I see Chupa Chups daily in bodegas and shops across the city. I remember them at camp when you’d chew on those plastic sticks and make them into windmills. What I didn’t know was the original logo was designed by none other than the surrealist painter Salvador Dalí.
Chupa Chups logo (1969)
In 1969 Dali was approached by Spanish confectioners Chupa Chups to design a new logo, and the result became as instantly recognisable as his melting clocks. Dali incorporated the Chupa Chups name into a brightly coloured daisy shape. Always keenly aware of branding, Dali suggested that the logo be placed on top of the lolly instead of the side so that it could always be seen intact.
Eye-catching, bold and deceptively simple, the logo has barely changed since Dali created it.
source: BBC
The Catalan lollipop made its first appearance in 1958, when the company founder Enric Bernat hatched the idea of placing a bonbon on a stick. He called the product “GOL,” imagining the candy as a soccer ball and the open mouth a net. It didn’t go over well. So Bernat hired an ad agency that renamed his product “Chupa Chups” (from the Spanish chupar, meaning “to suck”). All that was left was the branding. In 1969, Bernat complained about what he had while having coffee with his artist friend–none other than Salvador Dalí.
You need a logo?!
According to lore, the painter went to work immediately, doodling for an hour on newspapers that were laying around. Dalí’s version masterfully integrated the wordmark into the daisy design, and has hardly changed since. And Phaidon points us to one subtle, extremely smart feature of the design:
Acutely aware of presentation, Dalí insisted that his design be placed on top of the lolly, rather than the side, so that it could always be viewed intact. It’s proved to be one of the most enduring pieces of branding ever and one that’s still used today, four billion sales later.
What would induce the famous artist to take on such a project? Dinero. The guy rarely turned it down, causing surrealist poet André Breton to nickname him “Avida Dollars”–an anagram of Dalí’s name that roughly translates to “eager for cash.”
source: FastCo.Design
