Winged Horse, Sun, Shield Torch, Shell and Energy. Symbols of the largest oil companies. Creation of a corporate identity and brand book for a gas station network Logos of Russian oil companies

In 2000, BP underwent a rebranding, which also included the replacement of the corporate logo. The old logo (yellow letters BP on a green shield with a yellow border) was replaced by a new one - symbolizing the beginning of the new millennium, and designed to highlight the profound changes that have taken place in the company.

The new BP logo is a stylized sun. Its deeper meaning lies in the fact that he is identified with the sun god Helios - personifying solar power and power. The sun, the sun gods, the symbols that personified him, since ancient times have been the object of veneration and worship of mankind.

(BP logo)

Another reason for changing the logo and brand is the changes that have taken place within BP itself. BP is no longer British Petroleum. By changing its image, the company emphasizes that it has become "not so much a British company as an international one, not so much a fuel one as an energy one, moreover, not at all the same as before." Having parted with the old logo, BP has drawn a peculiar line under the 70-year stage of its history.

The new paradigm of the company's development is expressed by the slogan "More than oil" (it can also be understood as "More than [British] Petroleum").

In an interview with Newsweek, BP CEO Lord J. Brown describes the new logo: “Our new brand is much more than just a logo. It is a symbol of our company, a reflection of our philosophy, how we position ourselves in market.

The new logo reflects the amalgamation within our company of such well-known brands as "BP", "Amoco", "Arco", "Castrol", and is a common, unified symbol of the company as a whole. More broadly, the new logo reflects our strategy to grow the company rapidly in the 21st century and transform BP from an oil company into an energy company in the broadest sense of the word. "

To the above, it remains only to add that the advertising agency "Ogilvy & Mather" for their work on changing the logo, slogan and image for the company "British Petroleum" received $ 211 million.

In 2002, Total organized a competition among creative agencies. The aim of the competition was to design a new corporate logo for Total and the manufacturer's trademark. In September 2002, A & Co was chosen to design the new company logo.

The performers took the process seriously. The logo creation process began with a comprehensive study of various aspects of the company. The "genotype" of the company, as the researchers called it, was identified, formalized and worked out. The genotype of the company included such basic values as

Professionalism,
Commitment to innovation,
Partnerships,
Quality service,
Courage,
Humanity
Obligation.

Based on the identified qualities, metaphors and visual images were formulated. They are combined into ideas with "philosophical" and graphic content: As a result, the developers came to the conclusion that: "The main idea of energy is a circular motion or a circular shape." Based on this, the customer was offered a set of images, such as:

Earth,
The sun,
Circular swirls of the wind
Electrons,
Spinning around the core ...

The concept of the logo creators was pretty simple, but no less interesting from that. The business qualities of a company generate energy. Energy makes factories and factories work, rotates the flywheels of car engines and aircraft turbines, generating new energy. The company moves the world forward, and the world pays the company with its energy. Taken together, this generates streams of energy smoothly flowing into one another. Hence - the rounded logo, in which "the flows of energy are formed gradually, painted in the colors of red, yellow and blue to give an additional shade of diversity, exchange, dynamism and at the same time represent the unification of three companies under one name TOTAL".

(Total logo)

As stated on the official website of the company, “If there is a single word to describe Total, then that word would be energy. And energy was the dominant theme that inspired Laurent Vincenti, creative director of A & Co, to find a logo that would reflect all the power, diversity and the complexity of Total's current and future activities. "

The energy gave him the idea for a new logo.

And also, having decided not to limit itself only to visual images, the company invited the composer Bruno Kule so that, inspired by the energy of the company, he wrote for it a corporate melody capable of "expressing the feeling of outer space, the breath of energy, the movement of the company."

Chevron logo

In 1984 Standard Oil of California acquired Gulf Oil. This merger was the largest in American history and spawned the company now known as the Chevron Corporation. The history of the Chevron company is quite interesting in itself, as it consists of a series of mergers and acquisitions, during which names and brands have changed.

So, 1879. The Pacific Coast Oil Company (Coast Oil) is developing an oil field in Pico Canyon, California. Later Coast Oil will become one of the divisions of John Rockefeller's Standard Oil Corporation and will be named Standard Oil Co. (California).

(First emblem of "Pacific Coast Oil Company")

After the section "Standard Oil", in the mid-20s, the company begins to live its own life and changes the brand "Standard Oil Co." (California) to a new one - "Standard Oil Co. of California" (abbreviated "SoCal").

It was at this time that the Chevron brand was born. Under this name, Chevron (still SoCal) begins to produce products under the name: Chevron grease (Chevron smearing) and Chevron oil (Chevron oil).

