When Sotirios Boulgaris moved to rome and opened a jewelry shop in 1884, he did not realize that he was starting a luxury brand that would still be around today. Through clever management, the company managed to expand into a luxury goods brand that creates watches, perfumes, accessories, and even hotels. The Bulgari logo pays homage to the traditional Italian and Greek inspired designs of the company’s jewelry. Its clean lines and unique spelling help to set it apart from other logos. This article will tell you the fascinating history behind Bulgari’s logo.
Bulgari Logo Design Elements
The Bulgari logo is a simple logotype that just uses the text of the company’s name. Bulgari is spelled in plain, upper case black letters that are inspired by classic Roman fonts. It features thin, angled serifs, and some of the strokes are slightly thinner than others. Each letter has a wide amount of space between it, so the logo looks extremely horizontal. Most of the lines are either straight or slightly curved, but the leg of the R features an unusual wave.
When people look at the Bulgari logo, the first thing they normally notice is that it appears to be misspelled. Instead of a U, there is a V in the brand name. This is technically not a misspelling because the classic Latin alphabet wrote their U like a modern V. The change in the logo styling adds a little visual interest to an otherwise plain logo.
Changes and Evolution
1. Shape
Bulgari’s original logo was merely the sign above their flagship store, which said “S. Bulgari.” This shape has only undergone two modifications. The first change was the removal of the letter S, which occurred after Sotirios’ sons started working with the family business. In 1934, they removed the normal U from the logo and changed it to a stylized Latin V instead. Since then, the logo has remained almost entirely the same.
2. Color
Unlike many other jewelry companies, Bulgari has never attempted to create a signature color for their brand. Instead, they allow their logo to be more versatile. It is normally displayed as a black on white design. However, Bulgari allows it to show up in any other monochromatic color that works with their design scheme. The most common colors for the logo are black, white, gold, or silver.
3. Font
There have been surprisingly few changes to the font even though Bulgari has existed for over a century. The weight of the strokes have all gotten slightly thicker, and the width of each letter has gotten slightly larger. Bulgari has also tweaked the shape of the R’s leg so that it is not quite as curvy. The spacing of the font was gradually increased to make the logo a little longer.
Influences/Inspiration
Bulgari’s logo technically just gets its inspiration from the founder’s name, but the creation of the logo is not quite as straightforward. The V in the logo comes from ancient Roman times, when Latin scribes wrote their Us in a way that looked like a V. Bulgari decided to use a Latin inspired logo because they felt that it better represented the jewelry designs of Bulgari.
At the turn of the century, dainty diamond jewelry was popular, but Bulgari started designing jewelry with brightly colored gems cut in thick, weighty cabochon cuts. They used snakes, asymmetric designs, and geometric motifs to create exotic jewelry that reminded people of the jewelry from the ancient Roman empire. These historical inspirations helped Bulgari become one of the first Rome-based jewellers to gain worldwide popularity, so they decided to craft a logo that referenced their nation’s history and their company’s designs.
Trivia
- The name Bulgari comes from the Latin pronunciation of the founder’s Greek name, Boulgaris. This Greek word actually means “from Bulgaria,” which means that Sotirios Boulgaris’ ancestors probably came from the Balkan nation of Bulgaria.
- The founder of the company only had 18 cents to his name when he moved to Rome.
- Members of the Bulgari family, including owner Costantino Bulgari, lived in Rome during the German occupation of World War II, and they helped to hide Jewish people from the Nazis.
Conclusion
The simple yet stylish Bulgari logo is bold enough to appear on massive billboards, yet it is also concise enough to be engraved on miniscule jewelry pieces. The logo is not just famous because of its clever graphic design. The Latin inspiration behind the logo also calls attention to iconic Bulgari designs and represents Bulgari’s Roman origins.
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