, because the album was also recorded in the hard rock genre, so the band members took some photos there, which ended up on the album cover. A year later, they received a call from Morton and Tigrett asking them to allow them to open an establishment with that name. This is where the story of the huge Hard Rock Cafe chain begins.

MENSBY

Many creators of brands and fashion houses did not plan to be engaged in fashion... Perhaps that is why they managed to create cult pieces.

“If you want to make the Lord laugh, tell him about your plans,” says a well-known proverb.

The creators of brands and fashion houses, which we will now tell you about, did not even think of amusing the Almighty and did not build grandiose plans to create fashion empires. They didn't plan to do fashion at all... Probably, that's why they managed to create really cult things.

Louis Vuitton: from chest to suitcase.

The Louis Vuitton Company founded in 1854 by the carpenter's son Louis Vuitton. He was born in the small town of Franche-Comté in eastern France. At the age of 14, Louis went on foot to work in Paris (and this, by the way, is almost 400 kilometers!). In the capital, he became an assistant to the master in the manufacture of travel chests.

In this business, young Vuitton succeeded so much that he soon became the personal master of the Empress Eugenia (Eugenia) and opened his own shop on the Champs Elysees.

In 1858, Witton created a lightweight flat chest to replace the heavy and bulky one, the prototype of the modern suitcase. The aristocracy liked this invention very much, since with the development railways people began to travel more, and they needed easier and more convenient ways to transport things.

After the death of Louis, his sons continued his work. One of them, Georges, frustrated by the number of fake Louis Vuitton bags and suitcases, came up with the signature Monogram embossed print with the 'LV' logo to fight fakes. As we now know, this did not help him... But the print itself became truly iconic...

Today the brand has 350 stores in 53 countries.

Hermes: the best harness in Paris.

Fashion house ‘Hermes’ was founded in 1837 in Paris as a saddle shop. In those days, a high-quality harness and an expensive saddle could tell about the state and position of a person in society as much as expensive accessories say now.

Brand founder Thierry Hermes he knew his business perfectly: all self-respecting riders had his saddles with a signature large stitch. Ermes served the imperial stables of France, Spain, Great Britain and Russia. After the death of Thierry, his children and grandchildren continued his business. In the 20s of the last century, when the aristocracy began to actively switch from horses to cars, the Hermes house for the first time diversified its business and began the production of leather accessories - belts and bags.

Wherein distinctive features marks - high-quality leather and a large saddle stitch - have been preserved. They provided the goods with a special glamor and durability. Later, in addition to accessories, the brand began to produce sportswear, to which casual wear and luxury home goods were added even later. There are always three iconic items in the Hermes collections: bags 'Kelly' and 'Birkin'', as well as square silk square scarves.

Every year the company releases new scarves with prints on a variety of topics - from Impressionist paintings to the history of aeronautics, and at the same time, every year the collections always have a "horse theme" as a tribute to the history of the fashion house. And by the way, ‘Hermes’ still produces both saddles and harnesses.

Gucci: another horse story.

In 1906, the Italian Guccio Gucci (Cuccio Gucci founded in Florence, the leather center of Italy, a saddlery workshop of his own name. The business soon went bankrupt, driving its owner into debt. Gucci had to go to work as a doorman, first in Paris, and then in London. He returned to Italy only 10 years later, to finally fulfill the dream and open an accessories store for riders.

This time the business turned out to be more successful, and soon Gucci decided to expand the range of the store with handbags. Reselling goods from other manufacturers was not very profitable, so Guccio began to create his own bags under the brand ‘La Gucci Vita’. For her, a corporate logo and a print in the form of interlaced G letters were developed, which soon became popular around the world. Another recognizable symbol of the company was a striped braid, the prototype of which was a horse girth. Now she decorates both belts and bags of the brand. And in 1947, the first it-bag 'Gucci' was invented - a bag with a bamboo handle, which in different interpretations is still being reissued.

Workwear Hugo Boss.

Modest owner of a small German manufactory for the production of work overalls and dressing gowns Hugo Boss and could not think that someday things with his name on the label would be worn by ministers and presidents. He founded his business in the 1920s, when the whole of Germany was in economic decline. Before the Second World War, the company began to serve the needs of the Nazi army, so after the war it was practically ruined. Boss himself died in 1948, but a couple of years later his relatives decided to revive his business.

Name 'Hugo Boss' seemed commercially attractive to them, as it is easy to read and pronounced the same in almost all European languages. The brand began to produce elegant men's suits and was soon able to compete with Italian fashion houses, which at that time dictated the rules in the world of men's style.

