Sennheiser is a famous brand of German company, specialized in design and production of consumer and professional headsets and audio equipment. It was established in 1945 with its focus on microphones. The company is privately managed and sells its products all over the globe.
The Sennheiser visual identity hasn’t changed much since its logo introduction in the 1980s. The emblem, created during that time, perfectly reflected the strong character of the German company and its determination and attention to quality. Though after the redesign of 2017 the company switched to a monochrome palette, the logo still looks bright and solid, showing a strong competitor.
What is Sennheiser?
Sennheiser is a German company founded in 1945 specializing in the production of audio equipment. Today, it is one of the most well-known manufacturers of equipment for sound recording, playback, and broadcasting.
The very first badge, used by Sennheiser, was introduced in 1945 and stayed with the company for the first eight years. It was a geometric composition with the outlined horizontally-oriented rectangle, placed on two bold parallel wavy lines, and having a narrowed uppercase “Labor” written across its upper part in a solid sand-serif font, and a wide stylized “W” placed under it. The badge was set in black and white.
The redesign of 1958 has made the name of the company a hero of its visual identity. The uppercase logotype was now executed in an extra-bold geometric sans-serif typeface on the top level of the badge, underlined by a lightweight cursive “Electronic” in the lowercase, and a small emblem, which fully repeated the shape of the previous logo, but instead of “Labor” and the “W” had an extended stylized letter “S” drawn on it.
The emblem, created for the company in the 1980s was bright and light, though its geometry and thickness of the lines made it look brutal and confident. The light-blue square emblem was placed on the left from the logotype in the same color.
The inscription featured a bold square sans-serif with some of the lines extra bold, and others — thin. The straight cuts of the letters and wide space between the symbols made the image balanced and solid.
The emblem, composed of a slightly stretched square frame and a stylized blue “S”, outlined in white, in it, looked energetic and progressive, resembling the stairs, which are bringing you up, higher, to better quality and technologies.
The redesign of 2017 switched the color palette from light blue to monochrome, making the whole composition timeless and elegant, yet adding to the power and confidence of the brand. Both the wordmark and the emblem were redrawn and refined, becoming lighter and more elegant, though it did not affect the strength and masculinity of the image.
The lines of the “S” in the emblem were softened and now it is a smooth line, coming out from the bottom left corner of the square frame, and going upright, reflecting the brand’s growth and progress.
As for the lettering, it’s sans-serif became thinner and lighter, making the emblem the center of the visual identity, and pointing on the professionalism and fundamental approach of the company.
The Sennheiser logotype in all capitals is executed in a smooth and futuristic sans-serif typeface, though looks pretty minimalist and modest. The font is very similar to Tolyer No1 Medium, but with both letters “S” modified and drawn more like “Z”, but with rounded angles.
The black and white color palette of the logo looks powerful and strict, evoking a sense of a reliable company with huge experience and a perfect reputation. When executed in a traditional was — black on white — the logo looks traditional and concrete, though there is another option, which the brand uses for its logo — white lettering and emblem placed on a black background. An in this case the visual identity becomes luxury and chic, as the lines of the “S” are more distinct and look sophisticated and smooth.