Bentley Debuts New Logo Ahead of Concept Car Reveal
Bentley has unveiled a new version of its signature ‘winged B’ logo, which will be used on all upcoming production cars.
This is the fifth iteration of the Bentley emblem in the brand’s 106-year history.
The new logo was developed entirely in-house, under the guidance of the firm’s car design head, Robin Page.
An internal competition was initially held, allowing the entire Bentley design team to submit their ideas and sketches.
The final design was proposed by Young Nam from the interior design team, which was then refined into the final version.
“The mission in designing the new emblem was to capture some of the beautiful details from the previous designs – for example, the diamond pattern of the inner wings and the B ‘centre jewel’ – but create a more modern and progressive design,” says the design team.
Adding: “The shape of the new wings themselves are sharper and more dramatic than the outgoing version – more reminiscent of the angled wings of a peregrine falcon than the previous softer shapes. The lower feathers underneath the B have been removed entirely, for a visually-cleaner shape.”
Although the central B element has been preserved, it has nevertheless been reworked to ensure it can function as a standalone graphic without the wings.
“The jewel has been redesigned to capture the high quality details seen in luxury watch design, including a bevelled glass edge and chamfered metal surround, with a 3D depth of the ‘B’ below the surface,” further explain the designers.
When W.O. Bentley started his car company in 1919, he sought the help of his friend F. Gordon Crosby, a renowned motoring artist of the pre-war era.
Crosby created the original winged B, which reportedly symbolised W.O. Bentley’s background as a designer of engines for fighter planes during the First World War.
To make it truly unique and to stay ahead of counterfeiters, Crosby assigned a different number of feathers to each wing.
When Bentley came under the ownership of Rolls Royce in 1931, a new emblem was introduced.
This second version was symmetrical, featuring 10 straightened feathers on each side, surrounding a simpler B in a plain black oval.
It became the longest-lasting badge in the company’s history, remaining in use until the emblem’s third revision around 1996, when the central ‘B’ was updated to reflect the original design, and the emblem became more ornate with a more pronounced curvature in the wings.
After Bentley was acquired by the Volkswagen Group in 1998, the emblem was redesigned again for the launch of the first Continental GT model in 2002.
This design paid homage to the 1919 original by reverting to an asymmetric design, with 10 feathers on the left and 11 on the right.
“If a luxury brand is the product of the stories it has created, then its emblem is its signature. In more than a century of history, this is only the fourth evolution of Bentley’s iconic Winged B, and redesigning it was a formidable task for which we’ve taken great care. In an era of ever-increasing complexity and fidelity from digitalisation, an exercise of simplification and refinement is a modern necessity – and so the new emblem is cleaner, sharper and more impactful than its predecessor,” says Page.
The refreshed badge will be revealed in full next week, making its appearance on the body of a new concept car.
Moreover, the firm will also launch a brand new design studio at its headquarters in Crewe, England, next week.
Source: Bentley
