An oil giant with a weak image
By the mid 1950s, Socony Mobil Oil Company had become one of the world's largest industrial corporations, selling oil and thousands of oil-based products all over the world. Despite this growth, studies had shown that the American company had one of the weakest corporate images of all the international oil giants. And there were questions raised about society’s dependency on this finite resource. What new forms of energy would be used in the future? And how could a big oil company keep on finding, processing, and selling oil at a profit while preparing it for the future?
These were the underlying issues. However they were going to be resolved, Socony Mobil Oil Company understood that it needed a ‘strong’, ‘positive’, ‘attractive’ and ‘progressive’ image to better ready it for an unknown future.
In 1956 a design programme delivered by Peter Schladermundt Inc. had produced a new logo with a smaller version of the corporation’s flying Red Horse and a distinctive blue and white colour scheme for its stations. However, it wouldn’t be until 1966 that Mobil would begin to standardise its visual image, devised and coordinated by Eliot Noyes and Chermayeff & Geismar.
Rawleigh Warner Jr. and a new name
In 1965, Rawleigh Warner Jr. was elected President. He was seen as young and dynamic character and oversaw the corporate name change to Mobil Oil Corporation, severing its links with the past, and presenting a new name for the future.
Prior to his Presidency, Warner Jr. had headed the international division and observed, at close hand, the design of many overseas affiliates. Some of these, having less company history to contend with, had shown innovative thinking when it came to design within the Mobil framework. While individually creative, these had produced inconsistencies.
This experience had led Warner Jr. to being open to new ideas when it came to corporate image. While competitors had seen the value of clean and neat service stations, Warner Jr. and Chairman of the Board, Albert L. Nickerson, had decided to look harder at a more basic factor - the design of the service stations.
Key Takeaways
A weak image for an oil giant
Despite its size, studies showed Socony Mobil had one of the weakest corporate images of the international oil giants, and it needed a strong, progressive image for an uncertain future.
The word, not the horse
Chermayeff & Geismar made the Mobil wordmark the core of the identity, keeping the Flying Red Horse as a separate graphic element.
A red o
The new logotype drew on Helvetica and Futura, and its red o was thought to help a global audience pronounce Mobil correctly.
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Continue reading to discover how Eliot Noyes and Chermayeff & Geismar redesigned Mobil’s stations, signs and wordmark →
