Orange No More

This week's LA Business Journal has a strange story on the 76 gas station's famous round (or "meatball") logo, promising that "the orange 76 ball will survive the pending sale of Unocal to Chevron."

Irrelevant, because Unocal no longer owns 76. The oil company sold its gas stations to ConocoPhillips a few years ago.

What the story completely misses, however, is that the familiar orange ball hasn't survived -- as you've probably noticed around town, the orange-and-blue color scheme that had served the Union 76 (and later, Unocal 76) stations for decades is now being phased out. The new 76 logo is red and blue, matching the look of its Conoco and Phillips 66 gas station parents. (Check out the 76 symbol history here.)

At first, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. Had 76 darkened its logo, making it a reddish orange? Nope, the orange is completely history:


Old logo


New logo