A History of Audi Logos

Although most people attending the IAA in Frankfurt will be ogling or wincing at the sheet metal on display, Audi is taking the opportunity to launch something that’s put on sheet metal and various other surfaces: a new logo.

It includes the phrase “Vorsprung durch Technik,” which emphasizes the importance of engineering to the brand. While the four rings—representing the companies that were combined over the years to form the company now known as “Audi”—are still paramount, they’ve been slightly modified in surface and profile. The text is in a font that is known, perhaps not entirely imaginatively, as “Audi Type.” It is described as being “clear, minimalist and technical.” Note also that the main color of the logo is “aluminum silver,” which is meant to convey both technology and lightweight design.

And in case you’re wondering about previous logos through the years, here they are: