The Galeries Lafayette logo is a two-line wordmark: “Galeries” sits above “Lafayette,” both written in expressive calligraphic lettering. BETC created the design, unveiled in September 2015. It remains the brand’s identity; a later communication campaign changed the messaging, not the wordmark.
Galeries Lafayette Logo PNG
Meaning and history
The lettering has a longer history than the current design. In the 1950s, Peter Knapp created a cursive Galeries Lafayette logo, used on catalogue covers and delivery-truck panels. The store’s archive records that Jean Widmer later replaced it with a design placing the name inside a plain black square. The archive dates Knapp’s artistic direction for graphics and typography to 1953–1959.
The comparison image places an older, more varied lettering treatment beside the larger, connected script of the 2015 design. Its labels identify the stages, but the image alone cannot establish when either logo entered use. The archive’s documented account confirms that cursive lettering predates the current mark.
2000 – 2015
The stage image shows a wordmark with narrow, widely spaced capitals above a much larger cursive “Lafayette.” That contrast differs from the more unified script in the later mark. The heading’s 2000 date should not be read as a verified introduction date: 2015 coverage described the redesign as the first logo change in 25 years, suggesting that the outgoing design dated from around 1990. CB News reported the 25-year interval.
The image records a distinct lettering treatment in this stage, while trade reporting places a continuous period of use before the 2015 redesign. Jean-Paul Goude’s work for the store from 2000 to about 2014 concerned its image campaigns, not a documented logo launch. WWD covered the agency and image overhaul.
2015 – Today
In January 2015, Galeries Lafayette appointed BETC to create a new logo, brand architecture and graphic system. The new wordmark was unveiled at the Haussmann flagship on 16 September. The group’s press-release listing records the appointment, and FashionNetwork described the lettering as a forceful calligraphic stroke, with letters that seem to move. The design appeared with the campaign signature “Le Nouveau Chic.”
The current mark’s stacked arrangement is familiar, but its lettering is more consistent than the contrasting capitals and cursive shown in the earlier stage image. The rollout began at Haussmann, extended to about ten French flagships in November 2015 and reached the wider network by summer 2016, according to FashionNetwork’s report. In 2024, the “Le grand magasin de tous” campaign introduced a communication platform rather than a new wordmark, FashionNetwork reported.
The name traces to the original shop’s address at 1 rue La Fayette. The store opened there in 1894 as a small haberdashery founded by Théophile Bader and Alphonse Kahn; the Haussmann flagship and its dome followed in 1912. The company’s heritage account explains the name’s connection to the street and describes the dome as an emblem of the house.
Disclaimer
This article is part of the educational resources provided by Logo Index, an independent archive covering logos, visual identities and graphic design history. Galeries Lafayette and associated trademarks and brand assets remain the property of their respective rights holders where applicable.
