Classic Logo: De Bijenkorf, 1960
Josef Müller-Brockmann's 1960 logo for De Bijenkorf.
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De Bijenkorf (literally, ‘the beehive’) is a Dutch high-end retailer and department store that was founded in 1870 by Simon Philip Goudsmit as a small haberdashery selling yarn and ribbons. Although the origins of the name are unknown, legend says that, just as the beehive buzzes, droves of people were expected to visit.
The beehive was a recurring motif throughout the history of the store, dating back to 1870. Official documentation shows that in 1892, following the death of her husband, widow Sara Goudsmit applied for permission to display a public sign that combined an image of a beehive with the name Bijenkorf. This came at a time when Sara, her cousin Arthur Isaac, and son Alfred expanded the business and began taking over neighbouring buildings.
Between 1870 and 1937 the depiction of the beehive evolved from the purely illustrative toward the abstract, undergoing various rounds of simplification as the store grew in size, diversified its product lines and added new locations.
As part of a period of modernisation and post-war reconstruction for the department store, which also saw the commissioning of a new modernist building by renowned designer and architect Marcel Breuer, Swiss designer Josef Müller-Brockmann was invited by Martin Ledeman, an independent advisor to De Bijenkorf, to develop a new logo for the store. Building on what had come before, Müller-Brockmann devised the most abstract interpretation of the traditional bell-like beehive, drawing this as a half-silhouette with a single line. In some instances, this line would be used as dividing line, or bleed off the edge of a page.
The introduction of this new also logo signalled the beginning of a new and rationalised corporate identity programme for the store and was visible as permanent architectural signage, in shop windows and used on all printed communications such as business cards, correspondence, advertisements, posters, products and gift packaging.
Müller-Brockmann returned to the logo in 1960 revising it and placing the beehive silhouette into a hexagon, a further reference to bees. Containing it improved its application across a growing number of use-cases and developed a further visual language. This addition also tied the logo to the striking modernist hexagonal fascia of Marcel Breuer’s De Bijenkorf building in Rotterdam which was completed three years prior in 1957.
A broader visual identity programme was devised and applied by Ben Bos at Total Design from 1963 to 1970. This introduced a rationalised grid-system and extended across all forms of printed matter, from posters and packaging to store price tags, bags and catalogues.
In 1968 Eric Meeder was appointed by De Bijenkorf as assistant window dresser, and five years later became responsible for the design of the store. Ben Bos continued to oversee the extensive applications and design systems.
In the early 1980s Meeder developed the logo further, linking the Bijenkorf name to the logo using Helvetica, establishing continuity through a more consistent line weight and the rationalisation of forms. This can still be seen on the De Bijenkorf website today, with only the slightest change to the width of the logo.
Between them, Müller-Brockmann, Ben Bos and Eric Meeder developed a visual language that expressed the position that De Bijenkorf had a social purpose and distinguished itself from other Dutch retail outlets by a “conscious progressiveness without extravagance”. This was further supported by contributions by renowned designers such as Otto Treumann, Benno Wissing and Theo Stradmann who designed posters for the store.
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Your logo senses never fail you as always. Seeing this 1960 one for De Bijenkorf just blows my mind completely. Your penchant for diving deep into history makes me so glad that your Logo Histories site exists.