Panera Bread Logo History

Panera Bread (called St. Louis Bread Company in the St. Louis area) is a chain of bakery-café restaurants in the United States and Canada which sells breads, sandwiches, soups, bakery items, and organic foods; some locations offer dinner pizzas. Panera is considered a "fast casual" restaurant. The Panera Bread logo is an illustration of a woman with flowing hair holding a loaf of bread in her arm.  This also goes with the company slogan of "A loaf of bread in every arm". The lady holding the bread is also known as "Mother Bread". The logo and the entire branding for the new company was developed by Heckler Associates and they host a very interesting case study of how they rebranded "the St. Loius Bread Company" to "Panera Bread". See their website for details. Interestingly, the process of making sourdough bread requires a small piece of the dough used to make the previous batch of bread dough. This starter piece is often called the "mother." Whenever Panera opens stores in a new region, a piece of the original starter that was created in the 1980s is lovingly carried to the new bakery to ensure that original Panera quality and character will rise again and again.

Sources : http://hecklerassociates.com/client-studies/panera-bread/
              http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panera_Bread
The Panera Bread logo is a registered trademark. Use of the logo here does not imply endorsement of the organization by this site.