High-end French furniture manufacturer/distributor Ligne Roset celebrates its 150th anniversary in 2010.

The family business is currently under the leadership of the fourth generation of Rosets, brothers Pierre and Michel, recently joined by their sons Antoine and Olivier. Today Ligne Roset does business in 71 countries.

Here’s the evolution of the company logo through the decades.

“Our first logo, before the days of modern branding and marketing. Circa 1930, as we began to establish our upholstery collection pre-WWII.”

“Moving towards the mid-century, our logo evolved to reflect our product; ‘sieges’ as in seats.”

“Our logo in the ’60s.”

“Moving into the ’70s, clearly; ‘the best moment of the day!’ was our tag for a period of time.”

“Later in the ’70s we expanded back to the full Ligne Roset name, adding in the smaller LR mark. As you’ll notice, moving into the ’70s as most other businesses, our logo and branding became more of a focal point, seeing more revisions.”

“Moving past the ’80s, we used this particular logo from 1990 up until very recently in 2007.”

“And our most contemporary logo, which we’ve stuck with through the ’90s and ’10s.”

Looking at the variations, and how they stack-up against today’s logotype, I’m glad the boxed-surround of 1990 onward was ditched. It was restricting, and didn’t benefit the design. It’s good that brand equity has been kept with the use of the same type-style for the past 40 years, and if there was to be a switch from the current iteration, I’d like to see experiments with the original script from back in the 30s. It shows a personal touch that says “high-end” more than the current logotype, and the handwritten style would also suit the family-run nature of the business.

Tip from Molly Washam of Attention.

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This reversed option (below) came about in 1939.

“Wolfgang Schmittel joined the Braun design department as a freelancer in August of 1952. Upon his arrival, he revised the Braun logo and also gave it a reduced, constructively comprehensible form.”
— SIGHT UNSEEN

As we see it today.

——

Update: 23 July 2010
Daniel sums it up nicely when he says, “I absolutely love the geometric simplicity of the current incarnation, although their actual product and packaging design leaves a lot to be desired.”

——

View more evolution posts in the imaginatively-named evolution category.

Via Sight Unseen.

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If you can’t see the YouTube video above, view it here.

The Economic Times ran a survey asking for a selection from the options below.

It’s likely the chosen symbol will show the Hindi alphabet “R” with two lines, and the Hindustan Times reported the new rupee symbol would come from a shortlist of the following five.

Thanks for the tip, Guido.

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When the “meatball” (as NASA’s logo is known) was designed in 1959, printing was a completely photographic process. Photocopiers were just beginning to be available, and their quality was too poor for printing; no one was even dreaming of digital printing.

“It’s a design nightmare. It doesn’t print well on laser printers because of the gradations on the airfoil, and it can’t be used at less than 5/8 inch because the stars disappear and the type becomes illegible.”
— GREG PATT, GRAPHICS MANAGER, CORTEZ III

Base created an un-official redesign of the NASA logo that I thought you’d like.

“We wanted to de-emphasize the name in the logo to create more of a symbol that would be universally understood. So we eclipsed the name with a giant sphere, which could be Earth or any other planet.”
— BASE

Cropped logos are nothing new, but if there’s a company that suits one, NASA’s a good shout.

If you asked me before I published this post what NASA stands for, I couldn’t have said for sure. It’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

You’ll find a few contextual shots of the cropped logo on the Base blog.

Via Armin Rosu. Earth photo courtesy of Thinkstock.

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The symbol used in Tim Burton’s Batman (shown around the 57 seconds mark) is the one I’ll always be most familiar with. Watch on YouTube.

Entrance to the Philly Bat Cave

History of the Batman logo
Here’s a five-part series showing the history of the logo: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

View more Logo Design Love reader favourites.

Video via VIBE. History via Kottke.

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The roundel first appeared on Underground station platforms in 1908. The bar and circle, as it became known, comprised a solid red enamel disc and horizontal blue bar. These early roundels, framed with timber mouldings, were introduced as station nameboards. The new device gave prominence to the name of the station, and helped passengers distinguish it from surrounding commercial advertising.

