The first consumer cooperative was born in Turin in 1854, the first outlet of the “pension warehouses”, to defend the purchasing power of consumers, by purchasing the goods from wholesalers and then reselling them to members at cost price. Over time, these cooperatives thus became a reality rooted throughout the national territory. In 1945 the National Association of Consumer Cooperatives was founded; during those years of great difficulty, cooperatives represented an alternative to tried and tested shops, guaranteeing savings by overcoming the intermediation of wholesalers. Since after the war the cooperatives scattered throughout the area had different names (La Proletaria, La Fratellanza and others), the need was felt to appear with a unitary image, with the abbreviation “Coop” in fact. The first logo of the 1950s consisted of a logo with an italic font, as was used at the time; he did not have a decisive role in communication because he limited himself to signing the product in a hidden way.

In full economic boom, the need emerged for Coop to give itself new perspectives to keep up with the times; therefore, the need was felt to adapt one’s visual identity to modern communication techniques. In 1963 Albe Steiner redesigned the logo deriving it from the “universal” alphabet of Herbert Bayer; to better convey the idea of cooperation between people, he minimized the spacing between the four letters in order to cancel any separation and to visually represent the meaning of cooperation. This logo appeared, for the first time, as the sign of the first “self-service warehouse” in Reggio Emilia.

At the beginning of the seventies there was a restyling of the Steiner logotype: the letters were enlarged in the strokes and the junctions of the letter C and the letter P were improved.

Then in 1985 Bob Noorda made the restyling with minimal but effective interventions: he greatly enlarged the strokes using the same crooked cut for the letter C and the letter P.

In 2005 another restyling entrusted to the Advance agency: the logo is inscribed in a red figure in the shape of an eye; even the packaging is renewed and captivating.