Volkswagen new brand design: a flat mark for an electric era
On 9 September 2019, at the Internationale Automobil-Ausstellung in Frankfurt, Volkswagen retired its three-dimensional chrome emblem and presented a flat two-dimensional logo as the centrepiece of a complete brand redesign.1, 2 The reveal accompanied the world premiere of the ID.3 and marked the formal start of Volkswagen's electric era.2, 3 The flatness of the new mark mattered less than the strategic decision it carried. The company was repositioning itself for a digital, electric, and post-Dieselgate future, and the visual identity was the most legible signal of the underlying turn.
The mark
The redesigned logo retained the interlocked V and W inside a circle, the basic structure unchanged since 1937.2 The volume disappeared. The chrome shading, gradient depth, and ringed border of the 2000 emblem were replaced by a single weight of dark blue line on a white field.4 The interior negative space was widened. The V and W received slightly thinner strokes to balance the openness. The mark could now be reproduced flat across every surface, from a 16-pixel browser favicon to a 12-metre dealership facade, without the gradient information that the 2000 version had required.4
The complete redesign
The new logo sat inside a wider brand design system. The system kept the custom typefaces "Volkswagen Head" and "Volkswagen Text," which had replaced the previous brand typefaces VW Headline OT and VW Utopia in 2015.2 The colour palette, anchored on a dark Volkswagen Blue, extended the previous blue and white with a further blue tone, allowing additional colour variants.2, 5 Photography moved away from clinical studio product shots towards documentary-style imagery of vehicles in everyday situations, with people consistently in frame.5 A sound logo, the first in the company's history, replaced the retired Das Auto verbal signature.1, 2, 5 The five-note sequence was designed to function as a sonic mnemonic across radio, television, in-car notifications and digital touchpoints.2, 6 A brand-led tonal position, summarised internally as "more human, more lively," translated the visual changes into language and behaviour.5, 7
The process
The redesign was led from inside the company by a joint Volkswagen Design and Marketing team, with the implementation distributed across nineteen internal departments and seventeen external agencies.2, 4, 8, 9 MetaDesign, the Berlin and San Francisco-based agency that had partnered with Volkswagen for more than twenty years on the brand system, served as the principal external creative partner across the typography, colour and design language.2, 3, 7 The development cycle ran for nine months from initial brief to public reveal.2, 4, 5 Klaus Bischoff, then Head of Volkswagen Design, supervised the visual decisions.4, 5 Jochen Sengpiehl, Chief Marketing Officer, who had returned as head of marketing in 2017, drove the strategic frame.5, 9 The flat mark was Sengpiehl's first major signal that Volkswagen Marketing intended to operate in a different register from the engineering-led communication of the previous fifteen years.
Implementation
Approximately 70,000 individual logos required physical replacement across the global network.5 The logos were spread across the roughly 10,000 facilities of dealers and service partners in more than 150 countries.5 The replacement programme ran across 2019 and 2020.5, 9 The first production vehicle to wear the new mark was the ID.3, which entered the European market in summer 2020.3, 4, 9 The chrome emblem was replaced across the vehicles as well, and in future the logo was to be illuminated on the vehicle, at the brand locations and at the dealerships.4, 5, 9
Strategic context
The redesign carried three pressures at once. The first was the electric transition. The ID.3 launch in September 2019 represented the largest single product investment in the company's history, with the MEB platform underwriting a planned 15 electric models by 2025. The brand needed visual coherence with the new product architecture. The second was Dieselgate. The September 2015 emissions scandal had damaged the company's American and European brand trust, with Volkswagen's brand value falling roughly 19 percent in the immediate aftermath.3, 9 The Das Auto claim was retired in 2015.2 The 2019 redesign closed the four-year gap with a replacement system. The third was platform competition. Tesla, with its own minimalist visual identity and direct-to-consumer model, had set a new benchmark for digital-native automotive branding. Volkswagen needed an answer at the brand level.
