Vodafone is an English telecommunications corporation founded in 1981 by Ernest Harrison and Gerry Whent. Its development began with the department of Racal Strategic Radio Ltd. – a subsidiary of Racal Electronics. It formed a business called Racal-Vodafone. Its head office is today located in London (UK).
Meaning and History
On September 16, 1991, Racal-Vodafone was separated from its parent company and became the Vodafone Group. It was headed by one of the founders – Gerry Whent. To this time, the first logo with the actual name of the new structure was mentioned. It uses the word “Vodafone”, formed from fragments of the phrase “vo ice” + “da ta” + “fone”. In the entire history of the service, she had six logos.
1981 – 1985
The debut emblem features the word “Racal” written in capital white letters in separate red squares.
1985 – 1991
During this period, the company’s second name – Racal-Vodafone, where “Racal Telecom” is at the bottom, and the large “Voda” is at the top, was beaten on the logo.
1985 – 1997
Since 1985, another version of the logo has been used in parallel, based on the company’s new name – “Vodafone”. The badge consisted of subtle serifs in red capital letters, and a straight white line crossed the word horizontally.
1997 – 2006
In 1997, the emblem of the telecommunications service received a redesign. It looks like a red circle with a white quote in the center.
2006 – 2017
During this period, the developers proposed another version of the logo, replacing the previous version’s colors. Then there was a combination of gray and red with three-dimensional reflections-shadows.
2017 – present
In 2017, the management decided to return to the 1997 logo – two-dimensional, flat, white, and red.
Font and Color of the Emblem
The author of the new logo is the London studio Brand Union. She focused on the direct speech sign (in the quotation mark) and offered various branding packages. It presents not only the main sign of visual identification but also icons, buttons, short symbols, inscriptions.
If the previous version of the word was simple and smooth, the current version is complex. For example, in a thin sans serif font, the letter “O” is played, which repeats a graphic character. But the color palette has always been the same – a combination of red and white. In one of the periods, gray was added to them.