When the petroleum companies Total and Fina merged energies in 1999 and after that were accompanied by Elf in 2000, the trio made a strong unification. The combined company, that acquired the title TotalFinaElf in 2000, shortened to simply Total in 2003 declaring an incredible 14,700 stations all over the world. However regardless of its extensive geographical position, the new company required assistance with its identity.
Not any from the primary companies stood a brand identity which was worth saving, neither did the fresh administration wish to preserve any of the original identities. Elf’s initial logo was to some extent contemporary but cumbersome. Fina’s logo sensed unremarkable and outdated; while the previous Total logo was more efficient but yet behind the times.
Laurent Vincenti, design manager to produce a logo for the new team and its thousands of stations, explains the design challenge: “The priority objectives of the new trade name were being to provide a new brand image to the new team, make the group to a new brand image with new worth, and also to provide a perception of motion to the identity that declares the group’s pursuit to be a globally energy service provider. Total has long been focused on its obligations to the environment as well as mankind.”
Designers deemed various different directions within their early designs. A few demos explored the domination over energy, while some others were much more dependent on earth or energy images. However the track which was in the end determined was one Vincenti calls “multi-energy,” a symbol not just of the many approaches the company offered the customer but additionally of the new union.
Other than complex obligations to processing concerns, Vincenti considers that to achieve success, this and some other logo design task must fulfill the following guidelines:
- It should regain the picture along with the position of the brand for the customer that the company itself arranged as being the ideal target.
- It should be valued by the highest number of consumers.
- It should provide a major influence with its background. A lot more stories a brand can say, the more it is loved by customers and is imprinted in their memories.
- It should signify a universal style which is quickly translatable to the brand.
- It should conveniently be a new flag for the company. Various companies has to be able to regroup themselves under a common flag.
Total’s new logo complies with these objectives, Vincenti says. It is produced by three interweaved and leaning shapes that form a globe. Its colors have been chosen to depict the elements of natural energy: dark blue for water, light blue for air, and red for the earth. A few of the curves expose their internal sides in an even brighter color yellow, that indicates that energy is at the core of the identity and the business.
“The colors furthermore present the variety of the cultures of Elf, Fina, and Total which are bridging. The design in fact presents numerous things,” Vincenti says, “the planet with the sphere, and energy from the various curves. In the motion are flexibility and the dynamism of progress. The mingling of the shapes shows the complexness of the world. The traversing lines represent deals and interaction between peoples, and the colors represent the multiplicity of cultures.”
Due to the fact of its three-dimensionality, the fresh logo also animates pretty naturally. The curving lines swoop around its proposed level, traversing and crossing. Vincenti says their spherical movement is similar to a sophisticated breeze of energy. However the symbol may also act as a sculpture and occur in solid space, a basic artwork that could be valued simply for its shape.
New typography was made for the task; a completely new alphabet is now accessible to the customer. At this writing, the brand new identity has been presented around the world, and Vincenti has sureness in its victory. Qualitative assessments of the new mark show that appreciation rates of the new Total logo is 19% higher than any contending oil company and 38% higher than the old brand image of Total.
“The new logo is significant in creativity and strength.” he tells. As essential, the design has become the rallying banner for the company’s employees, joining people from three different companies. “It has been welcomed with excitement by 120,000 employees. The modern brand is experienced like a new competition, a new flying for the company.”
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