In 1984, the famous merger of "SoCal" and "Gulf Oil" takes place, and the newborn giant gets the name "Chevron Corporation", since for several decades the corporation has produced a product under this brand. The company is using its old Chevron logo, well known to millions of fuel and oil buyers around the world.

Subsequently, the corporation acquired several more companies, including such giants as NGC, Illinova, Corp, Texaco, Unocal Corporation,

As a result of all these mergers and acquisitions, the company was named "ChevronTexaco" from 2001 to 2005, and on May 9, 2005, the company was reorganized into the "Chevron Corporation".

The current company logo has been in use since 2006. It looks like this:

(Chevron logo)

The shape of the logo reminds us of the famous V sign, "Victory", denoting victory. However, if we take a closer look at it, we will see that before us is a multivalued composition. Firstly, it depicts the chevrons themselves - figures consisting of segments connected at an angle, and which have long served as insignia for the military and not only.

Secondly, the two chevrons form a classic shield, such as depicted in medieval engravings. And this is no coincidence. First, the shield has always symbolized safety and reliability. The shield, like the sun, from the BP logo, is one of the oldest symbols in the collective unconscious of humanity.

The color scheme of the logo is also not accidental, and has its roots in the symbolism of the distant ancestor of the Chevron company - Rockefeller's Standard Oil. The red, white and blue of the chevron are the colors of the American flag at the same time. This color scheme symbolizes the patriotism of the company, its inclination towards home, symbolizes the country where this company does (or did) most of its business.

ExxonMobil logo

ExxonMobil is an American oil and gas corporation. Like the previous hero of our article, Chevron Corporation, ExxonMobil is a descendant of the legendary Standard Oil John D. Rockefeller.

Inheritance from its progenitor, ExxonMobil inherited the ability to overcome numerous difficulties on the path to success - "Standart Oil" was split into pieces at the request of the US government - its successor in 2012 became the No. 1 company on the Fortune 500 list, with a profit of billions dollars.

An important factor that contributed to the prosperity of the company was the originality of its corporate logo. The bright and contrasting colors of the ExxonMobil symbol can be seen at gas stations around the world, they are firmly imprinted on the minds of anyone who has ever refueled there. Therefore, everyone who wants to repeat the success of this company should take a closer look at its branding - there is a lot of instructive stuff.

Evolution of logos: The first logo - "Standard Oil"

Let's look at the logo of the parent company - Standard Oil. Founded by J.D. Rockefeller, this company soon became one of the most powerful companies in the United States. Logo colors: red, white and blue. The US flag was made in a similar color scheme, which was intended to serve as an indicator of the company's reliability and patriotism.

(Standart Oil logo)

The torch - along with the shield (Chevron) and the sun (BP), also takes pride of place among the ancient archetypal symbols that are significant for a person, "stitched" in his collective unconscious. In this context, it symbolizes the benefits the company brings to its country - the torch requires fuel to burn, and the logo creators sought to emphasize that America needs fuel to prosper and grow. The torch also illuminates America's path - a path to a successful, brighter future.

2nd logo - "Mobil": Winged horse

In 1911, the US government, as part of the fight against monopolies, took over the "Standard Oil" monopoly and demanded its division. After that, it splits into 38 different companies.

Exxon and Mobil were two of these companies, and of course, separate logos are used for the two companies. Mobil used the logo with the “corporate” colors “Standard Oi” l, and the image of the winged horse - Pegasus. to say that Pegasus is the oldest mythological symbol, also very significant for humanity.your name next to Pegasus in flight.

The Mobil Pegasus has come to symbolize freedom of travel and technological advancement for all motorists through constant appearances in popular magazines.

In 1954, the "Mobil" brand name appears for worldwide use - the Pegasus is now positioned below the word "Mobil" in the emblem. A decade later, in 1965, the logo takes on the look familiar to most of the company's customers. Pegasus changes its direction, the lines become more daring and clear. A fast winged horse on a white disc, this is the kind of Pegasus that personified the "Mobil" company.

3rd logo - "Exxon": Fast Tiger

The Exxon logo, although much less stylized, also served its purpose well. We see that the color gamut has remained the same - the proprietary "Standardoilovskaya" - "Jersey Standard" (Standard Oil of New Jersey) changed the name to "Exxon Corporation" in 1972 and established the trademark "Exxon" in the United States. In other parts of the world, Exxon and its affiliates have continued to use the long-standing trademark Esso + affiliate name, such as Esso Belgium. The famous Esso tiger served as an integral part of the Esso brand

This symbol originally appeared in the early 1900s in Norway. Thus, for more than a hundred years now, this particular sign has stood for the power of "Exxon". By the mid-1930s, the Tiger became the emblem of "Esso" in England, but disappeared during World War II - then the companies had no time for marketing, for obvious reasons.

