Practical - Logo Experiments

 I began my experiments by focusing on the most effective flat designs which were used by Renault in the 60s/70s. 
Stripping back to a past design is a bold statement for a company, suggesting how they want to return back to times where the had a better idea of who they are, and the target audience did too - before all the other flashy companies came out.

With this rebrand I want to show how going back to that design style can not only open new doors for the company, but can be used and developed to create something brand new, which speaks something completely fresh to the current audience, as times have changed dramatically since when these logos were the face of the company.

Renault are known for playing this pioneering role in the automative industry, but they have been lost in all the new. So this can show how they are regaining their title of being pioneers but for the everyday person, not just the upper-class like Tesla do.


These 3 logos are my favourite past ones of Renault and I will predominantly base my experiments around their form.

As I do want to retain the diamond shape, to keep some recognisability.

On Illustrator I began playing with the diamond form, playing with the stripes within the diamond - to reflect the grille of the car - but it was clear to me how I needed to adopt something a bit different to make the rebrand my own...

I looked at an even more simplistic design layout, with only block colours, but then started to think how a gradient could be incorporated into that space, giving a slightly more advanced futuristic style to the old ones. 
- My initial responses were surrounded around the current colour scheme, with the intentions of branching out as my ideas developed 

- I started to consider how I could combine the last linear diamond response into the structure of the earlier ones. 

 I introduced a potential orange to the colour scheme to provide a bit more depth

And laid out the strongest designs with either a block yellow, or yellow-orange gradient. 

The outline options were either block black or white (more minimal), or the linear response. 

I was unsure which I felt was my strongest route to take from here so I took the current designs to a crit feedback session to get some opinions on how I should narrow them down..
- This confirmed I should defer away from the lines within the diamond
- The greater majority felt the black outline created a stronger frame for the logo to sit within, and this drew into the stark black text in the centre too, as oppose to the white.
- I also do need to consider whether it will be white, or if their will be a slightly metallic version (need to still satisfy the flat design to be modern, not too metal-y)

I rose the question of how I could start experimenting with reflecting the heritage within the logo. This obviously lead to experiments with the new colour scheme as my questionnaire suggested, focusing on the iconic colours of the French flag.

With my narrowed down options and with the strongest French styled response I sent them out via social media to get some feedback off a wider audience..

I questioned the relevance of the orange gradient and how it could actually be justified and it was obvious from my responses that it was not really.

w/stripes - 26
- non-designers were more drawn to this logo option
- gives back to more than just one point of their past
- stripes provide more depth, something unique/eye-catching

w/o stripes - 4
- “the black diamond draws the eye to the logotype and helps ‘frame’ the logo." 

- Gives it solid structure

- Nothing to over-complicate or confuse

- However these were justifications off other designers - they could all agree that the striped option does just that aswell.. with the extra feature that the everyday person was more drawn to when given the choice, feeling more "intriguing"