5 stories of unusual names.

And these brands were originally created in order to shine on the fashion or beauty sky. But the etymology of their names is very unusual.

• luxury brand 'Coach' grew out of a small workshop in Manhattan. The brand's first bag was made from... a baseball glove. Hence the sports name ‘Coach’, which means “coach” in English. But this word also means "carriage", and it is she who is depicted on the brand's logo.
• Your company ‘Cacharel’ tailor Jean Bruske named it after a small bird called cacharel, which lives in the south of France. She accidentally caught his eye when he was thinking about the name for his enterprise.
• Cosmetic brand 'Lancaster' businessman George Wurz and pharmacist Eugene Frezzati created in Monaco immediately after the Second World War. They named it after the 'Lancaster' heavy bombers that the RAF used to liberate France from the Nazis.
• brand ‘Mexx’ appeared after the merger of two clothing brands - men's 'Moustache' and women's 'Emanuelle'. The first letters M and E were taken from the names of both brands, and the last two XXs mean a double kiss that sealed a new union.
• Finally, the brand name 'The Body Shop' and completely ironic. After all, that’s what (The Body Shop) in America is usually called car body repair shops ...

Every day we see beautiful posters, posters, posters on television, on billboards, in public transport. We are surrounded by many names, slogans, logos. Some of them are little known, and some are known all over the world. But have you ever wondered how the logos of the most famous companies in the world were created? Where did the bitten Apple apple come from, why is the Nike checkmark so popular, and who invented it, why are the three stripes of Adidas so simple, but at the same time so popular? Today we will tell 7 small stories, each of which will tell about the creation of logos for famous brands. We are sure that this article will be of interest to everyone who is interested in the history of the development of large corporations, because it is with the logo that the life of the company begins.

Close relationship between Chupa Chups and Salvador Dali

Salvador Dali is one of the brightest and most famous representatives of the surrealist movement. The artist, sculptor, graphic artist, director and writer has made an undeniable contribution to the development of the modern world. And, it would seem, what does he have to do with Chupa Chups. Not many people know that it was Salvador who created the world-famous logo of sweet candies on a stick.

The idea of ​​producing sweet candy on a stick was so interesting and promising that the founders of the company did not spare a tidy sum of money to attract the well-known artist Salvador Dali to create the logo. Looking ahead, we can easily say that the money invested paid off with interest, because the Chupa Chups logo turned out to be interesting, simple, not intrusive and understandable.

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As Dali himself said, the work on the logo took no more than an hour - from the development of an idea to its final completion. He took the colors of the Spanish flag as a basis, added rounded shapes to the letters, put it all in a frame, and that's it. Just like that, within one hour, one of the most famous and recognizable logos in the world appeared.

Carolyn Davidson and the famous Nike swoosh

Surely, every time you see the Nike logo, you ask yourself the question: “How did this tick become so popular?”. I don't know about you, but this question pops up in my head all the time. After all, a damn simple logo, but at the same time incredibly concise, clear, memorable. And the creator of the Nike logo is Carolyn Davidson. While still a student at Portland State, young Carolyn entered a competition to design a logo for a new company. Then her "tick" did not cause much enthusiasm among the leaders of Nike. “I don’t really like this logo, but I am sure that it will help us become popular,” said one of the founders of the company.

A very interesting fact is that Carolyn received only $35 for her work. How much do you think this logo is worth now?

Frank Robinson and Coca-Cola

It would seem that such a well-known brand, such a recognizable logo, it was definitely developed by the team professional designers and marketers. Well, how else. Coca-Cola is known all over the world, and their red logo and peculiar font cannot be confused with anyone else. But in fact, everything is much simpler. The logo for Coca-Cola was created by Frank Robinson, an ordinary accountant of the company. At that time, they did not yet know what the company would be called, and Frank chose the name Coca-Cola. I placed this name on a red background, and used the standard script for that time to write. It was this "font" that was considered the standard of calligraphy and the beauty of calligraphy. This is how the world saw one of the most famous logos modernity. True, time took its toll, and about once every ten years, Coca-Cola changed the design of its logo. But those traditions, the red background and the special font that were laid down in the very first years, have never changed.

Milton Glaser and the world-famous "I Love NY" sign

Often on the streets you can see young people in T-shirts with the words "I Love NY". It is noteworthy that the creation of this inscription led to the birth of a whole fashion for “love confessions”. Now in every city you can meet people with inscriptions telling how much they love their city. In Moscow you can often see "I LoveMoskov", in London "I Love UK". Yes, and in others big cities this is not uncommon.

