DuPont’s new rebrand is its first in 111 years

As any Delawarean knows, DuPont is a different company today than it was over the last two centuries. Founded in 1803 as the DuPont Company Powder Works located at what is now Hagley Museum and Library in Wilmington, the company was a central part of the Delaware economy from the start. The company developed Freon, nylon, Teflon, Kevlar, Mylar and Lycra over the years (just to name a few), and sponsored Jeff Gordon’s iconic DuPont NASCAR with the Cromax Pro finish.

And it drew lots and lots of employees to Delaware over the years.

Things changed in 2015, when DuPont announced a merger with Dow, creating the largest chemical company (by sales) in the world.

DuPont would no longer be quite as synonymous with Delaware, as the company expanded up, and, in a big way, out of Wilmington. It sold the Hotel du Pont, theDuPont Building and the Nemours Building, all now Buccini/Pollin properties, and the DuPont Country Club, purchased by Ben du Pont and business partner Don Wirth this year.

While the company hasn’t left Delaware entirely, it’s less concentrated in Wilmington as it spreads itself out globally. And the new global brand has a new logo, for the first time since 19o7:

Welcome to a future that's wide open! Today we take an important step on our journey to becoming a new DuPont with a fresh brand identity and logo. Learn more https://t.co/Ccl9b48pmi #makersofnew #NewDuPont pic.twitter.com/esHgkOnf7a

— DuPont (@DuPont_News) October 3, 2018

OK, it doesn’t look that different, but it’s definitely not the same logo.

The biggest difference? DuPont is no longer represented as two words (and as any kid who went to a middle or high school named after Alexis I. or Henry B. or Pierre S. will tell you, the famous surname is spelled du Pont, lowercase “d” and a space after the “u”), but it’s the one-word DuPont that has been the company name for years. It’s clean and almost retro-space age, with its mid-mod looking half-ovals on the ends.

The DuPont Company we knew is officially gone, for better or worse.