Hunt-Wesson Foods was an American food company formed in 1960 when Hunt’s Foods, Inc. merged with the Wesson Oil & Snowdrift Company.[1] The company operated under this name until 1968, when it merged with the McCall Corporation and Canada Dry to form Norton Simon Inc.[1] Its visual identity is most closely associated with two distinct marks: a corporate “HW” monogram filed in 1966 and a Wesson Oil logo redesigned by Saul Bass in 1964.
Design and History
The corporate “HW” mark was filed as a trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office on April 4, 1966, by Hunt-Wesson Foods, Inc. The official description of the mark states it “consists of the letters ‘HW’ and design.”[2] The trademark covered a range of products including tomato sauce, catsup, chili sauce, canned fruits and vegetables, vegetable oil for cooking and salads, and vegetable shortening.[3] The mark has since expired.[2]
Some logo databases attribute a 1967 Hunt-Wesson Foods symbol to designer Clarence Sato, describing it as a rectangle-shaped mark with a leaf element.[4] However, this attribution comes from a logo database rather than a primary design source, and independent verification of Sato’s involvement is not available in the research.
The more thoroughly documented identity work for the company concerns the Wesson Oil brand. Celebrated graphic designer Saul Bass redesigned the Wesson logo in 1964, according to Wesson’s own brand history.[5] Bass also produced matchbook designs for Hunt-Wesson around this period.[6] The brand was later retooled by Bass again in the 1970s, using blue and green colors on a patented bottle design.[7]
Meaning and Symbolism
The USPTO filing for the “HW” mark provides only the description “the letters ‘HW’ and design,” without elaborating on any intended meaning behind the monogram.[2] The leaf element noted in the logo database description suggests a natural or agricultural association, but no primary source confirms this interpretation.[4]
For the Wesson Oil brand, the 1964 Saul Bass redesign is documented as part of the brand’s heritage, and a 2022 packaging redesign by Richardson International explicitly drew on this history, pulling typography from the original Wesson can and referencing the 1964 logo.[8]
Typography and Design
The 2022 Wesson Oil packaging redesign, however, is documented as drawing typography from the brand’s past, including the original Wesson can, while updating the wordmark to a more contemporary form.[8]
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