In 1953, Esso brings the tiger back to European markets. And in 1959, a new concept for this logo appeared in Chicago - a cheerful, friendly, slightly cartoonish tiger along with the famous slogan: "Put a Tiger in your tank."

As a result, a new funny tiger marched in triumph in advertising "Esso" around the world, decorating thousands of gas stations and gasoline tanks, as well as various souvenirs.

Modern logo: Together at last

In 1998, Exxon and Mobil merged to form the oil giant ExxonMobil. The new company already in 2007 took 2nd place in the list of the largest public American companies "Fortune 1000" and in the list of the world's largest corporations "Fortune Global 500" (the lists were compiled by the size of 2006 revenue).

(ExxonMobil logo)

The new company logo has been greatly simplified. A double XX stylized as a Maltese cross in the word "Exxon" was retained, to which the name of the Mobil company was added, written in the same font and color. Perhaps this is a sign of which of the two companies has retained a dominant position even with the combined activities. Well, and it is superfluous to mention that the stylized Maltese cross is also a rather ancient symbol for humanity, in this context it serves as an indicator of the company's reliability.

For over a century, the word "shell" or "Shell", the shell emblem (now a scallop shell, until 1948 it was a mussel shell) and distinctive colors - red and yellow - have been used to identify the brand and promote reputation companies. These symbols represent the quality of products and services, represent the professionalism and values of the company around the world. Let's see how and when such symbolism appeared

(Shell logo)

Royal Dutch Shell was formed in 1907 through the merger of the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company and The Shell Transport and Trading Company Ltd. This was done in order to resist the expansion of the "Standard Oil" trust, which was already mentioned many times.

The name "Shell" and the company logo originate from 1833. It was then that the English merchant Samuel opened a small shop in London and began to sell exotic gizmos, including boxes decorated with sea shells. Sink in English is "shell". "Shell" was the name of Samuel's store.

From jewelry trade to oil trade

In 1891, Samuel's son, Marcus, ended up in Batumi, where he had the idea to organize the transportation of kerosene from the Caspian Sea through the Suez Canal to the Far East. This was not easy to do, primarily due to the stringent requirements for tankers carrying oil.

The design of the tanker invented by Marcus Samuel excluded the threat of spontaneous combustion of oil products and met the stringent requirements of sea transportation through the Suez Canal, which no oil company could ever achieve before. Things went well for Marcus, the company began to develop rapidly. Markus made a shell as a symbol of his company, in memory of his father, and also to emphasize the continuity of the family business.

This also emphasized another fact - wealth, in the form of shells, came to the father of Marcus from the Far East. Now, on the way back, to the Far East, ships will be sent loaded with new wealth - oil. The same shell will overshadow their path. There was a deep symbolic meaning in all this.

Initially, the logo's color scheme was black and white. The current colors - Shell's vibrant, memorable reds and yellows - were introduced when the company's California office first built service stations. In sunny California, shining with bright colors, it was necessary to stand out from the competition. Therefore, colors were used that were familiar to residents of California: due to the close Spanish ties of the state, red and yellow were chosen.

And to this day scallop - yellow-red sea shell remains one of the most famous brands in the 21st century, strongly associated with the Shell company

Summing up, we understand that large oil companies consciously or unconsciously used in their branding the power and attractiveness that iconic ancient symbols such as the Sun, Shield, Torch produce on all people without exception.

The power and beauty of wild or fantastic animals is also used in logos - Tiger, Winged Horse.

And not the last attention is paid to color design - bright, colorful and saturated colors of the main palette are used - no fading, no halftones. Red, yellow, blue, black - hundreds of monographs have been written by psychologists on the impact on the human subconscious.

Thus, through the symbolism of images and colors, these companies appeal to the deepest archetypes of human consciousness in order to evoke subconscious trust or admiration in people. There is no need to reinvent the wheel - all these symbols are quite simple and have been known for a long time. Therefore, their use for the design of corporate logos lies on the surface.

It is no coincidence that the five top oil and gas companies, which have gigantic funds at their service, and the best designers and artists, did not complicate anything, and mainly use old developments that were tested back in the days of their predecessors (the only exception is Total, yes, perhaps , BP, with their rebranding). Sometimes the new is the well-forgotten old.

And the old does not in any way mean bad.

Services for creating a corporate identity for gas stations, shops and cafes are offered by the Magna company. Our organization has been developing corporate identity and rebranding for gas stations for over 5 years. We offer gas station chains to create their own individual style that will help you distinguish your gas station from the competition.

