Creating a brand’s logo involves a lot more than coming up with a design that looks good. Every auto brand’s logo has a history and meaning. Even the seemingly simple Nissan logo has a deeper meaning behind that. It may look like a simple text-based logo to many, but there is an interesting story behind its inception and evolution.
The Nissan official logo has undergone four modifications since 1930 till date. Let’s find out the original Nissan logo meaning, its history and other important details.
NISSAN MOTOR CORPORATION – BRIEF INTRODUCTION
Nissan Motor Corporation is a Japanese automobile manufacturer giant that has been around since 1911. Headquartered in Yokohama, Japan, the company has built a strong reputation globally. It stands among the top 10 popular auto brands across the globe. Nissan manufactures different types of vehicles including sports cars, SUVs and electric cars.
Due to the brand’s popularity, its logo is one of the most easily recognisable ones in the world. Another reason behind this recognition is the fact that the logo literally spells the brand’s name. Yet, even without the typographic element, the emblem itself is easily recognisable across the globe.
NISSAN LOGO HISTORY, MEANING AND DESIGN
Nissan brand logo was first created in 1933 and was used till 1970. After that, it has been revised four times. However, each Nissan logo has always represented the founder’s philosophy and Nissan’s culture, heritage and commitment to innovation.
NISSAN LOGO MEANING
For numerous decades, Nissan’s logo has remained aligned with the conviction of its founder, Yoshisuke Aikawa: “Shisei tenjitsu o tsuranuku,” which he interpreted as, “If you have a strong belief, it penetrates even the sun.”
Therefore, it comprises Japanese characters “ni” (meaning “sun”) and “ssan” (meaning “product” or “birth”). As a result, Nissan symbolises a creation from Japan, the nation of the rising sun!
Therefore, Nissan logos were designed in the context of his philosophy and the literal meaning of the brand name. The circle in most of their logos represents the sun. However, the badges on the car from the 1950s to the 1980s slightly deviated from it.
Now, let’s go through the evolution of the Nissan brand logo starting from the current official logo.
NISSAN LOGO (2020-PRESENT)
The new Nissan logo 2020 represents the company’s philosophy, reinforcing commitment and innovation. The company name at the centre of the new logo makes it easily recognisable while communicating past milestones and evolution.
The current Nissan official logo is inspired by technological advancements and the digital world. The new look of the logo is digital-friendly, stylish and elegant, instead of hard-edged and industrial. This logo depicts the transition of the company, and its efforts to manufacture new vehicles with advanced features in response to the ever-growing demand of the car market.
This Nissan brand logo on its electric vehicles is illuminated, lit by 20 LEDs. These 20 LEDs represent the number of years when the Nissan logos were modified.
The first electric crossover, Nissan Ariya was the first to be launched with this new logo. Besides, if you are a Nissan brand fan, you may consider buying its conventional models as well. Moreover, according to the non-luxury used cars annual market report of 2023, Nissan is the second most popular car makes in the region. Given these stats, you may opt to buy a used Nissan car in the UAE online. A few of the options worth considering are:
- Used Nissan Altima for sale in the UAE
- Second-hand Nissan Maxima in the UAE for sale
- Used Nissan Pathfinder for sale online in the UAE
- Second-hand Nissan Patrol in the UAE for sale online
Furthermore, four iterations of this logo accommodate different communication channels. For instance, these iterations are flexible to incorporate on the letterhead, social media and digital advertising platforms, videos as well as dealership signs.
HISTORY OF NISSAN EMBLEM
Nissan’s first emblem was created in the 1930s and has been modified many times. The colours and font used in all the emblems were taken from the wordmark. However, the emblem was not used in Nissan badges that were created between the 1950s and 1970s. All the badges between these periods were inspired by Nissan’s wordmark, similar to hand-written fonts.
NISSAN BRAND LOGOS VS BADGES
If you observe the cars manufactured by Nissan between the 1950s and 1970s, you won’t spot the Nissan brand logo on them. This is because the company used badges that were also modified several times during the stated period. Each badge had a unique style and graphic design, having the inscription “Nissan.”
Brand badges were designed because the company wanted new car models with the brand name written in a modern font that was different from the original Nissan logo.
OLD NISSAN LOGO & BADGES
Now let’s briefly go through old Nissan logos and badges:
NISSAN LOGOS 2001-2020
The Nissan logo designed in 2001 continued till 2012. This logo was silver in colour and less reflective with sharp and clean lines.
In 2012, the Nissan brand logo was revised and the version logo was created in silver and grey colour. The gradients of grey and silver colour were only changed, but the design was quite similar to the previous one.
Just after a year in 2013, Yokohama launched the same Nissan logo at the earnings press conference, but in steel blue colour. This version continued till 2020.
All three versions were sleek in design having a wide ring in the background and a convex rectangle with Nissan written on it.
NISSAN LOGO 1983-2001
The Nissan official logo launched in 1983 was derived from the old Nissan logo used from 1933 to 1940. The entire graphic composition is boxed in a blue rectangle with Nissan written in the bar on the right and the brand’s first logo on the left. The colour palette used was minimalistic and the design was easy to recognise and memorise.
NISSAN LOGO 1933-1940
The first Nissan logo was inherited from the Datsun logo. The logo was used from 1933 to 1940 with the brand name in white on a blue rectangle background, placed on a red circle. The red circle symbolises the rising sun in context to the company’s philosophy.
HISTORY OF NISSAN BADGES
NISSAN BADGE 1983 AND ONWARDS
From 1983 the Nissan badges were bold and business-focused. The car badges designed in this era had Nissan written in capital letters. Metallic and heavy typefaces were trending and Nissan came up with the idea to make a statement with its brash and bold badge. However, these Nissan badges varied from model to model and even different in regions.
NISSAN BADGE 1970-1983
In the Nissan logo history, this was the last badge design without a circle in the background. The inscription Nissan was placed on a black rectangle outlined in silver colour, using a traditional serif font.
NISSAN BADGE 1967-1970
The old Nissan badge used from 1967 to 1970 was discontinued within three years given the fact it was not typical for the brand. The inscription Nissan was italicized and the letter N was written using protruding serif. This was the first time the brand’s badge went brown from the usual colour scheme (red and blue).
NISSAN BADGE 1960-1967
For the first time, designers in this time period experimented by not keeping any of the geometric shapes in the background. The badge was similar to the hand-written font using a cursive style featuring sharp lines. Red in colour, this Nissan badge was placed on a white background, however, on vehicles, the wordmark was in silver.
NISSAN BADGE 1959-1960
The inscription Nissan in the badge was angular featuring straight and sharp lines, without a frame. However, this is one old Nissan badge used for a year only.
This is all about the history of Nissan logos and badges. Many of us might be aware of the distinguishing Nissan facts, but this brief about logo and modification history could be a useful insight for the Nissan brand fans.
Stay tuned to UAE’s top auto blog for more information about other auto brand logos, history, facts and more.
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