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While the logo of the fast-fashion clothing brand C&A has gone through more than 10 updates over its almost 80-year history, these modifications were gradual. So, it was more like evolution rather than a series of revolutions.
Meaning and history
Let’s start by describing the old logos the brand used before the current one.
The original C&A logo (1941) was a circle containing a larger lettering “C en A” accompanied by “Brenninkmeijer” in smaller letters below. There was a lot more to read there, but the small size of the letters made them legible only at a larger size.
Probably the company realized it needed a cleaner design, as in 1912, it got rid of most of the text leaving only the letters “C&A” with a single word below. The following year an elliptical logo was introduced. The shape was apparently chosen to let both the letters stand straight (in the previous version, the “C” was sloped as if there wasn’t enough space).
In 1928, the ellipse adopted “rays” going around its outline. The rays were replaced by a curvy pattern in 1947. The shape of the pattern looked pretty similar to the current one. The lettering was also modified – now you could see a handwritten tagline.
Symbol in 1958-2015
At last, in 1958, the first colored logo was introduced. The stripes along the outline were red and white, the ellipse was blue, while the letters stayed solid white, like on all the previous versions.
This logo was in use until 1984. At this point, the company made the letters “C&A” bigger, which became possible after the smaller text was removed. Also, the red stripes were replaced by a solid red outline. Due to these updates, the emblem adopted a cleaner look.
The 1994 modification resulted in a slightly darker palette. The glyphs were somewhat modified, and a white outline appeared between the blue ellipse and the red part. In 2005, the gradient effect was added.
In 2011, the oval grew white, while the letters turned blue. Neither the typeface nor the shape of the glyphs was affected by this update.
The 2016 emblem
The design is almost the same as the previous one, except for the palette. As the letters turned red, the overall look of the emblem became cleaner.
Font
The classic serif type looks traditional and reminds of the company’s heritage
Colors
The earliest versions of the C&A logo were black-and-white. In 1958-2015, the palette was built up of white, red, and dark blue (there was some playing around with the shades). Eventually, in 2016, only red and white stayed.
