Logo history

I have never understood change simply for the sake of change. You have to be a promotions man or an artist to do so. So I was a bit taken aback to learn that Renault has changed its logo again.

In 1900 it was a badge incorporating the initials of the Renault freres. By 1906 it had become a circle enclosing a head-on view of a Renault chassis. After the First World War a Renault tank was used, emerging from the circle. In 1923 the circle still persisted, but with the Renault name emblazoned across it, on a background somewhat suggestive of a decapitated, armless and legless Mr Bibendum. A couple of years later the circle had given way to a diamond, and this has ever since been the famous Renault logo. Unchanged for 34 years the Renault name was enlarged on it in 1959.

I recall how discomforted I felt, in 1972, when an artist got to work and gave Renault a three-dimensional diamond, minus the make’s name. We soon got used to this when it appeared on all Renault property, not just on its cars. Now another change has been made to the long-suffering diamond. It has been redrawn to look like something out of a conjurer’s trick with a strip of paper. I bet some artist is very proud of it! I suppose we shall soon get as used to it as we did to all the other Renault logos over the past 92 years. Anyway, the thing to remember is that it is really the car which counts…

Which reminds me. For Renault’s latest, futuristic dream car the type-name Reinastella has been revived. It used to imply that fine, 7.1-litre, straight-eight, front-radiatored Renault model which came out in 1929, priced at £1550 as a chassis.