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And it all started with the fact that a young designer Milton Glaser in the mid-70s, on a voluntary basis, completely free of charge, created a simple, but at the same time incredibly popular logo. Thus, he expressed his love for one of the most beautiful cities in the United States, and supported the initiative of the city authorities, who sought to attract more tourists to New York. Over time, this sketch fell in love with many citizens who happily bought T-shirts, caps, jackets, and other things with this inscription.

An interesting fact is that Glaser sketched one of the most famous logos on a piece of paper while riding in a taxi. Now this first prototype of the "I Love NY" logo is stored in the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

The NeXT logo was created in just 2 weeks

Company Founder Apple Steve Jobs also faced great difficulties in his life. If you don't know, he was even fired from the company he founded. But Steve never faltered, and even after leaving Apple, he founded another computer equipment company, NeXT. The symbolic name is next. Probably, in this way, Jobs wanted to emphasize that he does not stop, and is ready to develop the next company with even more fuse. But today we are interested not so much in the foundation and development of NeXT as in the creation of the company's logo.

The logo was designed by a well-known graphic designer Paul Rand. He gave Jobs a tough ultimatum: "You pay me $100,000 and I'll provide you with one version of the logo that suits you." As a result of such cooperation, the world saw the NeXT inscription made in the style of Jobs.

The work was accepted immediately, without any edits. The only thing that Steve noticed was the need to highlight the letter "E" in yellow.

It is worth noting that Paul Rand has previously designed logos for IBM (a huge computer corporation), UPS (a worldwide delivery service for goods), and a dozen other medium and small companies.

Rob Yanov and the Rainbow Apple

I am sure that each of you knows what the Apple logo looks like. And everyone knows and heard about the founder of the company, Steve Jobs. But few people can name the name of the one who created the world famous logo. We are sure that 9 out of 10 will say that Steve himself came up with a bitten apple, but this is absolutely not true. Apple had the original logo, which depicted Newton sitting under a tree and writing something. Steve did not like this option, because from a young age he gravitated towards simplicity and minimalism. As Jobs said, “Icons should be lickable.” This is exactly what he demanded from Rob Yanov, the designer working on the new Apple logo. The only wish he received from Steve Jobs was: "Don't make it sugary."

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A few weeks later, several options were presented to the court, among which were rainbow apples (bitten and not bitten). Steve chose the option that seemed more original and interesting.

Now Apple products are used by hundreds of millions of people around the world, and their logo is one of the most famous and recognizable.

The most popular three stripes in the world

Adidas is a company that is a leader in the sportswear market. This is no longer just a brand, it is an entire industry that dictates the style of more than one generation of sports fans. For a very long time, the Adidas logo was a shamrock and three stripes. It is noteworthy that no designers and professionals were involved in creating the logo, and the concept itself was proposed by the founder of the company, Adi Dassler.

For almost 22 years, from 1972 to 1994, the logo was unchanged. But in the early 90s, under the dictation of new fashion trends, the company slightly reworked the “shamrock”, which had already become beloved by the whole world. Now the clothes sported an angular logo, which was made in the old traditions, while maintaining the theme of the three stripes. Since 2008, Adidas has been releasing a separate line of clothing and shoes called "Adidas original", which combines the fashion of the 80s, and the original logo created by Adi Dassler.

Three-beam star Mercedes

Mercedes was founded in 1926. But the logo that became known to the whole world appeared decades earlier. The official version says that the Mercedes logo means the trinity - earth, water and air. It was on the ground (in cars), on the water (in boats and yachts), and in the air (in airplanes), that engines produced at Mercedes factories were used. There is also an unofficial version, which says that for the first time the founder of Mercedes-Benz, Gottlieb Daimler, used a three-pointed star. He wrote a letter to his wife, and it was with this symbol, a star with three rays, that he marked the place where they would be new house. Gottlieb's sons slightly modernized their father's star and placed it on the company logo.

Pavel Durov and Vkontakte

And I would like to finish our review with the logo of one of the most popular social networks in the world, Vkontakte. It is incredibly simple, concise, conveys the essence of the company and its purpose. As Pavel himself said, it took no more than 10 minutes to create the logo. He took unobtrusive colors, blue and white, and made the inscription a standard font. As a result, we got a simple logo that is seen by more than 50 million visitors every day. social network"In contact with". Over time, the logo was further simplified, and just the letter "B" was left against the background of the company's already known colors.

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One could continue this list by adding more than one hundred well-known logos of the most popular companies in the world to it. But we tried to choose the most interesting brands and unusual stories of creating their logos. We are sure that the article was interesting for you, and now you know how the logos of famous companies appeared.

