A hot triangle

PAOS and Masanori Umeda's 1984 logo and CI for Bridgestone.

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’.

Continue reading to learn about the ‘hot triangle’, see how this was applied to signage and vehicles, and understand the symbolism behind its design.