Distinctive Identities - Hermés.
Menehould de Bazelaire, the present Director of cultural heritage at Hermés, told this story to Dana Thomas, who wrote it in her (brilliant) new book "Deluxe - How Luxury Lost It's Lustre"
In the late 1930s, Émile-Maurice bought Mi Colline, a villa in the hills above Cannes, not far from the Criosette shop. During the Nazi Occupation of Paris, most of the family fled to Colline. The Hermés store on Rue de Faubourg Saint-Honoré shut down for four days and then reopened to keep the employees working and receiving wages, however small. Émile-Maurice's son-in-law Jean Guerrand took over the store and distributed potato soup to the workers because de Bazelaire said "everyone was starving.". As in many stores that remained open during the Occupation, there were often signs in the Hermés window - "Nothing for Sale", due to shortage of not only material but also the will to sell to Nazis. General Hermann Göring ordered a big picnic trunk from Hermés, but there was no leather and no motivation and it was never produced. Paper, cardboard and other sorts of packaging were scarce as well; the only color available was vibrant orange. Hermés used it for boxes and bags. Almost overnight, it became the house signature color.
In 1945, Émile-Maurice adopted the company logo based on a drawing by nineteeth-century artist Alferd de Dreux of a groom standing before a horse and open carriage. The picture still hangs behind his desk in the museum.
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This is how identities are born. It is the designer's job to find out what the identity of a company or an institution really is, and give it a honest, visual expression. It is always about "them" and less about "me". Designers' egos can only mess things us.
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