How the Shell Opened to the World
 LOGO DESIGN ARTICLES
Everyone knows what the “Shell” or pecten symbol stands for. It stands for one of the biggest petrochemical companies in the world. But not everyone knows the origins of the name and the symbol that represents the company.
Marcus Samuel and Co.
The current Shell company has its roots in Marcus Samuel and Co., an import and export group based in London and operating in the Far East. Samuel, when he established the company, imported and export oriental seashells. These seashells were popular items at that time. The Victorian English even used the shells as decoration for their trinket boxes.
In 1897, Samuel incorporated the Shell Transport and Trading Company for the importation of kerosene. Four years later, in 1901, he adopted a scallop or pectin as the company’s symbol. Given the company’s roots, it was not a surprising choice. The shell served as a major business opportunity for the company that improved its fortunes. All of Samuel’s kerosene tankers were even named after different types of seashells, a nod to the company’s origins as an exporter of seashells.
People would wonder why Shell’s executives would choose the hard-to-reproduce pecten shape. Of the seashells that the company had exported before, why would the pecten shell be selected as the company emblem?
The “Graham” Connection
It has long been a speculation that the pecten symbol was not selected by the company’s staff itself, but by a third party. A certain Mr. Graham, who was a major stockholder and director of Shell, may have been the one who suggested the symbol. There are evidences and indications that the symbol is part of the Graham Family’s coat of arms: the ‘St. James Shell.’
The Graham family had adopted the symbol after a pilgrimage by their ancestors to Santiago de Compostella, in Spain. Graham may have used his significant voting power to lobby the adoption of the St. James Shell as the company emblem.
The rest is history. After several years, the Shell symbol was revised continually, until the current design was created by influential designer Raymond Loewy in 1971.
The Red and Yellow Colors
The red and yellow colors also have their own story but the colors may have been derived from Spain just as the Pecten symbol had its roots in a Spanish city.
During its expansion, in 1915, the company established their initial service stations in the State of California. In order to stand out as much as possible from their competitors, the company decided use to bright colours. Given California’s Spanish roots, the company again made a choice based on Spain: the red and yellow were the colors of Spain.
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