Conforama Logo PNG
The unfinished elements of the logo are reminiscent of jigsaw puzzles, which, when assembled, teach a beautiful picture. The Conforama logo reflects the company’s furniture delivery system. The sign promises: parts connect quickly.
Conforama’s history began in the early 1960s, when Pierre and Guy Sordouillet, Jean Moll, Jacques Ragageot, and northern French furniture sellers, along with Bordeaux manufacturer Charles Minvielle, tested a discount-store furniture model near Lyon.
On December 12, 1967, the first Conforama store opened in Saint-Priest, Rhône, in a 2,500-square-meter industrial building. The format brought furniture and household goods into a single warehouse-style space, offering lower costs than traditional furniture shops.
In 1976, Conforama was acquired by Agache-Willot. The ownership change supported faster growth, though the holding later faced legal troubles in 1981. In 1991, the chain was acquired by Pinault SA, later known as PPR and then Kering. Under Pinault and PPR, Conforama expanded into Spain, Italy, Switzerland, and other European markets. In 1998, it launched its first corporate website and began offering online sales.
In March 2011, PPR sold Conforama to Steinhoff International for 1.2 billion euros. By 2013, the brand had 266 stores across Europe, including 205 in France. IKEA remained the market leader, while BUT was another major French competitor.
In April 2017, Conforama signed a three-year naming rights sponsorship deal for the French Ligue 1 and acquired a 17% stake in Showroomprivé.fr. After Steinhoff’s accounting scandal in December 2017, that stake was sold to Carrefour in January 2018 at a heavy loss. On July 8, 2020, Steinhoff sold Conforama France to Mobilux, the parent company of BUT, forming France’s largest furniture retailer by revenue.
Meaning and History
The key to Conforama’s success is its identity, simple at first glance but quite recognizable. It had changed several times, most recently when Steinhoff International, a South African-German-Dutch holding company, acquired the French chain of stores. Before that, Conforama was owned by Pinault SA group (since 1991), even earlier by the financial company Agache-Willot (since 1976). Until 1976, it was owned by its founders, four Frenchmen who opened the first outlet in the municipality of Saint-Priest in 1967.
In 2020, the home goods retailer was taken over by the French-Austrian holding company Mobilux. This saved it from liquidation due to financial difficulties. But the transition to a new owner did not affect the Conforama logo: the company continues to use the orange word mark adopted in 2012 and is in no hurry to change it.
What is Conforama?
Conforama is one of the largest European companies in the household goods market, positioning itself as a trendsetter in interior design. It has a network of 200 stores with three product categories: furniture, furnishings, and appliances. The retailer’s headquarters is in France.
1987 – 2003
When Agache-Willot still owned the chain of stores, it began using the logo featuring an oasis image. But this element was not considered the main one at the time. Firstly, it was very small. Secondly, the designers placed it at the very bottom, between the words “vie” and “est” in the phrase “Le pays où la vie est moins chère.” The motto, which translates from French as “The country, where life is less expensive,” was written in white italic type inside a convex blue rectangle.
The red word “CONFORAMA” occupied the main part of the graphic sign. It was above the retail chain’s slogan and contrasted with the yellow quadrangle, which had a concave bottom. To make the brand name even more noticeable, the logo’s creators chose a bold font with long serifs, roughly similar to SoftMaker’s Garamond Nova Pro Condensed Bold.
The artists’ Oasis looked like two white palm trees sticking out of an equally white patch of ground. It symbolized the coveted place everyone was looking for, a vegetation-rich corner in the middle of an oppressive desert. The company compared itself to a bountiful spring, bringing something new to life. This theme was played up not only in the image of the oasis but also in the two quadrangular shapes in the background of the inscription: the yellow block was associated with sand or the sun, and the blue with water.
2003 – 2012
In the early 2000s, the oasis, which had been at the bottom, became a central component of the logo and lost one of the two palm trees. The designers brought it to the forefront to play up the “spring of grace” concept. Wanting to make the comparison more obvious, they placed a red house in the background of the only remaining palm tree. Like the typical children’s drawings, the building consisted of a triangle and a square. It symbolized Conforama’s main occupation: selling furniture and home furnishings. At the same time, the house depicted by the artists was the epitome of an ideal because the lack of details made it look like a mirage in the desert.
The oasis became yellow and took its place at the top, inside the same yellow rectangle. Correspondingly, the name of the chain of stores was moved down into the blue quadrangle. And the letters themselves were also yellow, which visually balanced the two parts of the logo. And for greater harmony, the designers balanced the top and bottom, almost equalizing the rectangular bases in width. The motto was removed, so the only inscription was the word “Conforama.” It was radically different from the previous version because all letters except the “C” were lowercase. A round geometric grotesque font replaced the elongated serif typeface.
2012 – today
In 2011, the French home goods retailer was acquired by Steinhoff International. After changing ownership, it decided to reposition itself and return to television with a new advertising campaign. The rebranding included a redesigned logo that eliminated all elements except the main inscription. Employees of W&Cie PR agency decided to simplify its look, so they did away with the paradise oasis and multicolored underlays. The only thing left is the chain’s name with the typography preserved, and now it’s not yellow but orange.
Font and Colors
The modern visual style of Conforama suggests the use of a simple verbal sign. It was taken from the previous emblem, which featured an oasis in the background of a house. The company thought its name was famous enough to be recognized without the famous island with a palm tree.
The designers chose typography because the Conforama logo consists solely of lettering. The round, streamlined font looks unusual, first of all, because of the truncated glyphs. Also noteworthy is the elongated foot of the letter “f,” which extends downwards beyond the line. This grotesque looks roughly similar to Bruum FY Bold by FONTYOU, Hereabouts Bold by Derrick Jackson, and Geon Extra Bold by “cretype.” The orange color makes the brand name look bright. And brightness is exactly the characteristic that best describes the work of an interior fashion trendsetter.