Carrefour Logo

Carrefour Logo PNG

The message of the Carrefour logo is simple and clear: in whatever direction the buyer goes, he will definitely meet the store of the chain. The emblem promises: inside; you can choose both exclusive products and a large list of everyday items at affordable prices.

Meaning and History

The trading company was founded in 1957, and immediately the first shop was opened in the town of Annecy. In 1963, in the suburbs of Paris, Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois, the first hypermarket in Europe called Carrefour was opened.

Today, Carrefour owns almost 16 thousand stores, super- and hypermarkets in France, Spain, Russia, and Kazakhstan; chains exist in Argentina, Brazil, Asia, and North Africa. It employs more than 400 thousand people.

After merging with the Promodès chain of stores in 2000, Carrefour became the largest retailer in Europe. In 2009, she left the Russian market, selling her assets to X5 Retail Group.

Throughout its history, the logo has changed several times, and today it has reached complete perfection.

What is Carrefour?

Carrefour is a French chain of hypermarkets, supermarkets, and discount stores. It was established in 1958 and has since expanded to more than 30 countries worldwide. Its retail outlets operate in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and South America. The company offers a variety of products under both its own and third-party brands, including food, clothing, electronics, household appliances, and much more.

1960 – 1963

The first emblem was a schematic representation of an intersection with a white cross made of wide stripes against a black rhombus background. The name of the company is written on the horizontal line in black lowercase letters.

1963 – 1966

At the beginning of 1963, the logo’s image changed dramatically: it became round, red. The name of the company, as before, is written in a wide horizontal white stripe. Two large white arrows have replaced the vertical stripe

1966 – 1972

Again, a complete logo update is associated with the new “Positive is Back” campaign. This time, it was performed in France’s colors – white, red, and blue. On a white background, the company’s name is written in blue letters, and above it again, there are two arrows – red and blue, looking in different directions. The letter “C,” symbolizing the company itself, seemed to be glued to the blue part. The two arrows mean a crossroads and the company’s values ​​- an attractive price-performance ratio for people.

1972 – 1982

The logo remained the same in image and design. The proportions were changed – the brand name was reduced, and the badge was made much larger, thus informing that quality and affordable prices are the most important thing for the company.

1980 – 1982

Changes in the Carrefour logo mainly affected the color: the badge in the form of multidirectional arrows remained. The designers replaced the blue with purple and trimmed the shape of the letters, making them smoother and more rounded. They also reduced the gap at the top of the ‘r,’ rounded the curve at the ‘f,’ used a capital ‘c’ instead of a lowercase ‘c,’ and shortened the serifs a bit.

1982 – 2010

The company continued to increase the proportions of its brand name for better brand identification. The color scheme remains the same. But the inscription, which was attached to the emblem, received a new font. The serifs on the letters are now rounded. The entire inscription is in bold type.

2010 – today

Again, a slight improvement was made to the logo – now, the name and icon are balanced in proportions. As it was said in the presentation release, the chain has significantly increased the price range, and now there are products in both the economy and elite class.

Font and Colors

The current logo echoes the emblem of 1966. This was done on purpose because, after several years of experimenting with identity, the brand decided to return the previous symbolism that set the current logo series’s start. The only thing that Wolff Olins (its developer) did was to remove the edges at the ends of the protruding elements and reduce the color intensity of the sign to light blue.

The text part has also changed: thin characters are now used instead of bold characters. But their style has been preserved: the letters are still retro with enlarged dots at the ends. This is one of the interpretations of serifs. The main typeface is close to the commercial American Typewriter. Of the free fonts, it most closely resembles the Erica Type Bold Font.

The corporate palette has not changed since 1966. It consists of red (a triangle pointing to the left) and blue (curly elements with an arrow pointing to the right). The rest in between is white, forming a negative space with the original shapes – two short commas above and below.

Carrefour color codes