Thoughts on Rolls Royce

On their latest rebranding

Last week, one of the hottest news items in graphic design was Rolls Royce unveiling its new brand identity. The new brand identity is definitely more than meets the eye.

Source: Pentagram Website

Full disclosure: I love it. While it does seem very simple, it’s not. Every aspect has been well-thought out by Pentagram, the agency behind the rebranding.

Broadly, there’s three aspects of the identity that I love: Colors, Art, and Font. Let’s dive in!

Colors

One of the most important aspects of branding is the Color Palette selection. There are specific colors which certain brands are associated with in some categories. A few examples in cars, since we are on that topic, would be the Ferrari Red, the Lamborghini Orange/Green, or the Aston Martin Silver. While these brands haven’t explicitly only used these colors, a Red Ferrari does sound more natural than a Blue Ferrari. It’s just a matter of our mind’s associations with these brands.

With the new branding identity of Rolls Royce, Pentagram has chosen a few colors in the blue to purple spectrum; with purple being the most dominant one.

Source: Pentagram Website

Then, the next question, naturally, would be: WHY. In the wide gamut of colors that exist in the world, why was purple chosen? Before going into the answer, I am going to show you some examples that I have recreated with a different alternate color palettes. Have a look.

What did you think? I’d be quite surprised if you thought anything but the purple suited better. And, if you did, please let me know and why too.

But, assuming that much like the executives at Pentagram and myself, you thought purple somehow naturally fit mentally, let’s explore why.

Color Psychology is a whole science. We associate colors to emotions and feelings more often than we think. A red stop sign, and a green icon to showcase something that is organic are a couple of examples. Yes, the red color for a stop sign is chosen for the wavelength of the color, but due to the way our mind has been conditioned, whenever we see a red sign, we assume it’s a stop sign even before reading it.

Hope you found the above image awkward. Created by The Almost Invisible

To explain this, I am quoting from an article from History.com here:

The color purple’s ties to kings and queens date back to the ancient world, where it was prized for its bold hues and often reserved for the upper crust. The Persian king Cyrus adopted a purple tunic as his royal uniform, and some Roman emperors forbid their citizens from wearing purple clothing under penalty of death. Purple was especially revered in the Byzantine Empire. Its rulers wore flowing purple robes and signed their edicts in purple ink, and their children were described as being “born in the purple.”

The reason for purple’s regal reputation comes down to a simple case of supply and demand. For centuries, the purple dye trade was centered in the ancient Phoenician city of Tyre in modern day Lebanon. The Phoenicians’ “Tyrian purple” came from a species of sea snail now known as Bolinus brandaris, and it was so exceedingly rare that it became worth its weight in gold. To harvest it, dye-makers had to crack open the snail’s shell, extract a purple-producing mucus and expose it to sunlight for a precise amount of time. It took as many as 250,000 mollusks to yield just one ounce of usable dye, but the result was a vibrant and long-lasting shade of purple.

Clothes made from the dye were exorbitantly expensive — a pound of purple wool cost more than most people earned in a year — so they naturally became the calling card of the rich and powerful. It also didn’t hurt that Tyrian purple was said to resemble the color of clotted blood — a shade that supposedly carried divine connotations. The royal class’ purple monopoly finally waned after the fall of the Byzantine empire in the 15th century, but the color didn’t become more widely available until the 1850s, when the first synthetic dyes hit the market.

As the article points out, Purple became a symbol of richness because only the rich could afford it, and like the Red stop sign, we’re now conditioned to associate Purple with royalty; even though MS Paint could give the purple color as well.

Rolls Royce which stands as a symbol of richness and luxury wants to make you feel like royalty. What better color than this!

Art

The art is my favourite part of this identity. Color seemed like a natural choice but a pattern creation doesn’t have any rules. The art can be viewed as two parts: 1) The Spirit of Ecstacy icon and 2) the abstract pattern

The Spirit of Ecstasy Icon

Source: Pentagram

I think the answer is staring straight at us. It’s simplified. By now, with the brand’s reputation, almost anyone would identify this as this symbol for Rolls Royce within a few seconds. So, it doesn’t need to carry all the complex curves and features.

The iconic logo is going to be used for branding their merchandise and, I am assuming, a lot more. Below is an image of it being die-pressed onto leather.

Can you just imagine how much harder it would’ve been if the older logo with all its curves and etchings was used for the detailing to be visible? Sparing you the effort, here you go!

Created by The Almost Invisible

Another key difference is the reversal of the direction, the new logo is looking to the right. Usually, the right side is associated with going forward. A change that is easy to miss.

The Abstract Pattern

Pentagram and Rolls Royce have chosen to call it the Spirit of Ecstasy Expression. I am just going to call it the pattern.

Let’s break the distinguishing features of the pattern: — Absence of straight lines — to convey a fabric-y silky appeal — silkiness is associated with elegance, and, you guessed it right, luxury — A pattern taking after the brand’s most important element — this pattern is an abstracted version of the Spirit of Ecstasy Icon — Simple lines which are digital vector creations and not hand drawn, therefore, there will never be loss of quality even if the size is printed on a billboard or a visiting card

A vector design basically uses mathematical functions to make art, therefore, the equation always adjusts to the size of location it is presented on.

Another interesting point I read was that the pattern was created using code. What’s the big deal about it, you ask? Well, if it indeed was coded, it could be easily edited and animated rather unlike a static drawing. This will make the logo be easier to project on surfaces and also serve as a cool pattern to adorn merchandise.

Source: Pentagram

The Font

Before I dive in and explain my views, have a look at the image below. It contains the logos of some of the world’s most sought after luxury brands.

Did you notice that every single one of them only uses Capital Letters? Interesting, isn’t it? So, I think the below would make a lot of sense now.

Source: Pentagram

Capital letters convey a sense of luxury or premium appeal. This is due to the conditioning brands have done in the luxury segment. It almost feels like the only right way to go.

Another beautiful thing is that with this rebranding, Rolls Royce is going to have its own font called the Rolls Royce Pioneer. Well, that’s taking branding a step further.

The only note that they’ve provided is that it takes after the old Rolls Royce typeface where the letters were taller than they were wider. I think that’s a good way to go. Simpler fonts always work better when it comes to readability. Also, this font is a sans-serif (absence of those little extensions on the letters) font, which is a good way to showcase modernism.

Concluding notes

While the rebranding seems very simple and obvious, it does have a lot of depth. One thing they left untouched, if you hadn’t noticed, is the RR lettering. Pentagram felt that it was far too sacred to touch. And, I agree.

Source: Pentagram