For most of its 105-year history, the Sharp Corporation has been using a simplistic red logotype built around the company name.
The old versions of the Sharp logo actually do not differ that much from the current one. In some periods of its history, the company used a black wordmark on the white background, but for most of the time, the logo featured a very bright and eye-catching shade of red.
Also, there were periods when the wordmark was given between two red stripes. This version of the logo was placed inside a white frame with rounded corners.
This is probably the best-known old logo. It looks totally different from the current one, except that it also uses red as its only color.
The glyphs imitate a calligraphic script with varying widths of the strokes. The glyphs, however, are not connected, as they typically are in a cursive script. The “S” has an extended top end, which stretches above the “a” and “h” and finishes above the “r.” The wordmark is underlined.
While this might have been a pretty decent design in the era, when people wrote with ink pens, the company eventually had to replace it with a more modern, minimalistic logo.
The current version of the Sharp logo has been in use for several decades.
Actually, the shape of the letters has been modified, yet these alterations has been so subtle that it’s hard to detect them. The wordmark itself looks pretty similar to its predecessor, except a couple of minor modifications, including the proportions and the distance between the letters, as well as the right end of the letter “R,” which have grown a bit longer.
But unlike the previous logo, the current one comprises only the company name, while the red stripes below and above the lettering, as well as the frame, are gone.
In 1997-2004, the company used the tagline “Be sharp,” which was placed under a black horizontal line below the logo.
The icon features the white letter “S” in a red box. The “S” looks the same as in the regular logo.
The typeface seen in the Sharp logo seems pretty straightforward and minimalistic, and yet, it has its unique features. The letters look somewhat stretched horizontally and flattened. The vertex of the “A” is flattened, while the “R,” “P,” and “S” have attractive curves. On the whole, the wordmark looks balanced and energetic.