The Story Behind Volkswagen New Logo! “Case Study”

At the start of the 2019 International Motor Show (IAA) in Frankfurt, the Volkswagen brand presented its new logo and brand design. This world premiere marks the start of a new era for Volkswagen, accompanied by the presentation of the full-electric ID.3 at the same time. Here we explain the guiding principles of “New Volkswagen” and provide answers to the most important questions.

What is the essence of New Volkswagen?

Over the past few years, Volkswagen has accomplished a fundamental realignment. The future of the brand is electric, fully networked and has a neutral carbon balance. Volkswagen is assuming responsibility for the protection of the climate. By 2050 at the latest, the brand intends to have a neutral carbon balance – with its vehicles and as a company in general.

With the ID. family, Volkswagen will become the world’s most sustainable volume automobile brand. By 2025, the brand intends to be the global no. 1, with more than 20 electric models and 1 million electric vehicles sold. Finally, all Volkswagen models are to become fully connected smart devices, mobile service providers and living rooms. 

“New Volkswagen” represents a departure towards the new Volkswagen world, where digitalization and connectivity will make customer communications more data-driven, more personalized and much more individual.

How was the new brand design created?

Den strategiska grunden för den nya varumärkesdesignen lades inte av externa byråer utan av ett gemensamt team av Volkswagen Design and Marketing ledd av Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Jochen Sengpiehl och Chief Designer Klaus Bischoff.

The idea was to make the brand more human and more lively instead of showing a perfect advertising world, to adopt the perspective of the customer to a greater extent and tell authentic stories. “We aim to make people’s lives brighter with our products,” says Jochen Sengpiehl.

As Volkswagen customers are increasingly obtaining information via digital channels, the new brand design has a consistent digital orientation, with a strong focus on interaction and linked with the OneHub strategy. This way, Volkswagen will have an equally prominent presence both on-site and off-site and will create an almost personalized user journey for each user with a view to meeting individual needs and allowing a seamless brand experience in the digital Volkswagen ecosystem – for car buyers, owners and fans.

How will the new brand design provide a new brand experience?

The Volkswagen logo is the most important link between the product and the brand and stands for Volkswagen values such as quality, attention to detail, value and durability. However, the 3-D logo seemed to be rather inflexible in the digital era. “The new two-dimensional logo has been reduced to its essential elements. “It is flat and open, offers high contrast and can be used with outstanding flexibility in digital media,” says Jochen Sengpiehl.

The digital application was especially important for the development of the logo. The new two-dimensional design will ensure that the logo is displayed in the optimum way in all media – on large hoardings as well as on a smartwatch, tablet or mobile phone. A new blue tone has been added to the color range, allowing additional color variants of the logo – for example a red Volkswagen logo for GTI models.