Unpacking the Underlying Meaning of the UPS Logo
United Parcel Service, commonly abbreviated as UPS (stylized as ups), is a shipping and receiving and supply chain management company headquartered in Sandy Springs, Georgia. The company was founded on August 28, 1907, in Seattle, Washington, by James E. Casey.
UPS was originally called The American Messenger Company. The company initially specialized in telegraphs before expanding into the global freight and logistics giant that we know of it today. As of 2020, UPS was the world’s largest courier company by revenue generation, finishing ahead of DHL and FedEx.
Now, the UPS logo has been a notable part of the company’s brand identity for years. This post explores the meaning of the logo and how the emblem has evolved through time.
UPS Logo Appearance
Logo Shape
UPS uses a shield as the basic design of its logo. The shield is geometrically related to a pentagon. However, it’s far from being a regular pentagon.
The upper side of the shield features a smooth curve that almost looks flat. Also, the shield’s vertical sides are the longest. The lines emerge from the smooth upper section and run parallel to each other, before bending gently inwards to form a cusp that curves sharply towards the top of the shield.
Another notable design element of the UPS logo is the company’s wordmark. The name is lowercased and set inside the shield, around its midsection. However, it’s unclear whether the letter “S” is actually in lowercase. Due to the wordmark’s solid design, the letter ‘S’ might often appear to be UPPERCASED.
Lastly, UPS doesn’t use a single shield on its logo, but two. The most visible shield is the outer one, the one we’ve just described. However, a smaller shield is inscribed inside the larger one. This forms the background where the company’s brand name appears.
Besides their differences in size, the two shields also differ in shape. The right vertical contour of the inner shield is higher than the left one. So, instead of creating a smooth horizontal curve at the top, the line connecting the two vertical contours forms a diagonal curve.
Logo Colors
The UPS logo utilizes only two colors – gold and brown.
Gold is used for the brand name as well as the background color for the outer shield. Brown is the background color for the inner shield, right where the wordmark appears in.
The entire logo commonly uses white for its background. But this may change depending on the context and media the emblem is printed on.
Logo Font
The UPS logo utilizes a font known as UPS Sans. As the name implies, UPS Sans was developed exclusively for use on the company’s branding materials. It’s the typeface used for the wordmark on UPS’ emblem. You can use a font generator to have something similar though.
The UPS Logo Symbolism
The Shield Design
A shield is a symbol of power, strength, and protection. It portrays UPS as a reliable service provider in the freight and logistics industry. The fact that UPS uses two shields on its logo instead of one lends more credence to the company’s reliability.
Symbolism of the Wordmark
UPS adds to the long list of numerous companies that use their brand names on their logos. The name simply helps to reveal the company behind the logo.
Symbolism of the Colors
Gold is the color of affluence, elegance, and glitz. Brown stands for strength, resilience, and reliability.
In addition to delivering an additional sense of strength and reliability, gold and brown also blend seamlessly to give the UPS logo its unique visual identity.
Note that gold and brown are among the rarest color palettes. So, UPS likely used this color scheme to make its logo stand out even among other emblems based on the shield design.
The Evolution of the UPS Logo
Although UPS was founded in 1907, the company’s first logo debuted in 1916. The logo was designed by James Casey. It featured the image of an eagle set in a bronze shield, with its talons firmly holding a package.
The use of the eagle image demonstrated UPS’ speed, reliability, and performance. The eagle’s beak slightly protruded from the shield, demonstrating the company’s sense of speed and urgency.
Bronze and white were the only colors used for the logo. Much of the design, including the eagle and shield, were in varying shades of bronze. White was used partly for the package and for the inner border of the bronze shield (note that the shield had two borders, with the outer one shaded bronze).
Also, the entire design appeared on a white background. UPS used this logo until 1937.
1937 – 1961
UPS’ original logo was first modified in 1937. The company did away with the eagle image, replacing the inner section of the shield with its brand name.
The shield also changed shape. Unlike the previous shield which had a smooth, rounded bottom and a pointed cusp on top, the new design featured a smooth bottom but a flat top.
There were also remarkable changes with regard to the color scheme. Gold and brown replaced bronze and white. Gold was used for the brand name and the shield’s outlines, and brown for the rest of the logo.
A golden horizontal line appeared over the wordmark, touching both ends of the shield’s inner borders. The line created a space between the logotype and the shield’s top flat side. This space featured the inscription “THE DELIVERY SYSTEM FOR STORES OF QUALITY.”
Lastly, an open wing-like design was added to the bottom part of the shield. The words “Since” and “1907” appeared on the left and right sections of the wing, respectively.
1961 – 2003
The next upgrades to UPS’ logo happened forty years later. The UPS shield and company’s wordmark remained intact. However, there were glaring changes to the logo’s overall design.
First, the shield no longer had its borders. Also, the lower section of the shield was no longer gently-rounded. It was now sharply curved upwards.
The shield was also split in two. The lower part contained the wordmark while the upper part was a large rectangular bar subdivided into four bars of equal sizes. At the middle of the top rectangular bar was a package tied with strings.
The design frequently appeared in black and white. However, the wordmark often featured shades of brown.
2003 – 2014
The current version of UPS’ logo emerged in 2003. The only difference was the colors. Unlike the current logo which features bright gold and brown colors, the 2003 iteration was in duller shades of the same color.
2014 – Present
UPS performed minor changes to its logo in 2004. The changes mainly touched on the colors. Although UPS maintained the same gold-brown color palette, the colors became brighter and bolder. This made the current logo more legible than its previous version.