Renault is a French automobile manufacturer founded in 1899 by Louis Renault in Boulogne-Billancourt. The brand’s visual identity has been built around a diamond-shaped emblem since 1925, a geometric form that has been redesigned nine times over the past century. The current version, unveiled in 2021, is a flat, line-based diamond with no accompanying typography, designed to work across digital media and vehicle surfaces.
Design and History
Renault’s first logo appeared in 1900 and featured the intertwined initials of the three founding Renault brothers in an Art Nouveau-style medallion. This was replaced in 1906 by an image of a Renault racing car, and in 1918 by a Renault FT17 tank. The diamond shape first appeared in 1925, when its angles were adapted to the angled bonnets of Renault vehicles of the time. The geometric figure imposed itself on Louis Renault and has served as the basis for the logo ever since.[1]
In 1946, the logo was printed in color for the first time, and yellow became Renault’s signature color.[2] In 1972, Renault commissioned op art artist Victor Vasarely, working with his son, to reinvent the logo. Vasarely created a new treatment of the diamond housed in a hexagonal perimeter, based on parallel lines.[2] The 1992 redesign kept the Vasarely shape but replaced the parallel lines with a 3D relief; this version was discreetly reworked again in 2015.[2]
The current logo, the ninth redesign of the diamond, was unveiled in January 2021 during the presentation of the Renaulution strategic plan. It was first tested on the grille of the Renault 5 Prototype, and the positive reception convinced management to launch it officially.[1] The previous emblem, created in 1992 and redesigned in 2015, was beginning to date, and a new version had been under study since 2019 to meet the challenges of a modern international brand and the multiplicity of digital expression.[1]
The new logo was co-designed with Landor & Fitch consultants and was phased in on all Renault brand vehicles and across the Renault network, with the entire range carrying the new emblem by 2024.[3][1]
Meaning and Symbolism
According to Gilles Vidal, Renault Design Director, the diamond is one of the most recognized shapes in the world, a simple geometric form with a strong, powerful identity. The challenge was to renew this shape by giving it new, contemporary values to project the brand into the future.[1]
Vidal described the new logo as “a balance between recognition of the brand’s heritage and entering a new era, symbol of the future.”[1] The line-based design tells a story of “a symbiosis, a cycle, a path between two lozenges which are intertwined by an optical effect, creating a complementarity and the impression of continuous movement.”[1] Renault has stated that the open-ended shape reflects the brand’s openness and transparency.[4]
The new emblem is uncluttered, with no signature or typography, and was designed to live in movement. Its flat treatment facilitates animation on video or digital media, as well as on vehicles for their welcome sequence.[1]
Typography and Design
Renault’s brand guidelines specify the use of the nouvel’R fonts collection, a creative typeface designed and developed in six writing systems for the brand’s exclusive use. The typeface was commissioned by Renault and developed by Black[Foundry]. It is available in six weights from Light to Extrabold and supports Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, Hebrew, Arabic, and Korean to cover the brand’s markets.[5]
The design is geometrical, with identity details on characters such as the radical letter “r” cut at 28 degrees to match the logotype angles.[5]
Renault’s brand guidelines state that the brand’s colors are white, black (and its grey gradients), and the iconic yellow, which “must be used sparingly, to pace your communications and highlight some features or messages.”[6]
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