In 1913 the Underground’s publicity manager, Frank Pick, commissioned the typographer Edward Johnston to design a company typeface. By 1917 the proportions of the roundel had been reworked to suit the new lettering and incorporate the Underground logotype. The solid red disc became a circle, and the new symbol was registered as a trademark.

Section of an anonymous poster, 1920

Drawing of proportions for Johnston’s roundel, circa 1925

Photograph from The Guardian

Over 100 years, the roundel has become the unifying symbol for London’s transport services, and is widely recognised as a London icon.

By James Ireland

London Underground Roundel mentions elsewhere

• History of the roundel, on London Transport Museum
• Symbol of life in modern London, on guardian.co.uk
• 100 years of the roundel, on London Transport Museum
• 100 Years of the Roundel, on CR Blog
• Roundel, on Wikipedia
• 100 artists celebrate 100 years of Tube logo, on Transport for London

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Mercedes logo 1902

Mercedes logo 1909

Benz logo 1909

Mercedes logo 1916

The company was founded by life-long business partners Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach. Mercédès is the name of Maybach’s elder daughter, while the Benz came as a result of a merger with Benz and Cie in 1926.

Mercedes logo 1926

The Mercedes-Benz logo consists of a simple depiction of a three-pointed star that represents its domination of the land, the sea, and the air.

Mercedes-Benz logo 2008

The colour silver is typical of the Mercedes-Benz brand, and dates back to its involvement in the first Grand Prix at the Nürburgring in 1934.

Lewis Hamilton driving a Mercedes-Benz W25 at the Nürburgring

When one of the cars exceeded the eligible weight of 750 kilograms in the pre-race checks, officials spent the night polishing off the white paint so the car was back to its raw silver colour. (So the legend goes.) The car was named the “silver arrow.”

Mercedes-Benz emblem

Update: 30 November 2009

Mercedes-Benz logo and symbol 2009

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AOL has released a statement previewing a new brand identity.

The company turned to Wolff Olins, who previous created logos for Wacom, (RED), and the London 2012 Olympics. Tim Armstrong, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of AOL, said:

“The new AOL brand identity is a simple, confident logotype, revealed by ever-changing images. It’s one consistent logo with countless ways to reveal. The new brand identity will be fully unveiled on December 10, when AOL common stock begins trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

“Our new identity is uniquely dynamic. Our business is focused on creating world-class experiences for consumers and AOL is centered on creative and talented people – employees, partners, and advertisers. We have a clear strategy that we are passionate about and we plan on standing behind the AOL brand as we take the company into the next decade.”

Although the AOL logo itself will be constant, the backgrounds will change continuously in an effort to suggest the breadth of AOL’s content.

The period in the logo was added to suggest “confidence, completeness,” said Sam Wilson, managing director at the Wolff Olins New York office, by declaring that “AOL is the place to go for the best content online, period.”

Tim Armstrong said he liked to describe the period as “the AOL dot” because “the dot is the pivot point for what comes after AOL,” whether it’s email, websites or coming offerings that will “surprise people.”

Here’s a video of Armstrong taking about the new brand identity. (Click here if you don’t see the embedded video below.)

“The constantly changing images behind the logo are also intended to elicit surprise,” said Sam Wilson and Jordan Crane, creative director at Wolff Olins New York.

An advertising campaign to promote the new look is being considered, said Maureen Marquess, chief of staff at AOL in New York, as is the role to be played by the AOL brand character, known as the running man.

AOL’s running man brand character

Whatever AOL does or does not do, Ms. Marquess said, there will be gibes from critics, whom she called “the snarkies” after the snarky comments they invariably make.

AOL’s old logo

AOL’s new logo

Call me one of “the snarkies,” but when I’m told a brand identity is “uniquely dynamic” my eyes start to glaze with thoughts of pumped-up marketing speak and telling clients what they want to hear.

