Can a rebranding make BMW immune?

«Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler» — Albert Einstein

Since the beginning of March 2020 one of the most polarising topics in the news for aesthetic aficionados become the most radical makeover of BMW logo in more than 100 years. The company even spoke out on possible “misinterpretation”, because the spectacular physical launch of the new emblem was cancelled together with Geneva International Motor Show, and all of that is due to the pandemics. You probably have seen the new official transparent BMW logo already, but for the first time there is also a viable alternative version.

Personally, I have to confess that I love BMW, and BMW i8 without a doubt has earned a respectable place in my dream garage. For many people like me its logo is important not only because last year 130.000 BMW Group employees produced 2,5 million luxury cars. BMW is one of the most admired brands in the world. According to the study conducted by Interbrand, BMW is the world's third most valuable brand among carmakers and 11th overall. So the stakes are extremely high when it comes to changing the logo design. Even a smallest reduction in brand value can put thousands jobs in risk.

The company was founded as an airplane engine manufacturer in the German state of Bavaria in 1916 and initially was called Rapp Motor, but already in 1917 it was renamed to BMW – Bayerische Motoren Werke (Bavarian Motor Works). Therefore the logo was redesigned to include some elements of the Bavarian flag, but kept the black ring, placement of the name and a chess board hint (supposedly meaning a strategy).

The ad with white propellers against the blue sky first appeared in 1929 and became a popular myth about the meaning of the original logo design. The combination of black, blue and white has been inseparable from the visual identity of the prestigious marque. Well, until recently.

Many years passed only with occasional incremental improvements, but by now the faux 3D effect in the logo from 1997 become really overdue to be updated. The thing is that in the digital age the only sure way to guarantee the highest quality of logo representation across multiple platforms and screen sizes is to use streamlined vector graphics. Mostly for that reason many automakers have successfully simplified their logos, including Mini, which is owned by BMW. Back in 1997 no-one could possibly think that the logo had to look good in the microscopically small circle next to every comment on Facebook, because it was 7 years before the first version of Facebook ever went online. Actually that was also 4 years before anyone could buy the first ever push-button phone with a colour display.

Another issue with the logo design was low edge contrast on any dark background. In marketing materials BMW was forced to place the logo in a white square pretty often. It is totally acceptable to use this trick in a magazine ad, but not so efficient when all the space you have is only the size of a phone screen. So at least an evolutionary change was unavoidable.

Minimalistic logo design is nothing new. The first symbols ever produced by humans where simple because of the basic drawing tools. Over the centuries the graphics evolved in the direction of complexity right until the reset to the basic geometry with the birth of modernism. That was marked with the Olympic rings logo designed in 1914. This approach in logo design went mainstream in 1930s and reached its peak in 1970s. But after the revolution in computer graphics and introduction of cheap colour printing many logos became to grow more complex again. Some designs have lost the essence behind a curtain of countless layers of blinks, textures and shadows, others like BMW were a tastefully executed eye-candies of the era.

After that a clear brand identification become especially important in the digital-electric age, when new carmakers appear on monthly basis and the car design is mostly shaped by uniform regulations, aerodynamics and production methods. Therefore the test of time have shown that the most iconic brands in history rely on crisp, simple and easy to remember logos. For example the version of Mercedes logo from 1933 sees a revival recently, just like on their 2020 AVTR electric concept car. The time has come for BMW to rethink their logo and find the way to simplify the design without loosing the essence.

An interesting solution was spottet on several official BMW car design sketches, where the logo shape was reduced to merely two triangles. At first it looks like a very promising radical simplification, but here the context is deciding it's fate. From a distance the badge can be confused with the triangles of another logo. Borgward is a classic German car brand that was liquidated in 1961, but then was revived in 2008 with the help from Chinese investors to reach the impressive 75.000 car sales figure by 2018. It is very logical for Borgward to tone down the Renault-like rhombus and to emphasise the triangles, but does it make sense for BMW brand to suppress them and use some similar shapes in the logo? This experiment also shows the importance of colour in brand identification. Without the use of white and black in the logo the car on the left is hardly recognisable as BMW.

On the 3 March 2020, supposedly after years of research and millions of euros spent, BMW finally revealed the solution. Logo redesign was performed in collaboration with renowned German advertising agency BECC and made its debut on the long awaited preproduction car BMW Concept i4. The electric model is aimed at becoming a direct competitor of game-changing luxury electric cars like Tesla Model S and Porsche Taycan. As for the logo, for the first time the black ring was removed and replaced with transparency, so that the background colour could be visible through the logo.

The transparent logo design was quickly rolled out across BMW websites and social media official presence. The company's statement was: «BMW is becoming a relationship brand. The old black ring was replaced, letting the new logo radiate more openness and clarity». A digital display can tolerate any dose of transparency in design, but would it be practical to clean the dust from under each of the 4 badges on your BMW X2, not counting those on the wheels?

