Vision, strength & beauty
The story of Saul Bass, Herb Yager & Associates' 1980 logo for Minolta
Minolta was founded in Osaka, Japan, in 1928 as Nichi-Doku Shashinki Shōten (the Japanese-German camera shop) and changed its name in 1931 to Minolta, an acronym for Mechanism, Instruments, Optics and Lenses by Tashima. The company made the first integrated autofocus camera system and, for the early part of the 20th century, was mainly concerned with mechanical technologies for image capture.
As the company began to move from mechanical technology to advanced optics and electronics in the late 1970s, it engaged American consultancy Saul Bass (ALCOA, United Airlines, AT&T), Herb Yager & Associates to develop a new logo that would help the company outwardly reflect its new focus.
Continue down to discover the primary and secondary criteria for the design of the new Minolta logo, get access to the Subscriber Dropbox for this project, and read our Key Takeways.