Update: 25 November 2009
Tony Spaeth of Identity Works dropped by with a comment I see much sense in:

“My snarky two cents: The long term problem here is the original name decision — America, On Line? Six syllables (which forced initials) plus a counterproductive meaning — the Web is inherently and joyously global, isn’t it? AOL should now have faced up to this fundamental identity problem, which has been compounded of late by a performance reputation problem, and fixed it with a name change.

Instead, we have a design solution that diminishes, lower-cases, reverses and virtually hides the initials, as if apologizing for them. (It’s a visual equivalent of “if you have nothing to say, talk faster and louder.”)

To be sure, mutable wordmarks (visual play, around consistent letterforms) can be fun. Certainly, MTV and Nickelodeon showed you can get away with it on television, and Google has shown it can work on the Web. But are these particular “Aol.” letterforms a strong-enough visual anchor? Not clearly. Verbally, they are still a hole in the hull.

And are we now expected to write not AOL but Aol? (I refuse to add the period, in text.) And thus to speak it as a-awl, or a-owl? The punctuation of the logo introduces uncertainty of the name in text applications… which is not a good a way to build a stronger brand.”

How about you? Are you in favour?

AOL rebrand chat elsewhere

• AOL Revamps Its Logo, Hoping To Revive Brand, on NYTimes.com
• What designers think of AOL’s new logo, on guardian.co.uk
• Aol. A Shrunken New Logo for a Shrunken Company, on FastCompany
• New AOL logo, on The Huffington Post
• AOL Reveals Lame New Look & Logo, on GigaOM
• What do you think about the new AOL brand? on Liquid Agency
• New Shell for AOL, on Subtraction.com
• Aol. Generation. Next., on Brand New

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The logo board game. It’s all fun and games (apparently). Well, it is for the over 12s anyway—sorry kids.

Evolution of the LEGO logo. Such a simple product. If I was to tally the hours spent with it as a child, I reckon it’s easily triple figures.

Logo Design Love book available for pre-order. Time’s a pressin. Not long to go.

Commonwealth logo in overhaul. For the English out there.

The 9/11 Memorial brand identity. One of my favourite designs of the noughties.

New Doctor Who logo revealed. I’ve never been a big Doctor Who fan. I quite like the “tardis” monogram, but it’s not working so close to the type.

The Wolff Olins Guide to Corporate Identity. One I’d love to get my hands on.

Apple bites over Woolworths logo. A bit over the top from Apple’s legal team, no?

$500 logo design contest. 102 submissions. No winner. Same old.

85 automotive logos. No chat. No details. Just logos.

Yale University Press to ditch Paul Rand’s logo. Another one sadly bites the dust.

Tony Spaeth reviews Hilton’s new logo.

Punctuation-inspired logo designs. But none can match Pentagram’s Curious Pictures logo.

LEGO logos.

Google and LEGO have a fun and special history… The Google company founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, are both avid lovers of LEGO toys, as are many of the company’s employees.

New Nickelodeon identity. More contemporary, with consistency across networks, but more corporate and I’m not sure about the uppercase K.

Typembrya—a homage to Herb Lubalin’s Mother & Child logo.

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The making of PlayStation. Via DesignNotes.

Who says a logo can’t change a lot and still maintain its “brand equity”?

I’m by no means a keen gamer, but I do play a bit of Pro Evolution from time-to-time, and I have a PlayStation. I don’t remember any of the older logos shown above. Just the most recent styling. Have you seen the others before? Are they simply concepts before the original launch?

Just a quick image post whilst I catch up on emails, prepare a client logo revision, and work towards a book-writing deadline.

It’s been a bit quiet from me around here lately due to an excursion to one of the beautiful Balearic islands (a few of my photos through the link). I wanted to mention the break before leaving, but given what happened last time I publicised a holiday, I thought it best not to.

I trust you’ve all been keeping well? Hope so.

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