Acme Logo

Acme LogoAcme Logo PNG

The American supermarket chain makes a strong statement with a colorful and memorable logo. The Acme logo, like other retailers’ distinctive signs, attracts the attention of potential customers. It serves as an effective marketing tool.

Acme: Brand overview

Founded:1891
Founder:Samuel Robinson and Robert Crawford
Headquarters:
East Whiteland Township, Pennsylvania, United States
Website:acmemarkets.com
Acme is the third largest grocery supermarket chain in the Delaware River Valley. It is part of the American Stores Company group owned by Albertsons. Includes 164 stores, which employ 15 thousand people.

Meaning and History

Acme Logo History

Founded in the late 19th century by two emigrants, the Acme Tea Company has established a fairly strong position in its small niche in the eastern United States. This was facilitated by an association with other emigrant business people in 1917 at American Stores (ASCO). The stores got their current name in 1937 when it was decided to expand the range of goods, becoming markets. For new outlets, the name of the largest of the five companies of the association was chosen.

The logo of the markets was not developed immediately but some time after the opening of the first self-service stores. The visual sign changed as the network evolved and expanded. There are four updates in total.

What is Acme?

A chain of 164 supermarkets in the eastern United States, owned by Albertsons. Headquarters in suburban Philadelphia.

1954 – 1960

Acme Logo 1954

The first store logo was an oval inside of which the word Akme is written in capital letters with a capital A, and below in block capital letters “Markets.”

The shape of the oval subconsciously conveyed a signal of friendliness. She made it clear that polite service awaits the buyer in stores. The connections between the letters indicated the opportunity to purchase interconnected goods related to the home and household at the outlet. Capital A demonstrated the leading position of the stores (since its inception, the chain has occupied the first place in the region, displacing most of its competitors).

The word ACME was quite popular for brand names of the time. Translated from Greek, it meant: a period of maturity, reaching the culmination of development. Speaking about the company, it was used in the meaning: the best, experienced, at the top. For the firm of Robinson and Crawford, the choice was not exaggerated. The Tea Company is the largest among the partners, and the markets are industry leaders.

In English, the decoding of the ACME abbreviation is also quite optimistic – A Company that Makes Everything (a company that can do anything). The Markets signature told what industry the firm was in.

1960 – 1981

Acme Logo 1960

By the 60s, Acme began to team up with pharmacies, wine stores, and fast food systems (Pizza Hut franchise) to provide customers with a greater range of services, turning them into supermarkets.

New logos have been developed to distinguish between regular Akme stores and supermarkets. Their elongated background resembled a fish or an eye, so the people called the symbol “fisheye.” The logo imitated lava lamps that were popular at the time. Multi-colored bubbles of wax, endlessly rising and bubbling, formed a bewitching picture. There was similarly busy traffic in Acme’s stores. New proposals, from which “eyes ran,” the rise and fall in prices. The logo creators tried to draw an analogy to arouse interest among buyers and associate it with something fashionable and modern. Hence the soft rhombus shape is characteristic of lamps, and the red dot symbolizes the bubble.

  • For smaller stores, blue background with a red dot at the left corner of the eye was used. Inside the blue background was a white Acme lettering in capital letters. The size of the letters indicated large stores, and the light tone represented novelty.
  • For supermarkets, the main image was outlined with a blue line following the contours of the “eye,” which made the logo visually larger, demonstrating the store’s larger size. The white space inside the outline indicated the addition of new features and services beyond the familiar Acme products. This version of the visual sign resembled an eye with a tear rolling out of it.

The diamond-shaped logo echoed the special shape of the network’s elongated buildings.

1981 – 1984

Acme Logo 1981

The parent company has changed ownership. Skaggs bought it in 1979. But it did not rename it but rather took the name American Stores. The purchase had a positive effect on Akma. The network expanded significantly, acquiring bankrupt stores of other companies. They were rebuilt and renamed, making them part of the network. The logo has also been updated.

He retained the eye shape and the outer stroke, like in supermarkets, but the teardrop dot was removed. The shape of the visual sign was reminiscent of a rugby ball – an energetic game full of movement, shots, and competition. It suited the growing network very well. The color scheme was changed to red, which symbolized growth, expansion, and the energy of change. The effect was enhanced by a stroke at a small distance from the main background, showing the growing scale.

The white name in the center of the logo was retained. It demonstrated the convenient location of markets on the main streets, in large crowded points. They were easy to see. The white color symbolizes the freshness of products and health care in the form of pharmacies.

1984 – 1998

Acme Logo 1984

American Stores continued to grow by acquiring new firms. The logo reflected this by the red color going beyond the white border. A thin white stripe remained inside the red background near the edge. The sharp corners on the sides were removed, returning the original oval. The saturated red tone of the emblem demonstrated the achievement of the apogee of development, the unprecedented power of the company. The energy that destroys everything in its path. White tones represented fair play and fair prices.

1998 – today

Acme Logo

Acme becomes part of America’s second largest grocery chain, Albertsons, which acquires Acme’s parent company, American Stores Company. Change of owners leads to rebranding.

The last visual sign is simple and minimalist. It consists of four capital letters of the network name. The background was removed, transferring the red color to the inscription. This hints that the company will pay special attention to the development of the brand (in the future, all acquired large stores were rebranded as ACME). Italics show the desire to move forward, the desire to continue working.

The visual mark mimics the logo of the Canadian division of a supermarket chain, IGA, in 1990. The difference is only in a paler shade of red.

Font and Colors

Acme Symbol

The main colors of the logo are red and white.

  • Red – love for your work, a powerful breakthrough, leadership.
  • White – naturalness, purity, safety.

Logo font – Drop Case Italic. Massive large letters with the same width symbolize large stores, a uniform pace of network development without falls and failures.

Acme Logo Color Codes:

Primary color

  • Red: Hex code: #EF4034; RGB: 239, 65, 53; CMYK: 0, 90, 86, 0; Pantone: 032 C

Secondary colors

  • White: Hex code: #FFFFFF; RGB: 255, 255, 255
  • Black: Hex code: #000000; RGB: 0, 0, 0