Salvatore Ferragamo Unveils New Logo, Rebrands Without Founder’s First Name
By Alexa Heah, 23 Sep 2022
From Saint Laurent to Margiela, fashion houses are dropping their founders’ first names from their identities.
Now, with the appointment of creative director Maximilian Davis, Salvatore Ferragamo is taking a step towards a new era with a complete rebrand, unveiling a simpler logo: just ‘Ferragamo’.
Ditching ‘Salvatore’, the updated emblem depicts a black serif block letter font against a red background. As per WWD, it was created by renowned graphic designer Peter Saville, who took the founder’s handwriting and translated it into typography.
Citing the company’s Florence roots, Saville said he chose a classic font that resembled the stone inscriptions of Renaissance artists, thereafter reducing it into a more modern look that encapsulates a “complex balance” and is “quintessentially Ferragamo.”
Macro Gobbetti, Chief Executive Officer at Ferragamo, told the publication the new logotype “expands both the history and the now” of the famed Maison, which will “direct the new chapter” the brand is heading towards.
Beginning from when founder Salvatore Ferragamo emigrated to the United States in the 1910s, the luxury fashion house has undergone its fair share of logo changes.
According to the brand’s website, its first advertisements were produced in 1930, when Salvatore tapped painter Giuseppe Landsmann (also known as Lucio Venna) to design the store’s logo and brochure.
The firm’s masthead changed again in 1937, when the first recorded Ferragamo shop opened its doors in Florence, being branded as just ‘Ferragamo’ in an elegant, cursive typeface. In 1948, the brand expanded to New York, though this time, its store bore the sign of ‘Salvatore Ferragamo’ in different lettering.
Then in 1956, the company launched a separate label—‘Ferragamo Debs’—for shoes made in England, partly using machinery. Though no one is sure when the house’s previous logo, the one most of us are familiar with, was first used, it notably appeared on the packaging of a fragrance released in 1971.
As the Maison turns a new page in its storied history, there’s no doubt the eyes of the fashion world will be on Davis’ first designs, scheduled to take center stage in Milan this week.