Hermès International S.A. is a fashion house established in 1837 in France. It is currently a family holding company with a staff of almost 8,500 people.
Hermes has come a long way from a horse saddlery manufacturer to a well-known brand selling leather, ready-to-wear, accessories, perfumes, and jewellery. It was founded by Thierry Hermès as a harness workshop in Paris. His son, Charles-Émile, introduced saddlery. It was under his management that the company offered its first bag – it was called Haut à Courroies and was created for horse riders.
Since the 1950s Hermes has been using the logo with a picture of a Duc carriage with a horse. The horse-drawn carriage is supposed to remind of the company’s origin as a saddlery manufacturer.
The caléche Hermes emblem wasn’t exactly created from scratch. Many sources mention that the designers who created it used a drawing “le Duc Attele, Groom a L’Attente” (“Hitched Carriage, Waiting Groom”) by the French portrait and animal painter Alfred de Dreux (1810 -1860) as a source of inspiration, and it looks absolutely reasonable. Comparing the two pictures, we can certainly notice a remarkable resemblance between them.
For more than half a century Hermes has been associated with a specific, comparatively soft shade of orange. In fact, it was first used in the early 1950s for the company’s boxes. Very soon the boxes became one of the vital elements of the company’s visual identity. Hardly a surprise that the brand opted for the same color for its logo.
Generally speaking, the Hermes logo may appear without any inscriptions. However, in many cases there are taglines in print advertisements. The brand typically opts for the French version of its name, Hermès, in order to emphasize its country of origin.