Logo design is not easy. At all. You have to distill the entire essence of an organization down into something instantly identifiable, easily reproducible, appealing, eye-catching, everything. It’s far more challenging than I think most people realize. And when it’s not right, everyone can tell, immediately, almost innately. If you don’t believe me, just look at Jaguar’s new logo – and the associated new brand-image campaign – and look at the reactions it’s inspiring, almost none of which are positive. This is feeling like a logo disaster.
Jaguar making a radical and bold change is absolutely a good thing, don’t get me wrong. The brand has been stagnant for some time now, and in desperate need of some sort of reboot. Sure, they have a fantastic history and a legacy of truly iconic cars, but that doesn’t help them sell new cars, which I’m told carmakers enjoy doing. So the idea that Jaguar needs to make a dramatic change is something I absolutely agree with.
I’m just not sure the change should be whatever this is:
Oh boy. There’s a lot there, isn’t there? Let’s just start with the logo:
Now, on some basic design level, I don’t hate this at all; I think the rounded forms are friendly and clean, and the mixing of upper and lower case is playful. It’s approachable and clean, slightly 70s-retro as well. It would be a fantastic logo for, say, a maker of fun budget consumer electronics or perhaps a frozen yogurt brand.
But for a car? For a Jaguar? No.
I mean, I think the old logo was definitely in need of an update; the typography felt stale and dated, and the jaguar itself – the “leaper,” was a bit too complex for an effective logo. It was fine for what it was, but I do agree that an update was in order.
That said, it’s hard to imagine something that feels more wrong than what Jag decided on. As I said, it’s not terrible graphically, but we have to consider what this “device mark” (that’s what Jaguar calls the wordmark logo) feels like and reminds us of, visually, because I hardly think it works as a car brand attempting to compete with Rolls-Royce, Mercedes-Benz, and Bentley.
Here are some other logos that feel very visually similar to the new Jag logo:
So, we have Nintendo’s line of little toys that interact with video games, the stylized typography used for a sci-fi movie about gigantic worms and desert-dwelling drug addicts, and the design of the typography on those Bloomingdale’s bags my Aunt Margie used to always have.
None of these feel like “premium vehicle” to me, electric or otherwise.
Plus, where’s the cat? Why would you get rid of the leaping feline from the logo? That’s the best part! To be fair, the new brand identity does have a place for the leaping jag, shown as a “makers mark” on a striped background that they call “strikethrough” and seems to refer to horizontal line design motifs.
That’s a bit better, and could certainly work well on some sort of rectangular grille. Jaguar also is showing a sort of monogram-like makers mark, too:
Again, not a bad design (if you can get past a sort of monogram that’s JaguaR) but it still doesn’t feel very Jaguar, even if Jaguar wants to make a new idea of Jaguar. I know it’s easy to criticize, because I’m doing that right now so I know, but I still think this logo could have been much, much better.
Here, I’m going to take five minutes to just show you roughly what I mean:
That’s a literal five-minute effort, and I’m not saying this is perfect or even good by any means, but I feel like it captures modernity and Jaguar-ness better than the “device mark” Jaguar put out. Using that new more angular leaper would make it better, but I don’t feel like spending another five minutes doing that. You can imagine it, right?
Okay, that’s just the logo. Let’s get into the brand identity stuff shown in that video I embedded up there. You know, the one with this wacky crew:
Okay, so here’s my big problem with all of this: for something that says “copy nothing,” this is some incredibly derivative stuff. This kind of bold, colorful couture, these saturated-color-monochromatic backgrounds, it’s not new or bold, it’s almost the default go-to when some organization wants to prove how bold and edgy and daring they are.
Don’t believe me? Here’s a little experiment to try. Grab a sample image of one of these Gautier-ish-looking models and do a reverse image search. Let’s try one with this vivid friend here:
…and the results:
There are many, many similar earlier examples of this aesthetic, going back about 20 years or so. There have been plenty of looks like this, the ruffles, the color, the fit, the expression, the overall look. This is not new ground that’s being tread, this is the easiest, most worn path to making people think new ground is being tread.
