As one of the largest companies in the world, the Dutch-British energy company Shell has an extensive and respectable history, beginning in the nineteenth century in London. The name Shell, which would become known worldwide with the accompanying logo, was appropriately chosen for one of the first products that the company traded: shells.
The history and origins of Shell
The origins of Shell begin in the nineteenth century, where a trader from London decided to expand his trade in decorative shells to trade in oil. This market was still young and in full swing; the rapid industrialization of the world created a growing demand for oil, where a lot of money could be made. To find a suitable name for his company, Marcus Samuel, the company’s founder, turned to the shells that were still traded at the time. The company would be called Shell Transport and Trading Company.
Collaboration between British and Dutch company
The originally British company decided to merge with the Dutch ,Royal Dutch Petroleum Company, in 1907 in order to gain a larger market share. The new company would be called Royal Shell Group, although in fact it was still a partnership. It took until 2005 before the company in the form of Royal Dutch Shell would actually function as one company. This new Royal Dutch Shell has its head office in the Netherlands, and the share is traded on the London stock exchange, the Amsterdam stock exchange and on Wall Street. In 2009, the company became the largest company in the world, measured by stock market value. This position would later be taken over by other companies, but Shell is no stranger to a strong position in the top five.
Shell’s first logo
Shortly after the founding of Shell, as the Shell Transport and Trading Company, a shell was logically chosen as its logo. However, this shell looks completely different from the logo that is currently associated with the company. A mussel shell, without the typical yellow/red color scheme, represented the young company from 1900 onwards. However, from 1904 onwards the well-known scallop shell was chosen, although the typical color scheme was still not present.
The logo from 1915
When the company started building its own gas stations in 1915, under its own brand name, it had to be able to display this name in a prominent way; a logo had to be recognizable and visible from afar. Colors in the logo were indispensable for this and since the first gas stations were built in California (with strong Spanish influences), the colors red and yellow were chosen. From 1915 onwards, the Shell logo would take a shape that we still associate with the Shell company today.
Raymond Loewy and his design for the Shell logo
Ultimately, the logo would undergo some minor changes, the most important of which was implemented by Raymond Loewy in 1971; the most famous industrial designer of that time, who already had several world-famous logos to his name, such as the Lucky Strike logo. Raymond Loewy was tasked with making the logo more readable, which he achieved by removing the name ,Shell, from the shell itself and positioning it under the shell. He also made the logo sleeker in terms of lines. This still did not completely achieve the current logo, because in the following years there were a number of minor cosmetic interventions to ensure that the logo kept up with the times. In 1999, the word ,Shell, was finally removed from the logo; After all, the shell itself was already so well known that the company name no longer needed to be in the logo.