Covestro is a German polymer materials company headquartered in Leverkusen, formed in 2015 when Bayer AG spun off its MaterialScience division. The company’s visual identity was created as part of that separation, with a new name, logo and brand direction developed to establish Covestro as an independent player in the chemical industry.
Design and History
Covestro’s identity was designed by the global branding agency Landor, which developed the full visual identity for Bayer’s new company, including the brand name and a look and feel intended to stretch across all communications.[1] The creative direction was built around the core brand idea of “The Brighter Element,” with a colorful, optimistic look designed to differentiate the company in what was described as a sterile sector.[1]
The logo was unveiled in June 2015, ahead of the company’s official launch on September 1, 2015, when Bayer MaterialScience began operating under the Covestro name.[2][3] The design was created in London and shows the company name in white against a black background, encircled by a ring of color.[2]
The circular mark was a deliberate nod to Covestro’s Bayer heritage, serving as an element of continuity that reassured both loyal employees and the investment community during the separation.[4] The design was rooted in the brand values “curious,” “courageous” and “colourful.”[4]
Meaning and Symbolism
The logo’s color ring carries documented meaning tied to the company’s origins. The blue-green at the start of the circle represents Bayer’s colors, transitioning into a more colorful spectrum of yellow, red and purple to represent Covestro’s past and future.[5] Covestro CEO Patrick Thomas described it as taking “a bit of the logo with us: the blue-green of the Bayer circle is still there, but then it explodes into a rainbow of opportunities.”[6]
The ring is not a closed circle, a design choice that Steffan Huber, then president of Covestro Greater China, explained as representing the company’s pursuit of innovation and its willingness to challenge itself without becoming complacent.[5] Thomas said the design expressed the company’s “colorful identity and positive vision,” adding, “In a grey corporate world, we bring colour to that world.”[2]
The name Covestro itself was constructed from word fragments: CO stands for collaboration with suppliers and customers, VEST for the company’s investment in state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities, and STRO for strong, reflecting its strengths in innovation, the market and its workforce.[2]
Typography and Design
The wordmark appears in lowercase black lettering, surrounded by the circular color ring. A trademark registration for the mark describes it as “the word ‘covestro’ in black, which is surrounded by a circle containing the colors blue, green, yellow, orange and purple.”[7] The company name is rendered in white against a black background in the primary logo configuration.[2]
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