Some of these references go back even further. Take Temu Tilda Swinton here with her sledgehammer:
She’s not breaking any moulds there; she’s snuggling into a mould that was first used to cast a brand identity back in 1984.
And I think that may be the real problem here: this whole identity and campaign wants so desperately to be seen as shocking or new or novel but it just isn’t. It’s pandering and lazy and while I respect that Jaguar wants to shoot for something artier and unexpected, this just isn’t it.
This kind of artful shocking, using striking, unusual-looking models and visuals that arrest and surprise certainly can be done to sell cars. Citroën figured it out decades ago, for example:
Seriously, can you imagine going on a road trip with this guy?:
After about an hour of listening to his atonal music and listening to him complain about every fucking billboard you pass and refusing to play word games with you and eating his smelly mung beans, noisily, you’d want to ditch this scarlet bore at the first Sheetz you stopped at.
The tone isn’t innovative, it’s smug and elitist and while, sure, that’s part of the Jaguar identity, this is stupidly and derivatively smug and elitist. I suppose there will be people who will say that at least we’re talking about Jaguar now, but I’m not sure that’s so great. Because everyone seems to be talking about how they don’t want whatever Jaguars come out of this.
There needs to be a new idea of Jaguar, no question. Whatever this mess is, though, is not it.
Jaguar, if you want a do-over, I think everyone is okay with that.
It’s almost as if someone at the ad agency watched a commercial for a fashion or perfume brand and had their minds blown. Seriously, I cannot remember when was the last time I saw a perfume commercial that made any sense or gave me an idea of what I would be buying.
Exhibit A: What is even going on here? Why is the lady crying gold?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDrCCj2UCaw
Exhibit B: You know what, screw it, let’s do a supercut:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpIOeQ86Lls
Jaguar, buddy, don’t do this!
God I hate perfum ads.
Over here they are on constantly during the run up to Christmas. That one with Jonny Depp makes me assume it smells of drunk pirates and shame.
All of them just make me add that company to the list of wankers who will never get my money.
On entirely the other side of the marketing coin is Alpinestars. I own a set of Alpinestars bike leathers, bike boots, FIA race boots, and FIA race suit, two MTB tops and five pairs of Alpinestars gloves, and I have no idea why I chose them.
This. They made a brand for luxury eyewear. Not cars.
SHAGUAR
Groovy! Yeah baby! Yeah!
Like a creative director I used to work with would derisively say: “That is not a logo, that is a font.”
All eight models appear to be giving their appraisal of the new logo. The pregnant lady on the far right is particularly unhappy with it.
Jaguar might as well just admit that they are in serious trouble. They hired the idiot who redesigned the GM logo to “gm”… which was another stupid idea.
Jaguar trying to look like a fashion brand because fashion brands are cool in rich parts of London is all a bit desperate, for sure. But I care much more about what the actual car it launches next will be like. Because that’s how the reinvention of Jaguar’s identity will truly manifest and impact anything/one… and yes, Jaguar does need reinventing in general for (I speculate) the same reason Harley-Davidson had to try riding the E-moto wave with the LiveWire: because its traditional audience (patriotic gammons and small numbers of foreign anglophiles, in Jaguar’s case) is increasingly dying of old age.
As such, it HAS to be about capturing a younger generation and somehow meeting them where they are. Sadly, this comes across as a room full of old men trying from afar to make sense of what their [grand]children like (that monogram is also completely forgettable and anonymous).
Going upmarket at the same time as draping a youthful presentation over it is risky, too, but building fewer cars with more margin is a necessary thing to try in and of itself because Jaguar has been in cash-bleeding denial about the impossibility of beating the German grosser drei at their own volume-premium game for far too long.
I don’t mind the logo and monogram or whatever, I probably will never see it in the wild anyway. But that intro video is just sad. And using people of colors to do “edgy” is a little lame.
Also, note to Executive VPs of Marketing all
over the world: spend 2 hours of company time on your logo redesign, maybe 3 if you have a cheap intern work on it. But really, people/your customers/your employees don’t care. Like not at all.
Does it really matter? Its practically a dead brand at this point.
Stellantis enters the room.
