Samsung’s corporate logo, the simple blue ellipse, is found almost everywhere on a host of products, including sleek flat-screen TVs and ultra-slim smartphones.
Then what was the first Samsung product sold under the company logo?
The answer: Noodles.
For those of you who find the answer puzzling, we’ll go through the company logo history – and the history of our flagship products.
1: Samsung was founded in 1938 as a small trading company that made noodles and sold dried seafood. The name Samsung (삼성/三星), which means “three stars”, was chosen by the founder Lee Byung-chull who wanted his company to become big, powerful and everlasting like stars in the sky.
Our humble beginnings, in seafood and noodles
2: Following the 1950-1953 Korean War, Samsung expanded into other industries including sugar and textile. But an English logo did not appear until 1969, when Samsung Electronics, today the world’s biggest technology company by revenue, was established. This was when Samsung just began to produce tape recorders and bulky black-and-white TV sets.
3: The logo image later became more graphically sophisticated in 1980, around the same time Samsung built its first overseas factories and began an export drive, with a more varied product line including VCR, washing machines, refrigerators and color TVs. It was also then that Samsung kickstarted the semiconductor business, which later became our mainstay business.
4: Finally, the current version arrived in 1993, the year Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Kun-hee announced the “New Management” initiative. Under the initiative Samsung strived to embrace change and focus on quality and innovation, hence transforming itself into a global leader in a number of industries including electronics, shipbuilding and construction.
While it looks simple and obvious, the logo conveys several meanings. The slightly-tilted ellipse represents the universe, and the blue color is that of the sky and ocean. The word “Samsung” was located inside the ellipse so that character “S” and “G” will create small openings on the borderline, showing Samsung is connected with the world.
For those of you who find the answer puzzling, we’ll go through the company logo history – and the history of our flagship products.
1: Samsung was founded in 1938 as a small trading company that made noodles and sold dried seafood. The name Samsung (삼성/三星), which means “three stars”, was chosen by the founder Lee Byung-chull who wanted his company to become big, powerful and everlasting like stars in the sky.
Our humble beginnings, in seafood and noodles
2: Following the 1950-1953 Korean War, Samsung expanded into other industries including sugar and textile. But an English logo did not appear until 1969, when Samsung Electronics, today the world’s biggest technology company by revenue, was established. This was when Samsung just began to produce tape recorders and bulky black-and-white TV sets.
3: The logo image later became more graphically sophisticated in 1980, around the same time Samsung built its first overseas factories and began an export drive, with a more varied product line including VCR, washing machines, refrigerators and color TVs. It was also then that Samsung kickstarted the semiconductor business, which later became our mainstay business.
4: Finally, the current version arrived in 1993, the year Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Kun-hee announced the “New Management” initiative. Under the initiative Samsung strived to embrace change and focus on quality and innovation, hence transforming itself into a global leader in a number of industries including electronics, shipbuilding and construction.
While it looks simple and obvious, the logo conveys several meanings. The slightly-tilted ellipse represents the universe, and the blue color is that of the sky and ocean. The word “Samsung” was located inside the ellipse so that character “S” and “G” will create small openings on the borderline, showing Samsung is connected with the world.