Smirnoff Logo

Smirnoff is originally a Russian brand of premium-level vodka owned and produced by the British company Diageo. This vodka is distributed across 130 countries, and the major distilleries are located in UK, US, Italy, Latvia and many other countries across the world.

Meaning and History

Smirnoff gained the name after its founder, Pyotr Smirnov. He had established the vodka distillery in 1860 and his brand quickly became number one in the pre-revolutionary Russia. After the October Revolution, his business was taken over by the government, and he had to reopen in Turkey.

1860 – 1940

The initial logotype appeared with the brand arrival in 1860. It depicted the name, placed in the red frame, and the red and white area below, with some explanations about the brand. This logotype was in use on the Smirnoff bottles of that time

1940 – 1978

In the middle of the 20th century, the brand was using its name in the red background with gold lines, in the same style as in 1860.

1978 – 2001

Another brand logo had the Russian Imperial emblem of ghost-like white style, and the inscription ‘Smirnoff’ on the red and white strip.

2001 – Today

Finally, the current logotype depicts a minimalistic Imperial emblem of Russia without many details, but it still reminds about the original. It’s colored in metal-white, due to which the whole logo looks volumetric. The inscription also had some mods: the red and white line gained the deeper color palette.

Emblem and Symbol

The logotypes we’d mentioned upper are more used as the corporate logotypes, and for the bottles Smirnoff used special ones. Though you can still find the 1860 logo somewhere, but it’s generally pushed out by the other ones. The Smirnoff bottles use the name as the main watermark.