Bridgestone Logo, 1984
PAOS and Masanori Umeda's 1984 logo and CI for Bridgestone.
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Bridgestone was founded as Bridgestone Tire Company, Ltd. in 1931 and was the first Japanese tyre maker to utilise domestically developed manufacturing technologies. By the mid-1950s the company had a major hold over the domestic market, and over the following years its business grew beyond tyres to include bicycles, sporting goods and other items, steadily strengthening its presence in overseas markets.
With its movement into new markets and product categories, Bridgestone's brands multiplied and grew in complexity. This had led to inconsistencies in design as this was tackled independently. At the beginning of the 1980s, and into its 50th year, Bridgestone embarked on a programme of studies, and followed this with a corporate identity (CI) that sought to address this issue of inconsistency. Further, the new CI intended to establish a system that would be better attuned to the company's marketing strategies going forward, consolidate its images across all of its products and marketing, and address three ‘forward-looking policies’. These were; greater penetration into the global markets; expansion of its scope of operations; and play a larger role in society.
Japanese design studio PAOS would lead the CI project, which would be founded on a ‘four-pronged strategy’ that would, not only serve the forward-looking polices and develop a new logo design, but also a new brand system, retail outlets, and ‘enhance Bridgestone’s role in society’.
Prior to the redesign, the Bridgestone logotype featured a sloping triangle leaning into a ‘B’ that proceeded an outlined wordmark. This emphasised a name which reflected the company's posture of serving both national and international markets, and gave the impression of being progressive, international accepted and reliable
.Following extensive research a new Bridgestone wordmark and symbol was devised. This focused on developing a strong and distinctive ‘B’ initial that incorporated the triangle, and introducing a red. The angular component, which came to be known as the ‘hot triangle’ symbolised the ‘enthusiasm of Bridgestone employees’, and also Bridgestone's ambition and determination as it entered a new era. It was also said to convey notions of ‘advancedness’, and ‘precision’.
The ‘B’ would be used as an independent element, introducing a flexibility to the full Bridgestone CI, and better accommodating the growing number of products and applications the logo needed to operate across.
The new Bridgestone logo would that be at the centre of all CI systems. The logo and wordmark were produced in a number of different variations–in one and two colours, outline and outline bold versions, as well as solid and knocked out of black–to enhance their usability.
‘Bridgestone Red’ formalised the traditional colour that was used since the company’s founding in 1931 and was said to reflect its image of innovation and reliability, and further, symbolised it’s ‘burning passion’ as it moved forward into the future. This was used alongside black and white, with the dominance of each being adjusted to distinguish between services and products, but also contribute to the ‘scenic qualities of the community’. For example, excluding signs at its business-oriented locations, Bridgestone's sign designs set their elements on white backgrounds. With the application of the "Bridgestone" logotype or the "B" symbol being dependant on the shape of the sign.
By early 1983, Bridgestone's new corporate logo had been decided, however, its introduction was put off until the firm's name change to just Bridgestone a year later. During that interval, efforts were poured into developing the application design system and item designs. This covered all aspects of packaging and corporate communications. This headway enabled the company to deploy most of the new designs the instant it changed its name, an occurrence unprecedented in CI design.
The debut of its new designs, immediate and at scale, had a powerful impact and also served to distinguish Bridgestone's CI program from others. Today, the logo and logotype remain in use, with subtle changes to soften the letterforms of the wordmark and the ‘B’, and keeping the ‘hot triangle’.
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It's hard not to love and appreciate a logo like the one for Bridgestone from 1984. It looks very well put together.