au is the consumer mobile and lifestyle brand of Japanese telecommunications company KDDI, launched in 2000 as a nationwide unified brand for its mobile phone business.[1] The brand name is built from two letters: “A” carries meanings including Access, Always and Amenity, while “U” stands for Unique, Universal and User.[2]
Design and History
The current au logo is a typographic wordmark in a cursive script, rendered in the brand’s orange color. KDDI describes the mark as conveying “a sense of flexibility and freedom” through its “bold, clean, refined, agile cursive script,” set in orange and surrounded by open white space.[3]
The logo was introduced on January 16, 2012, alongside the launch of the new brand slogan “あたらしい自由。” (“New Freedom”). KDDI stated that the new mark inherited the previous orange color while adopting a cursive design described as “powerful, dynamic and refined.”[4] The redesign accompanied the expansion of the brand under KDDI’s “3M Strategy” (Multi-Use, Multi-Network, Multi-Device), which evolved au from a mobile phone brand into one covering broader consumer services.[3]
Before 2012, the au logo featured an egg-shaped mark. The 2012 change to cursive lettering carried the meaning that “something new is born from connections between people.”[2] The brand’s own historical timeline confirms this interpretation, stating that the warm orange was retained while the lettering was changed to cursive with the hope that “something new is born from connections between people.”[1]
Earlier still, the pre-2003 logo used red as its base color. In September 2003, KDDI adopted an orange-based logo with the “au by KDDI” wording, a change that reflected the integration of the mobile business into KDDI itself and expressed group unity.[5]
In 2015, the brand slogan changed to “おもしろいほうの未来へ。” (“Toward the more interesting future”), but this was a slogan change rather than a logo redesign.[2] The slogan was later incorporated into the logo system: KDDI’s au Visual Identity guidelines define a “slogan-attached logo” as the preferred primary usage.[6]
Meaning and Symbolism
The orange color has been a consistent element of the au identity since 2003. KDDI’s official Visual Identity guidelines designate “au Orange” as the brand color, described as one of the highest-level design elements symbolizing au.[7] The official specifications for au Orange are Pantone 166C, CMYK 0/80/100/0, RGB 235/85/5, and HEX #EB5505.[6]
KDDI’s English brand page states that the orange brand color expresses freedom, while the cursive script conveys flexibility.[3] An archived version of the Japanese brand page similarly described the logo as using orange to express freedom and a “bold yet clean, refined and supple cursive script” to express flexibility.[8]
Typography and Design
The 2012 au wordmark uses a cursive script design. KDDI’s official description characterizes the lettering as “powerful, dynamic and refined.”[4] The brand’s English page adds that the script is “bold, clean, refined, agile” and is set against open white space.[3] No external designer or agency has been publicly credited for the 2012 logo in the available sources.
In 2019, KDDI introduced a separate metallic silver “au 5G” logo for its fifth-generation mobile service, distinct from the main orange brand mark. The metallic color was chosen to express a sense of advancement and the future.[9]
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