New identity for Lancia

Italian car group Lancia relaunches its visual identity this week to mark the company’s centenary. The new-look badge has been drawn by Italian design consultancy Robilant Associati.

Robilant Associati collaborated with the group’s in-house team at Lancia’s design centre in Turin to update the logo, which comes ahead of the brand’s return to the UK next year.

According to a spokeswoman for Lancia, the aim of the redesign was to retain the look and feel of the Fiat-owned brand’s historic identity, but also to give it a modern twist.

The redrawn badge retains the iconic shield, which has appeared on Lancias since 1929, with a blue background and Lancia lettering.

A chromium-plated frame with a 3D effect has been added, in order to bring its character up to date.

Additionally, the steering wheel becomes a graphic sign, and the spokes are expressed in two points, focusing the eye on the Lancia logo, which has been slightly retouched to make it more legible.

The previous logo, launched in 2000, featured a more intricate steering wheel design.

According to the new Lancia strapline, the fresh logo is ‘the evolution of 100 years of elegance and attitude’.

The move follows the redesign last October of Fiat’s logo, also by Robilant Associati, in collaboration with the Fiat design centre.

In November 2005, Frank Stephenson, former head of design for Ferrari and Maserati, was promoted by Fiat to become head of the Fiat, Lancia and light commercial vehicles styling centre in Turin.

DISTINGUISHED HISTORY
• Lancia was founded in 1906 by Vincenzo Lancia and became part of the Fiat Group in 1969
• One of Lancia’s trademarks is the use of the letters of the Greek alphabet as model names
• The company was famous for persisting with right-hand drive until 1956
• The brand will return to the UK with a right-hand drive version of its new Delta in 2008
• During the 1980s the company co-operated with Saab, and the Lancia Delta was sold as the Saab 600 in Sweden