Ritmüller: Making a 1795 Crest Readable Today

One crest, two forms

In 2016, as part of Pearl River Piano Group's 60th-anniversary rebrand, Xinming Design refined the crest of Ritmüller, one of the Group's piano brands, and built its visual identity system. The windmill, towers and lion of the original crest were all kept: the shield frame was removed, the elements were redrawn in clean lines with a symmetrical composition, and the lion now stands with wings. The English wordmark was standardised and a new Chinese wordmark, 里特米勒, was designed. The crest comes in two forms: a standalone version without a lettered ring, and a version co-branded with Pearl River, whose outer ring carries RITMÜLLER, SINCE 1795 and PEARL·RIVER. The colours are deep navy and gold. In the same commission, Xinming Design also created Pearl River Piano Group's P/R monogram.

A name two centuries old has to be readable today

The name Ritmüller goes back to the Ritmüller family of Göttingen, Germany, whose workshop, according to public sources, began making pianos in 1795. Today Ritmüller is a piano brand of Pearl River Piano Group. The Group was founded in 1956 and listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 2012 (stock code 002678). By its 60th anniversary in 2016, it owned its own brands such as Pearl River and Kayserburg alongside Ritmüller, and in January that year it announced the acquisition of a 90% stake in the German piano maker Schimmel.

For Ritmüller, history is the greatest asset and also the greatest risk:

· Visible, but not readable. The old crest combined a ring, a shield, three towers in a row (the middle one with a windmill) and a lying lion. Neither the brand name nor a date appeared in it. People could see an old crest, but not tell whose it was or how old.

· Hard to use on today's touchpoints. Fine lines and complex outlines blurred at small sizes, in print and on product nameplates, and the old lettering had legibility and ambiguity problems.

· The link to the Group was unclear. The Group was building a multi-brand portfolio. Ritmüller had to keep its own identity while making clear who it belonged to.

What stayed, and what changed

The proposal's refinement notes make three points:

1. Stronger design and aesthetics: keeping the brand's sense of history while giving it a more modern, simpler style that extends more easily.

2. Refined inner elements: the elements are redrawn in clean lines with a symmetrical left-right composition, "keeping the mark closely related to the original".

3. Refined Chinese and English lettering: fixing "the legibility and ambiguity problems of the original lettering", standardising it, and designing Chinese lettering for the mark.

Put the old and new crests side by side and the changes fall into three places:

· The shield is gone. The old crest had a double frame, a ring around a shield. The new one keeps only the ring, so the space inside is whole.

· Three towers become one castle. The three towers in a row became a castle of two side towers and a central windmill tower, with the windmill sails as the highest point.

· The lying lion becomes a winged, standing lion. The lion now stands in front of the castle, with wings, so lion and castle form two layers. The proposal's inspiration board shows, beside the lion, the windmill and the castle, an eagle with spread wings.

No element was dropped. The windmill, the towers and the lion are all still there; what changed is the order among them. For a brand that earns trust through history, staying "closely related" matters more than looking new: long-time customers still recognise it, and new ones can read it.

Standalone and co-branded: the brand relationship inside the mark

The proposal sets out two forms of the mark and names the use of each:

· TYPE ONE, standalone: "the original Ritmüller brand mark, shown on its own". Only the castle, windmill and lion, inside a thin ring.

· TYPE TWO, co-branded: "Ritmüller shown together with the Pearl River brand". RITMÜLLER runs along the top of the outer ring and PEARL·RIVER along the bottom, with SINCE and 1795 on two plaques at the sides.

This turns a brand architecture question into the structure of the mark itself. The centre of the crest tells Ritmüller's history; the outer ring states its ownership and its date. Where the German heritage needs to lead, the standalone version is used; where the Group's endorsement is needed, the ring adds PEARL·RIVER and SINCE 1795 together. History and ownership no longer cover each other up. One sits inside, the other around it.

It also divides the work with the group mark from the same commission: Pearl River Piano Group's P/R monogram speaks through structure, while Ritmüller speaks through tradition.

The wordmark: first, stop the misreading

The English wordmark, Ritmüller, keeps its handwritten character, with strokes and spacing standardised on a grid; the two dots of the ü stay clearly visible. The Chinese wordmark, 里特米勒, is new, with angled cuts that match the English script and slashes between the four characters.

The proposal's note on lettering is a single line: fixing "the legibility and ambiguity problems of the original lettering". For a brand entering China under a foreign name, a Chinese wordmark means people can say its name without first learning to read Ritmüller.

Deep navy and gold

The brand colours are Deep Navy (PANTONE 7463 C, #002B49) and Gold (PANTONE 7509 C, #D9A460), with white; the usage ratio is about 70% navy, 20% gold and 10% white. Navy serves as the large ground, and gold is used for the crest, the wordmark and the line illustrations, which can be read as the relationship between a piano's lacquered case and its gold-coloured iron frame. Compared with the Group from the same commission, whose colours are Elegant Blue (PANTONE 289 C) and Wisdom Gold (PANTONE 7508 C), both are navy and gold, and the golds are neighbouring PANTONE numbers: clearly one family, but never mistaken for the same brand.

Illustrations: taking the crest apart to tell a German piano story

Beyond the crest, the proposal created a set of line illustrations for Ritmüller. In its words, the illustrations draw on German elements, abstracting modern, simple forms from an old music academy; Germany is known for perseverance, craftsmanship and rigorous manufacturing; and the original elements are separated into individual figures that share a single style.

