Bentley has up to date its emblem for simply the fifth time since its founding in 1919, and with out breaking laborious from 106 years of branding custom, it nonetheless manages to be probably the most radical redesign in firm historical past. A Jaguar-style rebrand this isn’t.
The British luxurious automaker’s “Bentley Wings” are a chrome winged monogram displaying a white B for founder Walter Owen Bentley’s final identify inside a black oval. Initially designed by British automotive illustrator F. Gordon Crosby, updates had been made in 1931, the Nineteen Nineties, and 2002, in response to the corporate, however the adjustments had been small and delicate. A tweak within the angle of the wings right here, adjustments to the ornamental components on the metallic seal there, however the kind has stayed the identical. The corporate’s newest emblem redesign of its “Winged B” emblem nonetheless retains a lot of the fundamental components in place, nevertheless it’s the sleekest, most minimalist model but.
Designed in-house by a artistic crew led by Bentley director of design Robin Web page and based mostly on an idea by Younger Nam, a member of the corporate’s inside design crew, the brand new wings have been reshaped and abstracted with the feathers become a radial diamond design. The B mark, which Bentley calls the logo’s heart jewel, was redesigned to have the ability to stand by itself as a mark with out wings, and the feathers under it had been eliminated to look cleaner. The main points, like a bevelled glass edge, had been impressed by luxurious watch design.
[Photo: Bentley]
Take a look at Bentley’s emblem evolve, and like a Transformer or Animorph guide cowl, it slowly adjustments one body at a time from hen to machine because the wings go from mushy to sharp. Bentley says its new form was impressed by the the angled wings of a peregrine falcon, nevertheless it additionally seems extra excessive tech.
“The mission in designing the brand new emblem was to seize a few of the stunning particulars from the earlier designs — for instance, the diamond sample of the inside wings and the B ‘centre jewel’ — however create a extra trendy and progressive design,” the corporate mentioned in an announcement.
Their try at a contemporary and progressive rebrand stands in distinction to Jaguar, which retired its jaguar emblem final 12 months for a controversial all-lowercase sans-serif emblem. Moderately than construct off the model’s legacy and heritage like Bentley, Jaguar began from scratch, and up to now, it hasn’t paid off, as manufacturing, and thus gross sales, are down.
Nonetheless, the rebrands for each British luxurious automakers are indicators of a bigger shift as corporations adapt for a future that’s extra electrical. There’s an industry-wide development in direction of lighter, rounder, less complicated logos. Whereas automobile logos as soon as resembled the bodily automobile badges, manufacturers like Audi, Toyota, and Volkswagen have lately flattened and de-chromed their logos.
For Bentley, the rebrand indicators a brand new period. The corporate plans to debut its first totally electrical automobile subsequent 12 months and promised a brand new line-up of merchandise to come back. Subsequent Tuesday, it’s going to unveil a still-under-wraps idea automobile and new design studio at its headquarters in Crewe, England.
Reimagining a legacy model for the longer term may be difficult, however Bentley’s completed product delivers on the mission it got down to accomplish. With out jettisoning the core visible components of it’s long-running model, designers discovered a solution to make heritage look trendy and new.
