Dunlop kept the classics alive.

Dunlop is a lesson in becoming the custodian of icons. Dunlop Manufacturing was founded by Jim Dunlop Sr., a Scottish immigrant and processing engineer, in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area (headquartered in Benicia, California). (A correcting note: the company launched on the Vibra-Tuner and capos — picks didn’t begin until 1972, and the first were nylon; the famous Tortex pick, with its little turtle logo and colour-codes-the-gauge system, arrived around 1981.)

Dunlop’s signature story is stewardship. The Cry Baby wah — its flagship pedal — was not a Dunlop invention: the wah was developed at the Thomas Organ company (Vox’s US distributor) around 1966–67, credited to engineer Brad Plunkett, and “Cry Baby” was Thomas Organ’s name (Hendrix’s famous wah was that pre-Dunlop unit). Because Thomas Organ never trademarked the name, Dunlop began making Cry Baby wahs and ultimately secured the trademark, becoming its definitive maker. Dunlop did the same for MXR — the independent company co-founded in 1972 by Keith Barr and Terry Sherwood, behind the orange Phase 90, the Dyna Comp and the Distortion+ — which closed in 1984 and was acquired and revived by Dunlop in 1987; and for Way Huge, founded by Jeorge Tripps in 1992, closed in 1999, and relaunched under Dunlop in 2008 with Tripps in-house.

Today Dunlop Manufacturing is the umbrella for Dunlop (picks, strings, slides, capos, the System 65 care line), MXR, Way Huge, Cry Baby, and the MXR Custom Audio Electronics line (a collaboration with Bob Bradshaw’s CAE). It remains family-run: Jim Dunlop Sr. died in 2019, and his son Jimmy Dunlop is CEO. (No official brand hex or typeface is published.)

Dunlop lives in a color-coded system rather than one brand color. Click a swatch to copy the hex.

Dunlop’s identity is practical, systematic and player-first — its most recognizable idea is the Tortex pick’s colour-codes-the-gauge system, where the colour tells you the thickness. The tones read as utilitarian and useful: purple, gold, red and the rest, each a spec you can read at a glance, plus the flat single colours of the MXR boxes. It’s a practical, workshop world that signals utility, clarity and the working musician. It’s a colour-coded system that signals function, reliability and the accessory that just works. The honest caveat: Dunlop publishes no official brand hex, so the values here are an original, unofficial interpretation of its products, not first-party brand colours.

The lesson is colour can encode a spec. Dunlop’s systematic world reads as clear and dependable. For designers, it’s a reminder that a consistent colour system — colour as information, like the Tortex gauge codes — can make a product line effortless to navigate. The takeaways: let colour carry the spec; keep the system consistent; and treat specific hexes as unofficial when there’s no published spec.

The wordmark is a utilitarian sans — practical and no-nonsense.

Dunlop’s identity carries a practical, utilitarian, no-nonsense spirit — from the Dunlop wordmark to the MXR block script, its marks read as functional and player-first. A condensed utilitarian sans captures the mood: it’s clear and workmanlike, matching a company that makes the reliable accessories a working musician reaches for. Set against a colour-coded system, the plain sans feels practical and dependable — exactly the picks-and-wah, everyday personality Dunlop carries. It’s functional and direct rather than decorative or precious, mirroring a pick you buy by the handful. (Dunlop’s and MXR’s real wordmarks are trademarks we describe but don’t reproduce.) Because the exact marks aren’t ours to use, the honest description is “a utilitarian sans spirit,” not the Dunlop logo. The type behaves like the brand: practical, clear and no-nonsense.

Dunlop became the keeper of classics.

Dunlop is a lesson in building a brand by keeping other icons alive. Much of what makes Dunlop legendary, it didn’t invent: the Cry Baby wah came from Thomas Organ, the Phase 90 and Distortion+ came from MXR’s original founders, Way Huge came from Jeorge Tripps. What Dunlop did — brilliantly — was become the steward: it secured the Cry Baby trademark and made the wah its own, it acquired and revived MXR in 1987, it relaunched Way Huge in 2008, and it kept all of them in production and in tune with players for decades. Alongside its own genuine originals (the Tortex pick system, the slides, the strings), that stewardship built an umbrella of trusted, living icons rather than a graveyard of discontinued names. The lesson is that stewardship is its own form of value creation: rescuing, protecting and continuing the things people love — keeping the classics alive and current — can build a brand as durable as inventing from scratch. Anyone can chase the new; Dunlop became the keeper of the icons. Steward what people love, and continuity becomes the brand.

For designers and brand-builders, Dunlop offers a clear takeaway: stewardship can be a strategy. The lessons: rescue and revive the icons others let lapse (Cry Baby, MXR, Way Huge); keep your own genuine originals sharp (the Tortex system); and keep the facts precise — Dunlop was founded in Benicia in 1965 and acquired MXR in 1987. It’s also a reminder to keep it honest: Dunlop didn’t invent the wah or found MXR; picks began in 1972, not at founding; the CAE line is a partnership, not an acquisition; and no official brand hex or typeface is published, so the palette and type here are an interpretation. Dunlop became the keeper of classics — proof that stewardship can be the difference.

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