Our company offers

Our specialists will develop a brand book for gas stations and shops with cafes, redesign and rebrand the existing network. The development and implementation of new visual materials will help define the concept of the company, get an idea of the target audience, and develop a unified corporate identity. It is a powerful business tool that will gather all the important information about your brand. It will present:

filling station design plan;
logo and business cards design;
interior and exterior of all premises, including utility rooms;
the style of the uniform of employees for all seasons of the year;
plan for the placement of branding at the station facilities
visual range of a gas station, shop and cafe
selection of all materials for the customer's budget, lighting design of zones at gas stations
drawing up planning and layout solutions for gas stations
development, selection and placement of commercial and technological equipment.
much more.

Reasons for contacting us

Having decided to order the creation of a brand book for gas stations or rebranding of existing stations from us, you will receive carefully worked out instructions and materials on how to make your business recognizable to consumers. We employ practitioners who offer effective solutions and are able to develop a unique corporate identity that will correspond to the concept of your enterprise.

Rebranding of gas stations and stores must be carried out every 3-5 years, this will favorably distinguish you from competitors, contribute to the growth of economic indicators and profits from the direction. In practice, the costs of rebranding are paid off within 1-3 years, sales growth is at least 15-20%.

Contact us if you want to create your own brand or highlight an existing one. Our rich experience and the best specialists on the market will help you to make your wishes come true.

One of our main advantages is a reasonable price and the best quality of work in the Russian market.

We will not paint beautiful pictures for you, we will create the history of your brand.

Fill out the feedback form on the website page, after receiving the application, our manager will call you back immediately.

Have a nice evening! How are you?

Today I would like to talk about logos. As it happens, some created a logo a long time ago, became recognizable in the market, while others change the logo every year and no one can remember them. How do you even hit the target, predict whether a brand will become popular? To understand, let's turn to the experience of the largest corporations. The theme is the logos of the world's oil companies. Let's talk about what they are and what is catchy about them.

World oil company logos

First guest, meet you - the Netherlands oil and gas company Royal Dutch Shell... The company logo is a red and yellow shell, invented back in 1833. At first glance, it may seem strange why the oil company mark is associated with a marine theme. But not everything is on the surface. The point is that the logo has a symbolic meaning. I tell you, one English merchant in London opened a shop, traded mainly in exotic things, including caskets decorated with sea shells.

Later, his son had a brilliant idea - to transport kerosene to the Far East by water through the Suez Canal. This has never been done before. It was a breakthrough. This is how the marine theme appeared in the logo. And, of course, in memory of my father. Over the long period of its existence, the emblem has changed only slightly. Initially, it was a mussel shell, and then changed to a scallop shell.

Outwardly, the logo is simple and harmonious, again the red-yellow color makes references to fire.

Next American firm Exxon Mobil Corporation, the largest in the world. The oil company logo is Exxon Mobil, the words are written in bright red. The name, like the logo, was born after the merger of two companies into one: Exxon and Mobil.

This fiery inscription can be seen at gas stations all over the world, it is firmly imprinted into consciousness, not to be confused with others.

Mobil Is a large American corporation that has been producing, refining and transporting oil for over 130 years. Initially, the company used the name and emblem of the winged horse - Pegasus in the logo. The mythological image symbolized freedom of movement and travel for motorists. There was a red winged horse on a white disc. Later, the horse emblem disappeared, leaving only the name.

French oil company logo Total in comparison with other very young, it was established in 2002. So, at the beginning of the 2000s, the management turned to the creative agency A & Co for the pros to come up with a logo for the company.

Brainstorming sessions began in the web studio, the performers began to deeply study the business, look for deep meanings. First, Total's values were identified - professionalism, innovative technologies, high quality service. Then, on their basis, metaphorical images began to appear - the planet Earth, which revolves around the Sun. An idea came up with electrodes revolving around a nucleus. Thus a thought with energy was born. Graphically, it was embodied in the form of rounded swirls. As if the flow of energy passes from one to another, in a circle, without stopping. It is important that the logo uses four colors, although according to unspoken rules, it is better to use no more than three. But the Total logo is no worse from this.

Surprisingly, the oil and gas giant did not limit itself to graphic and verbal expression, they decided to use sound as well. They invited a composer who wrote a corporate melody for the company. There is a lot to learn here.

Russian oil company logos

By the logo "Zazhigalka" you can immediately recognize the Russian Gazprom... Designers assure that even if you change the corporate identity and logo, Gazprom will still not be confused with another company. The trademark consists of two elements: a lighter and the word "Gazprom", made in blue. Moreover, the company patented not only the logo, but also the color. So blue is rightfully their color.

Irkutsk Oil Company the youngest, was founded in 2000. The logo uses three colors: black, white and green. A trademark contains both a word, or rather an abbreviation, and graphics. There are no hidden meanings, everything is on the surface. Some designers are confused by the fact that the letters INC are cut off and it is difficult to understand what is written there. But the company itself is happy with everything, there were no rumors about the rebranding.