Editorial reading
The 2019 Volkswagen redesign was not the first automotive flattening of the late 2010s, since Mini had gone flat in 2015 and Audi and Seat had followed, but it was one of the most prominent.2 Pepsi flattened in 2008. Apple removed gradient skeuomorphism in 2013. Google rebuilt its logo in 2015. Volkswagen's 2019 mark sat in the same architectural lineage and predated the subsequent flat-2D moves by Mercedes-Benz (2025), BMW (2020 mark, used selectively), Porsche (refreshed 2023) and Pepsi (refreshed 2023). The legibility advantage of the mark across digital surfaces was clear at launch. The strategic significance only became visible later, when the rest of the industry followed. The flat Volkswagen circle is now the most-applied automotive logo on the road and the visual anchor for the brand's electric and digital portfolio.
Written with AI assistance, edited by a human. Find out more about our Use of AI.
1. Volkswagen Newsroom, "Volkswagen unveils new brand design and logo", 9 September 2019, press image DB2019AL01917 and the sound logo clip from the same release package, for the date of the unveiling, for the new logo as "a flat two-dimensional design reduced to its essential elements" that "can be used extremely flexibly", and for the statement "Instead of a brand claim, Volkswagen will have a sound logo for the first time to be used both in the vehicle and in communications." This is the specific newsroom item behind the index volkswagen-newsroom.com that the sources list for this verse names. https://www.volkswagen-newsroom.com/en/images/detail/volkswagen-unveils-new-brand-design-and-logo-30064 https://www.volkswagen-newsroom.com/en/videos-and-footage/volkswagen-unveils-new-brand-design-and-logo-3442
2. Designtagebuch, Achim Schaffrinna, three reports. "Da ist es nun, das neue Logo von Volkswagen", 10 September 2019, for the new mark and the changed brand appearance having been presented to the public at the IAA in Frankfurt on the evening of 9 September 2019 on the occasion of the world premiere of the ID.3, for the flat, two-dimensional logo entirely free of gradients, for the "W" not touching the surrounding ring with its feet for the first time in the 82 year history of Volkswagen, for Volkswagen being no pioneer of the flat, two-dimensional form, with Mini switching to it in 2015 and Audi, Seat and many other carmakers following, for the previous blue and white palette being extended by a further blue, for Volkswagen no longer relying on a claim but on sound branding, with a synth sound formed from a five note sequence as the new sound logo, in the report's words "Ein aus einer Fünftonfolge gebildeter Synthie-Klang bildet das neue Soundlogo von VW", and for the strategic foundations having been developed by a joint team of Volkswagen Design and Marketing and implemented within nine months, with 19 internal teams and 17 external agencies involved, https://www.designtagebuch.de/da-ist-es-nun-das-neue-logo-von-volkswagen/. "'360° Brand Experience', Die neue Hausschrift von Volkswagen", 27 May 2015, added during the retrofit, for Volkswagen Head and Volkswagen Text, which "ab sofort", that is from May 2015, replaced the previous brand typefaces VW Headline OT and VW Utopia, and for MetaDesign as the Berlin brand agency "die seit 1997 die Marke Volkswagen betreut", https://www.designtagebuch.de/360-brand-experience-die-neue-hausschrift-von-volkswagen/. "Warum Volkswagen nicht mehr 'Das Auto.' als Claim verwendet", 7 January 2016, added during the retrofit, for "Das Auto." having served as the claim from 2007 to 2015. https://www.designtagebuch.de/warum-volkswagen-nicht-mehr-das-auto-als-claim-verwendet/
3. Wikipedia, three entries read on 25 September 2026. "Volkswagen ID.3", for the production version of the ID.3 having been unveiled on 9 September 2019 at the Frankfurt Motor Show (IAA) along with the new Volkswagen logo and branding, and for retail deliveries having begun in Germany in September 2020, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_ID.3. "MetaDesign", for the agency having been founded in Berlin, where it has its headquarters, and for its offices including San Francisco, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MetaDesign. "Volkswagen", for the emissions scandal having begun in September 2015. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen
