The Bulgari logo has gone through at least four notable modifications since the 1910s.
The founder of the company, Sotirios Boulgaris, was born in 1857 in a small village in the Pindus Mountains of northern Greece. For generations, the area was famous for the art of silversmithing, a skill passed down from father to son. Boulgaris was trained in silversmithing by his father, distinguished by his talent as an artist and entrepreneur.
In 1877 Boulgaris moved to Corfu, an island off the northwest coast of Greece, then to Naples. In 1881 Bulgaris settled in Rome. As his designs became increasingly popular, Bulgaris changed his name to become Bulgari in Italian. Three years later the talented jeweler opened his first store in the center of Rome, in Via Sistina.
The trademark of Bulgari jewelry was the use of platinum inlaid with large gemstones with a cut unique to the craftsmen of the Bulgari jewelry house and the distinctive attachment of the stones “in the nest”.
In 2011, the management of Bvlgari agrees to transfer 53% of its shares to the French LVMH holding. LVMH then buys Bvlgari for $6 billion, and the Bulgari family acquires a 3% stake in the holding company. This merger strengthened the Bulgari family business on the international stage.
What is Bulgari?
Bulgari is the name of an Italian luxury brand that has been producing luxury goods since 1884. The range of the brand includes jewelry, watches, leather goods, and perfumes. Today Bulgari is known all over the globe and is synonymous to chic and luxury.
The company was founded in 1884. On the official website, you can see a 1911 photo showing what the sign on the first shop in Rome looked like. There was the lettering “S. Bulgari” in a pretty elaborate type. The letter “S” was the initial of the founder’s name, Sotiris Boulgaris (later Italianized to Sotirio Bulgari).
The proportions of the letters were modified: the glyphs grew somewhat larger. The type decorated with elegant serifs resembled the one used on the current logo. All the glyphs were capitalized, which only reinforced the similarity.
However, in the old version, there was the letter “S” in front of the name of the company, while the second letter in “Bulgari” was “U.”
The products of this era feature the lettering “S. Bulgari” in a very intricate script. The uppercase letters “S” and “B” showcase a lot of unnecessary, from the utilitarian point of view, curls. Even the lowercase glyphs forming the writing “ulgari” feature decorative details.
This was the last version where the second letter in the word “Bulgari” was the “U,” not the “V.”
This is the year when the history of the current Bulgari wordmark started. If you take a look at the logo the company introduced in 1934, you will hardly notice any differences from the modern version. The Bulgari logo was unveiled on the central doorway of the Via Condotti flagship store.
To begin with, there is the “V” instead of the “U,” which has become synonymous with the brand. The “V” was used in reference to ancient Rome and the classical Latin alphabet.
Also, you can see the now-familiar elegant type with light serifs. Interestingly, the overall style of the typeface is reminiscent of the old signs seen above the entrance to Bulgari’s shops in the 1920s.
The elegant uppercase lettering from the official Bulgari logo is set in a fancy serif font with the characters slightly extended. The closest fonts to the one, used in this insignia, are, probably, Aviano Serif Regular, or Sweet Gothic Serif Regular, but with some noticeable modifications of the contours.
As for the color palette, here Bulgari does not differ from its luxury market colleagues, and uses a timeless black-and-white combination, which is a symbol of sophistication and style, as well as professionalism and confidence.