The French marque has revealed the first major redesign of its diamond-shaped logo since 1992. Renault has revealed a new logo, a geometric version of its diamond-shaped design which has been in use since the 1920s.

While the brand’s diamond logo has existed since 1925, the previous iteration had not changed significantly since 1992.

The new flat logo comprises two intertwining diamond shapes which can be animated for digital media. It appears without a wordmark and can also be lit-up on vehicle grilles.

The new logo was designed in-house at Renault and hopes to meet the needs of a modern brand in a digital world, according to the brand’s design director Gilles Vidal.

“It is a simple geometric shape, with a strong, powerful identity,” he says. “The challenge was to renew this shape by giving it meaning, new contemporary values to project the brand into the future.”

Renault Logo – “Symbol of the future”

Vidal says that the “symbol of the future” strikes a “balance between recognition of the brand’s heritage and entering a new era”. It also seeks to accompany the changes at the marque, Vidal explains, as Renault expands further into the fields of electrification and wider mobility.

The black and white logo appears without any of the typography that has appeared on previous versions. “We have rethought it to become more iconic, simple and meaningful, a true timeless signature,” the designer adds. It will become an “essential part of our graphic heritage”, Vidal says.

The geometric logo “perfectly embodies the ‘New Wave’ era that Renault has entered”, the designer says. He adds that the design is a call back to Renault’s logos in the 1940s, 50s and 70s when the marque used a line to add detail to the logo.

“With the line, it is a question of telling a story, that 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,” Vidal says.

Many car brands have revealed rebrands recently, with many marques making use of flat design. Renault makes use of this treatment too, explaining that it can be animated for video or digital media and also in vehicles as part of the welcome sequence.

The brand also revealed its ‘Renaulution’ strategy earlier this year, which outlines its ambitions over the next few years. It hopes to make headway in electrics and explore new avenues in the data and mobility sectors.

2024 all vehicles will carry the new logo

By 2024, the entire Renault range of vehicles will bear the new logo, according to Vidal, and it will start to appear on vehicles from next year. The new logo can be seen on the grille of the Renault 5 prototype, where the headlights appear to echo the geometric design.

By Henry Wong – Design Week