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The success of modern companies was born not in an instant, but as a result of hard work and perseverance of their organizers. At the heart of most modern corporations was the passion and great desire of the creators to do what they love. Played a big role historical facts and the time frame for the emergence of certain companies. The successful entry into the market of the products they offer has made it possible to achieve excellent results in the modern world.

Considering the success stories of well-known companies, you can always make sure that the path to achieving your goals was not simple and easy. Perseverance and self-confidence allowed the founders of the companies to achieve their goals.

Success stories

On examples, you can see a brief history of the development of each of the companies.

MicroSoft - Bill Gates and Paul Allen

Let's take a look at the examples of the success stories of several well-known companies. Let's start with the most famous and sought-after company - Microsoft.

The company was founded in 1975. Its founders were Bill Gates and Paul Allen. The first program was a BASIC interpreter. A month later, a license agreement was signed with the company that produced the first computers. Then the name Microsoft appeared. The company had three people, but in the first year of operation they managed to achieve a turnover of more than $ 16,000 a year.

Within the company, there was a rule that all employees used only products of their own production. This made it possible to test new programs in real time various conditions and situations.

From the very beginning of its activity, the company provided its employees with comfortable conditions labor, which attracted many developers to the walls of the company. Being a huge piggy bank non-standard solutions, the company has achieved huge success in a short time and gained worldwide fame for its products and development computer technology. Timely entry into the market and its rapid development allowed the company to take a strong position in the market of computer products.

Apple - Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak

Another example of a successful emergence and work in the field of computer technology is Apple.

The history of this company begins in the 70s of the twentieth century. The founders of the company were two friends - Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. Deciding to assemble computers, the friends founded their own company and started building computers.

The first computer was released in 1976. It was a very different computer from what we used to understand by this word. There was no separate keyboard, sound card. During the year, 175 of these computers were assembled and sold, which brought the company about $ 116,000.

In 1977, the second Apple computer appeared. It already had the functions of playing sound files, video and there was a keyboard. In the same year, the world-famous company logo was developed.

Since 1979, they began to create a new series of computers called the Macintosh. And the first computer with this name appeared in 1984.

The achievement of the company's impressive results became possible thanks to the involvement of highly qualified specialists and constant competition in the computer services market.

Henry Ford as an icon of the principle of the division of labor

Most of the founders of automobile companies are the same age as the first automobiles. So the founder of the Ford company was Henry Ford. His first cars were assembled by hand. To increase the number of cars assembled, Henry came up with the assembly line, which is used in all modern car manufacturing.

The fact that Henry believed in the future of the car and made incredible efforts to create his own cars using modern technologies at that time helped the company become an automotive giant. But Ford's main achievement was that he narrowed the specialization of workers to the limit. Together with conveyor assembly, this made it possible to produce cars at a revolutionary speed at that time, and their cost made cars affordable for the general population. Remember the principle "A car is not a luxury, but a means of transportation"? So it started with Ford.

Mars is a family business

Most modern corporations have their roots in the past, when they were founded as family companies or companies organized by friends. An example of a family business is the Mars Corporation.

The origins of its creation go back to the 19th century, to the family business. The beginning of the ascent to world fame was the opening of a trading shop selling sweets. While selling sweets and chocolate by weight, Mars thought it would be nice to try wrapping chocolate bars in foil. The idea has gained immense popularity. This is how the first individually wrapped chocolates appeared.

In the 1920s, the Marses had their own chocolate factory. With an increase in staff, new ideas for chocolate bars also appear. In the same years, the well-known Snickers appeared. Subsequently, several more premises for factories will be acquired. The company is still owned by the descendants of Mars, making the company a family business.

Others 🙂

Considering the success stories of companies in other areas, one can pay attention to the formation of companies that appeared in a timely manner as a result of economic transformations in the country. Such companies include the modern Russian giants of the oil and gas industry, which have turned from state-owned into private ones.

Their success stories are united by the fact that they all appeared not from scratch, but as a result of the transfer of ownership from public to private hands. It is impossible to say that someone was at the heart of their creation. Most likely, this is the result of fraud and economic transformation.

Summary

In conclusion, I would like to add that the success of modern companies did not come by itself. This is the result of many years of hard work and perseverance of the founders of the company. In many ways, this is also a favorable combination of timely entry into the market and original ideas to offer consumers unique products or services. Almost all companies started by offering an original solution to a problem. The first successes prompted the expansion and continuation of work in the market of the services or goods offered. The result of many years hard work was the acquisition of fame and profit, making the company successful and attractive for work and cooperation.