Skoda, the Czech manufacturer of practical and reasonably priced vehicles, has a new logo. It comes as a continuation of the brand’s new design language unveiled with the Vision 7S concept and is said to be the biggest change in Skoda’s identity in the last 30 years.
Fueling this change is the automaker’s Strategy 2030, which focuses on electrification and digitalization. The new brand logo and brand identity adapt to these two trends with a new, simpler logo in two-dimensional graphics. This, Skoda says, makes it easier to be recognized on displays and print products compared to the existing three-dimensional design.
Instead of the previous Skoda emblem, the new vehicles of the brand will now feature the word Skoda written on the boot lid. This typographic logo will appear not only on the rear of cars from the company, as it has in recent years, but also on the front. To make the logo more expressive, Skoda gives the letter S an integrated hook accent.
“The accent was a challenge for us: from a global perspective, it tends to be confusing for most of our customers. In the new form, this symbol will be integrated and blend in with the symmetry of the logo, while customers in the domestic market and some others will still recognize it in the lettering,” Martin Pavlík, a member of Skoda’s marketing team who worked on the new brand identity, explains the strategy.
But what about the legendary winged arrow? It stays but in a slightly modified form. The logo has been simplified with a two-dimensional design and will be rendered in flat form from now on. The fundamental shape, size, and meaning of the logo, however, haven’t been changed.
A small group of Skoda employees worked on the brand’s new logo and identity. However, the team had support from across the entire company receiving a total of 165 design proposals when the process began. The proposals were shortlisted to just three options, which were tested involving 2,200 respondents from the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Norway, and other countries.
The new logo will first appear on communication materials and social media. Starting in 2024, it will also start to appear on new Skoda models.