4. Dezeen, Natashah Hitti, "Volkswagen rebrands with 'flat' logo to mark start of electric era", 12 September 2019, for the previous logo having remained largely unchanged since 2000, when the company adopted a three-dimensional design with a realistic chrome effect and shaded colours, for the new logo reduced to its basic elements in a flat, two-dimensional design all in one shade of dark blue, for the flatness allowing the mark to be shown on all devices and applications in all sizes, from the display of a small smart watch to a huge sign on one of the firm's factories, for the logo having been produced "in the record time of nine months" by the Volkswagen design and marketing team, in a collaboration of 19 internal teams and 17 external agencies, for Klaus Bischoff as Volkswagen's chief designer, for the ID.3 as the first model to bear the rebranded logo, with deliveries of the ID.3 1st planned for mid-2020, and for the chrome logo being replaced by the flatter design across the company's vehicles. https://www.dezeen.com/2019/09/12/volkswagen-rebrands-2d-logo-id3-electric-car/
5. Volkswagen New Zealand, "Volkswagen unveils new brand design and logo", undated page carrying the Volkswagen release on the unveiling at the IAA International Motor Show in Frankfurt, added during the retrofit, for "A new blue tone is now being added, allowing additional colour variants", for "The focus will be on people" and for Volkswagen no longer concentrating on perfectionism in vehicle photography but presenting realistic situations customers can identify with, for a sound logo "for the first time" instead of a brand claim, for the job titles of Volkswagen's Chief Designer Klaus Bischoff and of Jochen Sengpiehl, Chief Marketing Officer of Volkswagen, and for Sengpiehl's words "we want to become more human and livelier", for the design having been implemented with the full integration of all departments of the company "in the record time of nine months", for 171 markets in 154 countries, with about 70,000 logos to be replaced at the 10,000 facilities of dealers and service partners throughout the world, for the changeover of locations and dealers in Europe first and of the rest of the world from the beginning of the following year, and for the statement "Light is the new chromium. In the future, the logo will be illuminated, on the vehicle, at the brand locations and at the dealerships." https://www.volkswagen.co.nz/en/brand/news/volkswagen-unveils-new-brand-design-and-logo.html
6. s12 GmbH, "New Volkswagen Brand Sound", 1 December 2019, for the new female brand voice and a sound logo as part of the revised auditory branding, for the new brand sound being heard in the vehicle and in communication, in TV and radio advertising and in the new ID.3, and for the credits, Volkswagen AG as client with S12 GmbH and Klangerfinder GmbH & Co KG as agencies. https://www.s12.de/en/2019/12/01/new-volkswagen-brand-sound/
7. MetaDesign, "Volkswagen", undated case study, for MetaDesign as a trusted partner of Volkswagen for over 20 years, for its work on "New Volkswagen" having included leading the creative development of the new brand design, within a powerhouse of Volkswagen's internal teams and the agencies DDB, Schmidhuber, Sapient Razorfish, SinnerSchrader and Grabarz & Partner, and for the words of Jochen Sengpiehl, Chief Marketing Officer of Volkswagen, "we want to become more human and more lively, to adopt the customer's perspective to a greater extent and to tell authentic stories". https://metadesign.com/en/work/volkswagen-nbd
8. Brand New (UnderConsideration), Armin Vit, "New Logo and Identity for Volkswagen done In-house", 10 September 2019, for the identity having been designed in-house, as the headline states. The review text sits behind the subscription wall; this note rests on the headline and the openly visible before and after comparison. https://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/new_logo_and_identity_for_volkswagen_done_in_house.php
9. Design Week, "Volkswagen unveils new visual identity for an 'electric future'", September 2019 (the page carries no byline and no date line; its URL places it in the issue of 9 to 15 September 2019), for the redesign having been created in-house, for Volkswagen badges being illuminated on the front of vehicles, at showrooms and at other branded locations, for the rollout starting in Europe, followed by China in October and North and South America from the beginning of 2020, for the job title of Jochen Sengpiehl, the company's chief marketing officer, for the ID.3 as the first Volkswagen model to feature the new logo, and for the 2015 emissions scandal, in which around 11 million cars worldwide were fitted with the same software. https://www.designweek.co.uk/issues/9-15-september-2019/new-volkswagen-logo/