The set has 11 figures:

· Original elements: the windmill castle and the winged lion, taken directly from the crest;

· Germany: the German eagle, an old music academy and a city gate "known for manufacturing";

· The piano: a grand piano, keys, a hammer and tuning fork, and a score ("passing on its character");

· Craft: a clamp ("a symbol of spirit") and piano-making tools ("craftsmanship").

The illustrations share the crest's line weight and colours, so they combine freely. On the INHERITED TECHNOLOGY posters, a musician's portrait sits beside a line-drawn piano or the windmill castle; on the brand cards, each figure carries one word: SPECIALTY, PERSEVERANCE, SPIRIT, INHERIT.

The crest is fixed; the illustrations move. The crest is there to be recognised, the illustrations to keep telling the story, and both speak the same language.

Taking the brand onto the piano

A piano brand is seen most often not in advertising but on the instrument itself and the things around it. The applications therefore cover piano covers, cleaning cloths, keyboard cloths, model nameplates and product certificates, so the brand stays consistent every time someone sits down to play.

Deliverables and extensions

Crest refinement

· Crest and construction drawing; standalone and Pearl River co-branded forms

· English wordmark standards and a new Chinese wordmark

· Lockup with the Pearl River Piano Group mark; clear space, minimum size and background rules

Core visual identity (14 items)

· Chinese and English typefaces, brand and secondary colours, background colours, supporting graphics

Applications (23 items)

· Product: piano covers, cleaning cloths, keyboard cloths, model nameplates, product certificates, boxes and cartons

· Marketing: posters, product brochures and leaflets, station billboards, display boards, X-banners

· Gifts and more: tote bags, mugs, umbrellas, cards, and spatial design

Brand illustrations (provided with the proposal)

· 11 line figures, applied to posters, cards, banners and roll-up stands

The tote bag, foil, embossing, poster, banner and outdoor images on this page are application mock-ups.

Looking back ten years on

Three points are worth taking from this project:

1. Upgrading a heritage brand means making it clearer, not newer. The windmill, towers and lion are all still there; what changed is their order, the line work and the lettering.

2. A brand relationship can be built into the structure of a mark. The standalone and co-branded forms share one centre and differ only in the outer ring, so a single crest answers both "who is this" and "who does it belong to".

3. A fixed crest needs illustrations that move. The more stable a crest must be, the more it needs a set of figures that can combine freely and tell the specific stories for it.

A crest from 1795 becomes readable today not by changing its history, but by giving history, name and ownership each a clear place of its own.

Xinming Design and Pearl River Piano Group

Xinming Design has completed five brand projects for Pearl River Piano Group and its brands. The group logo and Ritmüller were part of the same 2016 commission; the other three were commissioned separately. In order:

1. Pearl River Piano Art Classroom (music education): before the 2016 group project.

2. Pearl River Piano Group logo redesign: 2016. Case page: www.xinming.sg/portfolio/3014.html

3. Ritmüller brand upgrade: 2016, alongside the group project; this case.

4. Helaiman Piano: after the Ritmüller project.

5. WAYCOMM Piano: 2021, commissioned by the Group's subsidiary Zhejiang Pearl River Dehua Piano Co., Ltd. Case page: www.xinming.sg/portfolio/3128.html

How to verify

· Client: Guangzhou Pearl River Piano Group Co., Ltd., Shenzhen Stock Exchange 002678, www.pearlriverpiano.com

· Brand history: Wikipedia, "W. Ritmüller & Sohn"

· This case page: www.xinming.sg/portfolio/3035.html

· Same commission: www.xinming.sg/portfolio/3014.html

Further reading

· Pearl River Piano Group: from badge to P/R monogram, rebuilding the identity of a 60-year-old manufacturer (same commission, www.xinming.sg/portfolio/3014.html)

· WAYCOMM Piano: a crown built from piano keys (www.xinming.sg/portfolio/3128.html)

· Strauss: writing a piano and the Huangpu River into a single letter S (www.xinming.sg/portfolio/3039.html)

FAQ

Who designed Ritmüller's current logo?

Ritmüller's crest was refined by Xinming Design in 2016, as part of Pearl River Piano Group's 60th-anniversary rebrand.

What changed in the new Ritmüller logo?

The windmill, towers and lion of the original crest were kept. The shield frame was removed, the elements were redrawn in clean lines with a symmetrical composition, the three towers became a castle with a windmill tower, and the lion now stands with wings. The lettering was standardised and a Chinese wordmark was added.

Why does the Ritmüller logo have two forms?

The standalone form shows only the castle, windmill and lion, for presenting Ritmüller on its own. The co-branded form adds RITMÜLLER, SINCE 1795 and PEARL·RIVER on its outer ring, for use with Pearl River, stating both the date and the ownership.

How is Ritmüller related to Pearl River Piano?

Ritmüller is a piano brand of Pearl River Piano Group. Its name goes back to the Ritmüller family of Göttingen, Germany, who began making pianos in 1795. In 2016, Xinming Design designed the Pearl River Piano Group logo and the Ritmüller crest in the same commission.

What are Ritmüller's brand colours?

Deep navy (PANTONE 7463 C) at about 70%, gold (PANTONE 7509 C) at about 20%, and white at about 10%.

Which companies can learn from this case?

Companies that own heritage brands or have brought in overseas brand names; multi-brand groups that need to state ownership while keeping each brand's history; and established brands that want a crest-style mark to work on today's products and media.

Xinming Design is a brand systems design firm. Its work centres on systematic judgment, turning brand strategy into structures that can run and be inherited. www.xinming.sg