For almost half a century, Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft's Yellow Label, with its famous tulip crown,
has been synonymous with the highest quality recordings of classical music.
But in the course of its history the company has had numerous labels and trademarks, many of them no less
famous than the Yellow Label, even if they are no longer identified with Deutsche Grammophon.
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Deutsche Grammophon's first trademark was a Recording Angel (picture 1) engraved
on the surface of the early zinc plates. In 1900 Emile Berliner obtained
the world rights to the "His Master's Voice" trademark and the Recording
Angel was replaced by a black and white fox terrier (picture 2). Francis Barraud's
painting of the same name had originally shown one of Edison's phonographs,
with the artist's fox terrier, Nipper, sitting in front of the horn,
but the phonograph was later replaced by a gramophone. The "His Master's
Voice" (picture 3) label became famous all over the world and appeared on records
for decades. It was only in the 1950s that the excellence of Deutsche
Grammophon recordings came to be symbolized by the colour yellow.
The new trademark in the form of a cartouche with a stylized crown
of tulips (picture 4) was developed by Siemens advertising consultant, Hans Domizlaff.
Now recognized internationally as one of the fathers of modern marketing,
Domizlaff was an early advocate of the principle of market segmentation.
Since Deutsche Grammophon produced both classical and popular music
recordings Domizlaff designed independent labels for each musical
genre. Henceforth pop music and chart-topping hits appeared exclusively
on the red Polydor label, while Deutsche Grammophon's prestigious
yellow label was reserved for classical recordings.
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In 1958, at Domizlaff's instigation, the designer Gerhard Noack designed the yellow cartouche
(picture 5), with a garland of tulips decorating each Deutsche Grammophon label integrated into the design.
On the record itself, the tulip flowers were arranged in such a way as to create a stroboscopic effect when revolving
at the right speed, so that they seemed to stand still. At the same time a second classical label, Archiv Produktion
(picture 6), was established under the artistic direction of Fred Hamel, focusing on an ambitious, musicologically
oriented repertoire. At first, the silver-blue label was used exclusively for recordings of early music -
"from plainsong to the time when Mozart left the service of the Archbishop of Salzburg and settled in Vienna
as a freelance musician in 1781".
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Nowadays it is the use of period instruments and historical performance practices. Rather than strictly
chronological criteria, that determines which recordings are released on the Archiv label.
The Archiv artists of the first hour such as Helmut Walcha and Karl Richter and contemporary performers of
the stature of Trevor Pinnock, John Eliot Gardiner,
Reinhard Goebel and his Musica Antiqua Köln,
Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre, and
Paul McCreesh and his Gabrieli Consort & Players
have all played a major role in lending Archiv Produktion the distinctive profile it possesses today.
In the age of the CD the face of Deutsche Grammophon has continued to change and develop, with new design concepts
for its CD covers and booklets and distinctive labels for special series and contemporary music, or the unique marketing
concept of "The Originals", featuring legendary DGG recordings. All of these ongoing initiatives testify to the continuing
creativity and innovative power of the company and its artists. But throughout these changes, the Yellow Label has continued
to guarantee the finest interpretations of classical music performed by international artists and recorded to the very
highest technical standards.
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