Michelin Man (1898)
The Michelin, one of the oldest and most iconic trademarks of the last 200 years. Marius Rossillon, a French born painter and cartoonist who was better known during his time by the pen name O’Galop, initially drew up the character and based it upon an older design he’d come up for a Munich based brewery. Depicting a chubby man, to advertise the companies products the Michelin man is made up of the company’s own bike tires, which at the time were white due to carbon not being an element in the manufacturing of tires at the time. The tag line on the original picture “Now its time to drink” while the Michelin man holds a glass full of nails and debris. This was to advertise how the tires could withstand anything and not puncture. Origianlly designed as a fat character who would smoke cigars and wear a pair of pince nez to make him seem more upper class as that was the target market at the time was due to most vehicles of any type that needed tires would tend to be wealthy. He was also advertised as a womaniser to make him appeal more to men, also who would have been the sole owner of vehicles at the time.
O’Galop created a character that is so recognisable that children know who the Michelin man is. The character has changed a bit as time has moved on but still stay true to O’Galops original design, now looking a bit friendlier, with large eyes and and a more cartoon styled mouth, also appears to no longer be fat and instead is more built to appear muscular, most likely to convey the idea of the Michelin tires being strong. Initially designed to appear as a member of the upper class as time has moved on the Michelin man has lost a lot of what made him come across as a member of higher society due to cars becoming more and more common across the decades. As such he no longer smokes cigars or, as I had previously mentioned, is no longer fat, as this was a symbol of aristocracy as they would have more abundant food. This makes the Michelin man more appealing to the everyman as well as he seems a lot friendlier rather that coming across as a pompous rich person who acts as if he is above everyone.
The Michelin man has helped establish Michelin as a power house of the business. Its competitors such as Good Year, although having a simpler logo than Michelin, has a logo that isn’t as instantly recognisable. Even from a young the Michelin man was more recognisable to me than even the name Good year. This easy recognition helps establish the brand identity in everyone from early on, leading to more potential customers. Although the character has this recognition I would argue that as a logo he doesn’t work. With most brands a logo is usually very simplistic and tends to exist with the brand name. But the Michelin man is more detailed in nature, being a character, and can exist by himself, independent from the brand.
