PLASMON
1 Logos and restyling over time
Company founded in Milan in 1902 with the name of “Italian Plasmon Syndicate” on the initiative of Dr. Cesare Scotti who remained its president until the post-war period; purpose of the company was the production and trade of pure Plasmon as well as the research of all further possible applications of Plasmon. It was a protein concentrate capable of integrating the nutritional needs of early childhood at the time. The product was the result of joint scientific research between Germany and England; it was in these countries that Plasmon was initially patented and produced, which will then be exported to the rest of Europe. The Italian branch acquired the license and logo from the German company in 1904; the latter emphasized the taste for the classical world so dear to German culture: the column, the capital, the sculptor, the pedestal with the words Plasmon also in Greek characters and the date of foundation, 1901, of the German parent company. Judging by the logo, it is assumed that the name Plasmon also wanted to evoke the purpose of the protein supplement on potential consumers: to favor their healthy and strong growth, to “shape” them in the best form. In 1916 the company became entirely Italian and changed its name to “Società del Plasmon” and in 1930 it began the production of the famous “Plasmon biscuits”, a food that will enter the homes of Italians to satisfy young and old.
In 1956 the logo was updated for purely graphic needs with shading and insertion in a circle. In those years it was realized that the sculptor represented, from the point of view of corporate identity, a simple illustration-symbol and not the real logo; also to solve legibility problems in the strong reductions, a support logo was created consisting of a biscuit shape with the name composed in capital letters.
In 1960, the production of the most revolutionary baby food began: the homogenized. In that year there was a slight restyling of the sculptor, lightening its features and re-proposing it without the circle.
In 1966, the company name appeared around the gesture transformed into a logo; this surgery was done by Bob Noorda.
In 1972 the sculptor was placed inside an oval; in 1974 it became the company name from product name and, therefore, the “Plasmon Company” took on the name of “Plasmon Dietetics Food”.
In 1981 the “Plasmon ecological oasis” project was launched, ie crops and farms selected and managed according to the rules set by the veterinary agronomists and Plasmon researchers in order to constantly check the result and guarantee the transformation of absolutely safe raw materials. In 1993 Gio Rossi made changes to the logo: the sculptor was essentialized and the pedestal with the Greek inscription that appeared, instead, on the capital disappeared; a novelty was the combination with a new capitalized logo.
In 1999, the first ecological Oasis logo was created by the Break agency in which all the elements live in balance. In 2009 the restyling that takes up the logo of the fifties, with the magenta biscuit shape in which the sculptor and the logo live.
For the anniversary of its 120 years, in 2022 the most iconic company of Italian “baby food” commissioned the Design Group Italia agency to renew the visual identity and the way of communicating with a new red logo that preserves the shape a “biscuit” but appears without the historic Greek sculptor; the font has also been made softer and more curvy. The values of support for the Italian supply chain and the use of a more inclusive language to welcome all contemporary families are made explicit in the communication and on the packaging; therefore, the claim “chosen by Italian mothers since 1902” will no longer appear next to the logo.