(BFM Bourse) – A picture is worth 1000 words… And this expression, well known to all, is the common thread for all creative people when designing a visual identity for a brand or an institution. A successful logo must illustrate at a glance the activity of the company concerned and endure over time. The logos of BNP Paribas, Carrefour or Saint-Gobain have been part of French daily life for decades, a sign that their design has been well thought out. And some of them contain a meaning, a hidden story…
At a glance, a logo must both transcribe the positioning of the brand into an image and be immediately recognizable and assimilable by the general public. The low-cost subsidiary of Japan Airlines Zipair, for example, recently avoided the odd, with a logo that could have made a link with the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. The airline announced a few days ago to abandon its “Z” logo, to avoid confusion with the same letter, painted on Russian armored vehicles and military helicopters engaged in the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. . The use of the letter “Z” harmless in France – until December 2020, it was the name of a brand of children’s clothing – is for example regulated in Germany or in other countries of central Europe. A poorly studied visual identity is a huge reputational risk that weighs on a company. This is not the case with the logos that are mentioned in this article.
BNP Paribas: a new take-off in the 3rd millennium
Credits: BNP Paribas
Following its creation in May 2000, BNP Paribas took advantage of the Roland Garros internationals to unveil its new visual identity to the general public. This replaces the 1986 logo highlighting “the international and technological dimension” of the bank whose colors were inspired by the computers of the time: the green of the screens and the light gray of the office stations. This logotype in austere colors remained the emblem of BNP until its merger with Paribas in 1999.
The logo of the new millennium symbolizes the rapprochement between the two banks BNP and Paribas, with a “flight curve” which expresses “the bank’s capacity for transformation, affirming in the same movement the power of its brand”, explained BNP Paribas. . The stars evoke Europe and the universality and the transformation of stars into birds illustrates “openness, freedom, development, the ability to evolve and adapt.” Since then, the logo has undergone minor transformations, including the addition of a green square welcoming the flight of white birds in 2007 and the slogan “The bank of a changing world” in 2009.
Carrefour: it’s hidden
Credits: Carrefour
Among the logos best known to the French, we can mention that of the Carrefour distributor. Behind this blue-white-red “halberd” hides a visual trick that a large majority of French people do not perceive. We bet that this number will drastically reduce after reading this article. In 1966, Carrefour marketing director Étienne Thil and typographer Jacques Daniel designed a new logo to celebrate the inauguration of the first hypermarket in Vénissieux. If today going to a Carrefour hypermarket (or another brand) has become commonplace, at that time this concept was totally innovative. Remember that the first hypermarket in France had only come out of the ground three years earlier in the town of Saint-Geneviève-des-Bois in Essonne.
This logo anchored in the daily life of the French is composed of two arrows, one red and one blue. The first red arrow, the color of the forbidden, is turned towards the left, and therefore the past, while the predominant blue arrow is oriented towards the right and the future. The next interpretation of the element of the Carrefour logo that will be discussed is it, subject to debate. If we direct the blue arrow downwards, it would symbolize… an American fist, illustrating the aggressiveness of the Carrefour brand in terms of pricing policy. We will let you judge this alternative reading of this blue part of this famous logo.
The point that is less debatable is the visual trick based on the “negative effect” visible between the red and blue colored arrows. Between these two elements hides…a white “C”, invisible to 95% of French people, according to Yannig Roth. Now that this optical effect has been revealed, we are sure you will linger a little longer on this famous logo during your favorite session or suffered from races. As for the triptych of colors used, namely blue-white-red, it refers to France, the distributor’s country of origin. In 50 years, the Carrefour logo has undergone only very slight modifications, a sign that the visual identity of the French distributor has been well studied… more than 55 years ago.
Saint-Gobain: a bridge between generations
Credits: Saint-Gobain
Saint-Gobain manhole covers are part of the urban landscape of cities in France and several urban areas internationally. On these cast-iron compound manholes is a small detail that millions of people have stepped on without noticing: an inlaid deck profile. This symbol was not chosen randomly. He is the witness of the evolution of the activities of the Saint-Gobain company. In 1970, the industrialist – then only glassmaker – merged with the company Pont-à-Mousson in great difficulty, specializing in cast iron products…including manhole covers. This operation, then strongly supported by the Pompidou government, gave birth to a world-class group. From this union between the two companies, only the visual identity of Pont-à-Mousson has been preserved. It took up the famous bridge profile visible on the coat of arms of the town of Pont-à-Mousson in Meurthe-et-Moselle.
In 2016, Saint-Gobain decided to modernize its quarantine logo while retaining the bridge profile of the group’s historic logotype. Saint-Gobain’s new identity is now a shimmering colored skyline made up of building profiles (a “skyline”). This new generation logotype better reflects the group’s new positioning centered on housing and its comfort. Like Carrefour, Saint-Gobain’s visual identity has stood the test of time while adapting to its new environment.
Dassault Aviation: the four-leaf clover as a talisman
Credits: Dassault Aviation
Selected following an internal competition launched in September 1988, the Dassault Aviation logo has an aerodynamic shape resembling a “delta”, which in the aeronautical radio code, suggests the initial D from Dassault. The visual identity of the company based in Saint-Cloud in the Hauts-de-Seine, however, contains an unusual element in the aeronautical industry: a four-leaf clover. This lucky symbol is considered the talisman of Marcel Dassault, the founder of the eponymous company.
During the 1939 holidays, Marcel Dassault while walking in the fields, found a four-leaf clover which he placed in his wallet. A banal gesture – that any of us would have done when seeing this rare symbol of luck – which will be very important for the rest of the Dassault saga. Behind this symbol of luck lies a tragic event in the life of Marcel Dassault. In August 1944, Marcel Dassault then Bloch, was deported to the Buchenwald camp. “I have already said that when we arrived in Buchenwald we left our luggage, our clothes and everything we owned before going to the shower”, explained Marcel Dassault in his book The Talisman appeared in 1970.
Three months after his return from deportation, the Ministry of Veterans Affairs and Deportees returned, to Marcel Dassault’s great surprise, his personal effects including… his wallet in which his four-leaf clover was still to be found. “I believe that finding a four-leaf clover in Paris that I had been forced to abandon in Buchenwald is at least a benevolent sign from Providence. the qualifier of Talisman?”, related Marcel Dassault.
This four-leaf clover remained intimately linked to the history of the Dassault family, even after the death of its founder Marcel Dassault in 1986. “Today it is still our talisman, our family lucky charm, to my brothers and sisters and I; our emblem. We have formed a group on WhatsApp where we all communicate together and which is called the clover. And the clover is only strong if these four leaves remain attached to the stem”, said Olivier Dassault, on the antenna of Europe 1 a few months before his brutal disappearance in the crash of his helicopter.
One arrow, 25 pictograms…
Among the most well-known logos containing a hidden symbol, we can also mention FedEx whose logo contains a white arrow, between the last two letters of the company, the “E” and the “X”. This visual trick used for the “C” of Carrefour, recalls the promise of the logistics company to deliver its customers as quickly as possible. We can also mention the Unilever logo, whose blue capital “U” is made up of 25 (!) pictograms, symbolizing the diversity of a group present in food, home maintenance or home care. nobody. In these many pictograms, we can detect a tea leaf to symbolize the Lipton brand, a t-shirt for Ariel or a dove for Dove soap…
Sabrina Sadgui – ©2022 BFM Bourse