A great company founded by a great inventor! Thomas Alva Edison founded the Edison Electric Light Company in 1878 to manufacture and sell his new invention - incandescent electric lamp. Later Edison combined all his businesses under Edison General Electric Company that merged with Thomson-Houston Electric Company in 1892 to form the General Electric Company.
GE’s logo has changed little since inception. The original logo was designed almost 100 years ago. Actually, it was just a badge for the center of one of the first electric fans. You can see this in the first of it’s kind GE logo. The fans were lost in the history but the swirly logo remains the same although it has gone thorough minor revision over the time. Click on the thumbnail image of the fan to view the full sized image.
Old GE Logos:
Current logo was adopted in 2004 when GE also changed its corporate color. The new logo was designed by Wolff Olins. GE also adopted a new slogan, “imagination at work” replacing the longtime slogan “we bring good things to life”.
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October 26th, 2007 at 3:54 am
Folks, a blog around logos is a great idea. Why don’t you guys resume posting here.
September 25th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Really interesting that mark get’s claimed to be designed by a new agency when all they did is slightly update a mark that’s realistically been designed so long ago no one knows who did the original. So for the sake of asking and raising debate. Who designed the original?
September 29th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
According to family lore, this logo was designed by my grandfather, Ernest Domptail Boisvert, a commercial artist from Connecticut. He died in Bridgeport in 1963. For his work he was paid the sum of $75. It is supposedly the only famous thing about our not-famous-at-all family. I’m not sure about the truth of this claim. Is there any way to check it out?
January 23rd, 2009 at 10:34 am
The GE logo (the second one to the left above and still used today) was designed by John Pierce Barnes (1893-1954). He worked in the Victor Design division of RCA in Camden NJ until he died. He is credited in art books with the design. Barnes studied at the Philadelphia School of Industrial Arts (now the University of the Arts) and then at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia from 1921-1925. Following that he went to work for RCA. He is also credited with designing one of the early RCA logos as well. An exhibition of Barnes pastels will be at the Butler Museum of American Art in Youngstown Ohio from February 8-May 3, 2009 and later this year at the Woodmere Art Museum in Philadelphia, where his work is part of the permanent collection. He was a very accomplished painter. (I am curating the exhibition.)
April 5th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
The original GE logo was actually designed by my great-uncle, Albert Sundstrom, originally from Stockholm, Sweden, who was a draftsman in GE’s New Bedford, Massachusetts plant. He won a company contest and was paid $15 for the design. It was the Swedish G and E, according to my mother and grandfather (Albert’s brother). I confirmed this fact with representatives of GE back in the 1970’s. Uncle Albert later went to work for GE in its Isle of Pines, Cuba facility, and when Castro took over, he and his wife, Margaret, who was a native Bostonian, were unable to return to the United States, and he died there. Margaret later was able to return to the United States and lived in Miami until her death.
When my mom was 12 years old, my grandfather decided to also go to the Isle of Pines to work for GE (he was a tool and die maker in a GE plant in Connecticut). But on their way, they had car trouble in Jacksonville, Florida, and they ended up settling there, thank goodness!
April 8th, 2009 at 11:05 am
Hello Karen,
How wonderful to hear from you! If I am understanding you correctly, are you saying that your Great-Uncle Albert designed the very original logo at the left of the posted GE logos? I look forward to your reply.
April 10th, 2009 at 6:24 am
Hi, Kathryn. Yes, that’s what my mother told me (he was her uncle). I never even knew about it until I was grown and happened to find a GE tag in a box of her mementoes. I asked her why it was in there and she floored me when she told me the story because, in all my years of growing up, no one had ever told me that, lol. When I worked at a law firm back in the 70’s, we handled a matter for GE and I had a chance to ask someone there about it, and she confirmed it.
May 5th, 2009 at 2:26 am
Ernest R. Boisvert…. Your grandfather was Ernest Domptail Boisvert, his wife was Madeline Willard Boisvert. Madeline’s parents were Julia Cassidy and Herbert Willard. The we are cousins. can you contact me wrmyroots@aol.com. I know someone who might be able to answer your question of what he may have designed.
Margaret
May 9th, 2009 at 12:39 am
Karen (Vickers & Kathryn Scimone Stanko), I thought this might interest you.
Karen, was your grandfather’s name “Gus” by any chance?
I found the names “Albert Sundstrom” and “Gus Sundstrom” in an interesting (swimming) article from the New York Times (Published: July 29, 1886 - http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9A03EED91030E533A2575AC2A9619C94679FD7CF).
June 21st, 2009 at 6:26 am
The art of John Pierce Barnes (1893-1954) will be exhibited from June 28-August 30 at Woodmere Art Museum, 9201 Germantown Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19118.
August 25th, 2009 at 4:41 pm
I have a fan that is identical to the one in the picture. I would like to know if by chance any parts are available (brass worm drive & return spring) the fan runs just fine. the main wires coming from the switch up to the motor housing are the old asphalt (tar) insulated wires & need to be replace - i have had this fan completely apart in regards to repairing it to original condition. I could go to an electric motors repair shop if need be but would prefer to purchase original parts if any are available. any info out there would be appreciated.
Thanks, BJR
September 29th, 2009 at 11:03 am
I always thought the logo looked like the inside of a washing machine. I guess a fan is not to far off. Great post.
October 21st, 2009 at 5:11 am
Does anyone know the origin of calling a logo a “meatball?”