Honeywell Logo PNG
Whatever activity the company undertakes, the work will be done to a high standard and with taste. The Honeywell logo reflects the desire to be useful to people and make their lives easier. The elements of the sign also attract attention, and the company’s products stand out against the general background.
Honeywell began in 1885, when Albert Butz patented a furnace thermostat that used a mechanical “flapper” to automatically regulate heat. His invention opened the path for automatic climate control. The patents later passed through several owners to W.R. Sweatt, whose company became Minneapolis Heat Regulator Company in 1912. In 1906, Mark Honeywell founded Honeywell Heating Specialty Company in Wabash, Indiana, to manufacture water-heating systems using his mercury-seal generator.
The two firms sold related products and competed in the same market. In 1927, they merged to form the Minneapolis-Honeywell Regulator Company. Mark Honeywell became president, and Sweatt became chairman. By 1929, assets had passed $3.5 million. During the Depression, the company expanded through acquisitions, buying Time-O-Stat Controls in 1931 and Brown Instrument Company in 1934. That deal brought links to Japan’s Yamatake Company, while offices opened in Canada, the Netherlands, and London.
World War II moved Minneapolis-Honeywell into defense technology, including bomber autopilots and fire-control systems. In 1955, the company entered the computing market through Raytheon’s Datamatic. The DATAmatic 1000 followed in 1957, and Honeywell later bought Raytheon’s stake. In 1963, the name was shortened to Honeywell. In 1969, Apollo 11 used 16,000 Honeywell parts in stabilization and control electronics.
Honeywell bought Sperry’s aerospace division in 1986. In 1999, AlliedSignal acquired Honeywell but kept the name, forming Honeywell International. GE tried to buy Honeywell for $42 billion in 2001, but the European Commission blocked the deal.
Meaning and History
The evolution of Honeywell’s logo traces the company’s history. And it was very turbulent because this corporation repeatedly changed its name and absorbed other companies to get their technology. Its wordmark has always reflected the current name, whether Honeywell Heating Specialty Company or Minneapolis-Honeywell. Each variant had a different font, including emblems with a single “H” in a rectangle. The colors also varied, but most of the writing was either black or red.
What is Honeywell?
Honeywell International Inc. is a company that drives industry innovation and actively invests in scientific research. It consists of four business groups responsible for various tasks. They create gas and oil processing technologies and produce chemicals, safety systems, barcode scanners, turbochargers, aviation engines, and much more. The corporation’s inception dates back to 1906.
1924 – 1937
Until 1927, there were two separate companies: the Honeywell Heating Specialty Company, formed in 1906, and the Minneapolis Heat Regulator Company, which was founded in 1885 under a different name. Both of them were engaged in thermostats and automatics for coal stoves, so they entered the struggle for leadership. Due to conflicts of interest, they had to merge into the Minneapolis-Honeywell Regulator Company. The merger took place in 1927, and before that, the inventor Mark Honeywell company used the logo with the words “HONEYWELL HEATING SPECIALTY COMPANY.” The Old English typeface, with its complex textural shapes, was in keeping with the spirit of the time.
1937 – 1942
In 1937, 10 years after the merger of the two competing enterprises, the newly formed company had about 30,000 employees. Its emblem bore the abbreviated name: “MINNEAPOLIS-HONEYWELL.” The hyphen between the words looked like a bullet. The font was far from medieval classics. This time, the designers preferred an antique with thin, straight lines.
1942 – 1948
One of the earliest logos contained the words MINNEAPOLIS-HONEYWELL CONTROLS. The last word indicated the type of product the company was making: control thermostats for heating systems. The serifs have disappeared, and the letters have taken on a sharper shape.
1948 – 1958
The next emblem also mentioned the manufacturer’s main product: “CONTROL SYSTEMS.” The phrase was found under the word “Honeywell,” where only the first “H” was capitalized. For the first time, designers used lowercase letters for a company name. At the very top, between the “H” and “ll,” the small print read “MINNEAPOLIS.” The light gray text was inside a black rectangle.
1958 – 1965
In 1958, a combined logo appeared, consisting of a black lettering “HONEYWELL” and an orange rectangle with a large white letter “H” and a small word “HONEYWELL.”
1965 – the 1980s
In the second half of the 20th century, the company adopted a wordmark with a white “HONEYWELL” inside a burgundy rectangle. The typeface became stylized for the first time: it was not an ordinary grotesque, but a version with disproportionate letters.
the 1980s – 1991
The designers removed the inscription from the rectangle and repainted it black. Also, they changed the font, making the lines symmetrical.
1991 – today
In anticipation of the new millennium, the company slightly modified the logo. As a result, the lettering turned red, and the overall style did not change.
Font and Colors
An international corporation has always had a word mark, both now and a hundred years ago. The only exception was the orange square emblem with the letter “H” inside. This was exactly the secret of Honeywell’s popularity: the company made its name a central part of its visual identity, ensuring everyone recognized it.
Endless experiments with the lettering design ended with the designers settling on Helvetica. At least this particular font is listed in the branding guide. But if you pay attention to the details, small differences become noticeable. Another similar typeface is the Britannic Bold.
The company chose the color the easy way: its logos are either black or red. The current version uses a bright shade called Honeywell Red (# EE3124) for the word and Brilliant White (#FFFFFF) for the background.