Logos and branding

Mackenzie and Moncur catalogue header

The use of trade catalogues was an important sales tool for Victorian architectural ironworkers. We are used to being bombarded by brands and logos but in the 19th Century things were very different. Catalogues, business cards and letterheads / invoices were important communication tools - an opportunity to get across the scale, strength and quality of your firm and its products.

The Carron Phoenix sits above the cross cannons

Early print adverts were necessarily simple in form but as technology advanced more sophisticated adverts appeared in trade journals such as the Builder and papers aimed at specifiers.

Esto perpetua translates as 'last forever' and attempt to signal the pedigree of Carron both in the 18th Century and thereafter.

This logo was used on literature and carved in stone above the entrance gate to the works. Carved stone cannons shed the water from the roof.

Saracen adopted a distinctive lozenge shape early in the history of the firm and over time it evolved only a very few times. The adverts were created by the same draughtsmen and artists that worked in the drawing office.

Some firms kept things very simple - firms doing more in the way of structural work such as bridge builders followed a more engineering style plaque as seen here by

Some firms kept things very simple - firms doing more in the way of structural work such as bridge builders followed a more engineering style plaque as seen here by Bellahouston Ironworks.

David King's foundry used this K on their castings - also handy their foundry was Keppoch.....

A recent discovery for me was the Cyclops Foundry (a well used name alongside Vulcan) from San Francisco - with a club, anvil, hammer, animal skin and single eye this firm were ready for anything !