Magnit is a Russian retail chain founded in 1994 in Krasnodar, operating convenience stores, supermarkets, pharmacies, and other formats across the country. The company’s visual identity centers on a red letter “M” mark, a symbol it has retained through successive redesigns while updating its form.
Design and History
The familiar “Magnit” brand appeared in 2000, marking the beginning of the store network’s expansion with its distinctive red-and-white look. Under this banner, the company began opening discounter stores with a signature red-and-white design.[1]
In February 2019, ahead of the company’s 25th anniversary, Magnit launched a unified brand for its entire store family. The rebrand brought all retail formats, including convenience stores, supermarkets, groceries, and pharmacies, under a shared design system.[2][3] The new logo retained the immediately recognizable red color and the brand symbol, the letter “M,” but received a more contemporary update.[2]
The 2019 redesign was developed by creative agency MORE (BBDO Group) and branding agency Suprematika.[3][4] The new identity system was applied to store facades, signs in sales areas, private label product packaging, and informational and advertising materials. The rebrand also introduced a system of pictograms resembling smartphone icons, aligned with digitalization trends.[3][4] The unified campaign was accompanied by the slogan “Let’s be friends as families!”[3]
In 2024, the company’s design studio developed a new logo and custom typeface for the chain, applied to signage, interiors, navigation, and advertising in pilot Magnit supermarkets. The studio described the new mark as simpler and clearer, refreshing the network’s image while preserving brand recognition.[5]
Meaning and Symbolism
According to Magnit’s official announcement of the 2019 rebrand, the revitalized shape of the letter “M” refers to a hand gesture embodying care and attention.[2][3] The red color has remained a consistent element of the brand across its iterations, described by the company as its signature color.[2][6]
In the 2024 logo update, the studio combined the letter “M” with a branded petal element, which it said speaks to the natural origin and ecological purity of products.[5]
Typography and Design
For the 2024 update, the design studio created a custom typeface called Magnitus, described as a friendly neo-grotesque filled with fresh details. The studio paid particular attention to Cyrillic characters, noting that soft and rounded letters symbolize openness and the broad Russian nature. The studio also drew letters for the Bashkir, Tatar, Chuvash, Mari, Udmurt, and Komi-Zyryan alphabets to accommodate the network’s wide geographic reach.[5]
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