Matalan Logo PNG
Matalan is the name of a fashion and interior accessories retailing company, which was founded in 1985 in Great Britain. Today the company has over 250 stores across the UK and Europe and is one of the successful retailers in its segment.
Meaning and history
Matalan’s founder, John Hargreaves, dropped out of high school at 14, dreaming of becoming a merchant seaman and bringing in exotic souvenirs from abroad. But instead, Hargreaves went to the market, where he resold defective clothes from Marks & Spencer – with minor defects and big discounts.
In the 1960s he built a whole network of such kiosks, which preceded today’s discounters and outlet stores. In 1976 Hargreaves opened his first full-fledged store, Joymax.
Hargreaves’ empire was brought to a new level by a trip to the United States, where he was introduced to Wal-Mart stores. The Matalan chain of stores he launched in Liverpool in 1985 used the same philosophy: an abundance of goods and low prices.
What is Matalan?
Matalan is the name of a British brand of clothing and home goods company. The company was founded in 1985 by John Hargreaves. Matalan is considered to be one of the world’s first low-cost retailers and a pioneer in the new chapter of the shopping history book.
1985 – 2006
The previous Matalan logo showcased a very heavy sans serif font. It created an impression of something very reliable and long-lasting. It was anything but elegant. All the letters were capitalized. The three “A’s” created a visual rhythm making the logo stand out. The red color caught the eye.
2006 – Today
The simple and modest Matalan visual identity is still strong and memorable, due to the use of bright colors in its logo.
The Matalan logo is composed of a wordmark, all the capital letters of which are executed in a thin and straight sans-serif typeface with fine neat lines and sharp angles.
The lettering is perfectly balanced in terms of size and space and evokes a light fresh sense, event in the brand’s intense color palette. The Matalan color scheme is based on the electric red and white combination. Sometimes the company uses white lettering on a red background, but more often — the red inscription is placed on a white background.
Red is the symbol of passion and love, it also represents a strong and powerful company, with a lot of energy and value of progress and movement. White accents add a sense of loyalty and purity of the brand, showing the customer as the main figure in the company’s philosophy.
The Matalan visual identity is timeless due to the simplicity of its shapes and memorable dude to the bright red signature color. It is a perfect example of a minimalist contemporary visual identity design.
Font and Color
The bold and bright lettering from the primary badge of Matalan is set in a clean geometric sans-serif typeface with distinctive contours and wide silhouettes of the uppercase characters. The closest fonts to the one, used in this insignia, are, probably, Theater Nouveau Regular, or Helvetica Pro 43 Extended Light, but with the contours of the “M” modified.
As for the color palette of the Matalan visual identity, it is based on a classy and intense shade of red, which stands for the power, passion, and energy of the company, pointing to its love and care for the customers as the main Matalan value. This shade of red makes the simple lines of the letters look strong and dynamic.
