Walmart Logo
Walmart is the biggest chain of retail stores in America. Even more than that, it owns various other store brands across the world – most notably, ASDA in Britain. It doesn’t take a genius to see just how much influence the brand has over the world. And well, the corporation is amongst the most lucrative in the world.
Meaning and History
The first store was opened in 1962 by the man called Sam Walton. Basically, he took his own name and attached ‘Mart’ to it. Some designs, in fact, portrayed the name as ‘Wal-Mart’, indicating the man behind the brand. It’s the usual practice used by the American entrepreneurs – putting their own name on the brand.
What is Walmart?
Walmart is the biggest chain of supermarkets in America, founded in 1962. It’s one of the biggest companies in the country overall, and they sell everything from food to clothing to personal care, electronics and more. Walmart has a strong presence abroad. Their most prominent subsidiary brands include UK’s Asda and African Massmart.
1950
Before Walmart, the founder had also made one attempt to create a retail store in a shape of the store he called ‘Walton’s Five and Dime’. The logo was also the main exterior decoration, and it just said ‘Walton’s’ in thin red letters in both cases. The font was pretty plain, so there’s nothing to note really.
1962 – 1964
The very first brand logo was just a simple azure text. The letters were spaced out and stretched upwards, but other than that, there weren’t any specific details, such as a company symbol or some specific design choice.
1964 – 1981
By 1964, a new text design was introduced. The characters were now much tighter spaced, although they themselves changed a lot. There were now large notches on the ends of the otherwise quite thin letters. In addition to that, the font was wavy and fluid, which is an interesting combination for such a blocky text design.
The last touch was the addition of dash between the letters ‘L’ and ‘M’. Although they didn’t add this initially, the company couldn’t get rid of this little element past this point.
1965
For a few years in the 60s, the logo was this black writing split in two parts. The first, properly styled, said ‘Wal-Mart’ (all in uppercase), and the other was scaled down to fit the height of the first part. This element said ‘Discount City’ (also in uppercase).
They were right side-by-side, which meant the second part was barely visible. But the text overall was similar, and the writing was equally stretched vertically in both cases.
1967
1968 – 1991
It was only in 1968 that the designers change the proportions of the letters, which allowed them to instead sit inside the proper squares. Basically, the characters were cut in height, but the overall design stayed as it was.
1969
For some time, Walmart used the 1964 logo (a circle-rectangle combination) with some altered text. The top now said ‘We sell for less’, instead of ‘Everything for less’, and there was an addition to the bottom part. It now said ‘Satisfaction guaranteed… by refund of exchange’.
1970
In 1970, they just took the square design and lengthened the letters a bit, again. However, the colors were also reverted. The squares were now black, while the letters turned white. They played with this style for some time since then.
1975
In 1975, for instance, they removed the squares in favor of just a uniform black rectangle. In addition, the font of the letters changed to a more stylistic approach. It wasn’t just a plain style, but the parts of the letters waved, twisted and there were many rectangular shapes on the ends of the letters.
1977
For 1981, they basically took the letters from the previous version and repainted them darkish blue. The rectangular background vanished, but there were no other additions or changes.
1981 – 1992
There were several minor variations throughout the 60s and 70s, but the 1968 variant was used most of the time. Since 1981, it was simultaneously used with this one, however.
The layout is very similar to the 1964 attempt, although the font is now much plainer than before. They removed all the excessive notches, waves and other unnecessary details. In their place, the designers put just the straight lines and mostly right angles.
The color was also replaced with light brows, while before it was black or white.
1992 – 2008
By 1992, both previous incarnations have already been fully scrapped in favor of the new design.
Stylistically, the text was incredibly similar to the 1981 design, although the letters were turned deep blue now. And in addition, the dash was replaced with a five-tip star, which in the end acted as a middle-ground between dash and no dash.
2008 – today
By 2008, a new logo was introduced. Where most of the previous designs were fully uppercase, this design also features lowercase letters. The font is still rather plain, even though it’s now thinner and much lighter.
In the same time, the dash and all its substitutes were completely removed, and both parts of the word were glued together into ‘Walmart’, as we know it now. The designers also added a new symbol to the right of the main logo – 6 yellow lines placed in intervals in a circular shape. For most people, it looks like the Sun.
Emblem and Symbol
Although most people would agree that the now-iconic Walmart symbol looks resembles the Sun, it was actually thought of as a collection of sparks. They are meant to resemble ideas and creativity of the Walmart bosses and other employees. But don’t delude yourself, it’s just the bosses.