It may look grotesque but one step further in that direction, and a premium BMW badge will turn into something obviously more minimalistic, although not without a risk of being confused with a generic crash-test dummy sticker. Does it look as a viable option for the ultimate driving machine that BMW claims to be? Will it make sense to remove the leaf from Apple logo for the sake of simplicity?

The transparent BMW logo was received with resistance and almost immediately after the presentation it was announced that its application would be limited only to communication materials and the old logo will remain on the cars. Is there another reason why the marketing logo should be different from the one on the car?

Anyway, occasionally the transparent logo was actually looking OK on darker backgrounds (like on shattered glass that is expoding in slow motion in BMW logo presentation video), but then it really went offtrack on some of the new catalogue covers. Brown and yellow logos on greenish blue background were used on the official BMW Denmark website. If in the beginning it just felt that something goes a bit wrong with this rebranding campaign, then at this point the red lamp of injustice started to flash, accompanied by the siren of helpless loud cry by every faithful BMW fan who saw it. Unlike art, graphic design is not that subjective and therefore some colour combinations are simply not perceived as a professional choice for logo representation. It is not only the lack of contrast but mostly an irrational disconnection from the rest of the visual identity. Can there be an alternative to setting the redesigned BMW badge on a grill?

Instead of criticising the newly introduced version of BMW logo, Copenhagen-based branding agency Brand Lane has come up with an alternative and more constructive suggestion, which was first published in the comments section of worlds most respectable logo design resource Brand New already on the 7th of March 2020.

It became obvious that BMW can benefit from redesigning the badge as a more balanced, consistent, timeless and minimalistic symbol (but not too simple to be still unique and unmistakably BMW). The solution was in the air: to remove the letters from the inside of the logo, but to keep the black ring at the same time separating it from the blue quadrants and the background.

Apart from historical continuity all the way back to Rapp Motor, preservation of the black ring makes the logo immune to an eventual dissolution of contrast and other 'virus' caused conditions. The addition of slightly thicker white borders à la BMW logo version from 1963 covers all possible applications with just a singe logo file (including those on white or blue backgrounds). The outer white circle will make the logo to stand out even on a black car, but on a white background the ring will just politely blend in. The space between the black and blue can also mean a gap between stator and rotor of an electric motor, which is widely regarded to be the future of transportation. The black tyre colour remains dominant also for the newest electric cars.

As for the letters, BMW does not really need the text caption inside the logo to be easily identified anywhere in the world. Apple, McDonald's, Audi, Mastercard, Nike and Shell have all silently omitted the text from their logos for good. All these companies have become more than superbrands, they joined the league of instantly recognisable global hyperbrands with logo symbols almost as known as alphabet letters, just like the logo of BMW's arch-rival Mercedes. Nevertheless there still could be a possibility to keep BMW letters in a version of the logo for certain applications like corporate media or dealership signage.

Unconstrained with the narrow boundaries of a tight curvy space of roundel's interior the company's name can really make a bold visual statement that could match the extraordinary automobiles. However it looks like it is calling for development of a new BMW-specific font to extract the most value out of this layout. As for the roundel, the logo on the car, signage, screen and in print can have the same shape.

For a brand like BMW it could also be great to use every possibility to demonstrate attention to details. The visual identity can be extended far beyond the car badge. For example the quadrants can be arranged in a seamless pattern that can be used to make an extravagant radiator grill.

The outline of the same pattern can find application for example on seats and carpets stitching. So even a quick glance on a back seat photo can clearly reveal that it belongs to BMW.

BMW logo-pattern design was inspired by the geometry of Wallmark.dk 3D-panels and the design language of fashion brands like Louis Vuitton, Gucci or Fendi. An application of this pattern across different media and materials could drive BMW info Bentley territory without the increase in the car production cost.

Another hypothetical possibility is that Brand Lane's design can also be adapted to support sub-brands. The bages of all BMW's electric cars are currently marked with additional blue ring around them, which does not really fulfil the function on blue cars. The high performance motorsport M-versions are identified with the 3-coloured stripes, but there was also a special 1980s round M-bage used in place of a regular emblem. The red stripe originates from the red brand colour of Texaco Oil, because they used to be the title sponsor of BMW Motorsport back then. The blue stripe stands for BMW and Bavaria. The purple stripe in-between means the collaboration between Texaco and BMW, because the mix of red and blue gives purple.

The iconic 3-striped M-logo should be preserved, but maybe the time has come to revive the idea of a special versions of BMW roundel for each sub-brand that will always be visible disregarding a background colour. The electric blue ring could fit straight in, and as for the M-version there can be a red ring turning purple in places were it is intersecting the blue quadrants.

In the end of the day, it is the customer who votes with a decision on which car to choose. However, in reality a small agency with big ideas does not stand a chance against a big agency with small ideas. Let us just hope that the next update comes sooner than the average 20 years it takes BMW to review their emblem. After all, how important is logo design when you buy a car?