Meh, Jaguar is just undergoing Citroënification, nothing new to see here. Get bought-out by a domestic rival brand, continue to produce decreasingly popular luxury models based on historic market share, discontinue the luxury line because ‘no one sees the brand that way anymore’, and finally spin off some meaningless high end brand while using the original for budget products. So in 2040, I can’t wait to see the Jaguar Nexon and Jaguar Tigor while they ‘launch our new luxury brand, XJ‘.
At this point they should have just made up a new brand.
What a pile of lazy and lame corporate crap. This is literally antithesis to anything I think Jaguar should be.
Wait until you actually see the new car in two weeks.
The picture with the weirdos is what MAGA Republicans thought the US would look like if Kamala had won.
This will always be peak Jaguar for me. From the 1968 XJ Brochure
The best comment I saw is,it looks like a logo for a Spice Girls cover band. I think Jaguar has jumped the shark.
“Temu Tilda Swinton!!” Man, that got me. Jason – I love the way you see the world!
Well that was just a mess.
Changing your logo, even the typeface of the name, is a fraught decision. While I applaud the effort that went into the change, the actual result gets a big ol’ raspberry.
More effort, people. Less copying because, as Torch so clearly illustrates, there’s nothing and I mean NOTHING new here at all. Knowing that, maybe just go back to the original logo which was working so well and, importantly, was already paid for.
Something in an elegant cursive script would have been much, much better.
So Jaguar is trying to copy whatever shit BMW is doing right now? Hopefully they don’t try and make ugly vehicles
What a public service Jason provides; even an alternative logo!
Be careful, or big ad will snatch you away
This is propably the first time anyone has ever said this, but: they wouldn’t, Jason has way too much common sense for big ad.
And whom is this supposed to encourage to walk on one of their lots?
Much as I wish they would succeed I’ve just been waiting to see how Jaguar screws it up this time with this newest reboot since they announced it. Looks like we are starting to see already, haha.
I feel like the ditched the best bit left of the brand.
Also I think they half assed the previous round. And this new re-branding has ominous feeling of halfassedness.
XF – the wagon sold OK in my side of the pond, but it tried too hard to be a german car it forgot the roots. It was way too stiff and dull. Needed more gentlemans club and less Bauhaus.
XE – Drab as hell and no wagon. This class of cars mostly sold as wagons atleast here in nordics. Just a quite half assed take again on segment germans dominate.
I-Pace. I mean one off EV platform. Surely they should have atleast tried to squeeze that into XJ. Electric XJ would have been the stuff.
F-type. Really nice, and kinda hankering for the V8 version. With the taxation don’t think it will be really a feasible so most likely end up getting used 911 997 carrera s at some point.
The crossovers. Whatever.
You know what would rock? The XJ. Bring back the XJ as a big, swarthy two-seater GT. Make it an EV because with the space saved by skipping transmissions and engines you can shovel in more bins of batteries.
1) “Temu Tilda Swinton” oh my that was gorgeous. Thank you.
2) This campaign is avant-garde for ridiculously lame and out-of-touch people.
Seriously, if I photoshopped Derek Zoolander and Hans in here, nobody would bat an eye.
Don’t forget the characters from “The Fifth Element” which came out in, let’s see here…
1997!!?!??
Don’t forget the Zardoz 1% eternals.
The beginning of the end of Jaguar was their decision to go all-in on EVs NOW. This is simply one more nail in the coffin. They had a good run and I for one will miss them.
Drive your Jaguar to a Martian funeral? Sometimes adults need to tell their children how to dress.
Dang this is so blatantly checking all the ethnic/orientation diversity boxes, well except middle-aged white guy, their prime audience, but that’s cool, you go Jaguar, break those mo(u)lds!
Isn’t the middle-aged white guy the one holding the paint brush?
Drive your Jaguar to a Martian funeral. Sometimes, people need tl tell their children how to dress.
Marketing degrees were a mistake, give me overcomplicated logos like the early 1900s.
I couldn’t care less about the models or whatever, all luxury brands have models and fashion stuff imbued in their marketing, but if they have all these colors in the advertising and then release their cars in a range of greyscale I will be very disappointed.