Aston Martin

Aston Martin’s logo is a horizontal winged emblem with the brand name set in a bespoke uppercase sans-serif across a central lozenge in Aston Martin Green (#005643). The wings extend symmetrically on either side, their interior lines suggesting feathered vanes that taper to fine points. Peter Saville’s 2022 refinement, the eighth significant update in the marque’s history, removed a semi-circular line that had run behind the wordmark, thickened the remaining wing structures for digital clarity, and replaced gradient shading with a solid green fill. The physical badge is hand-enamelled by Vaughtons, a 203-year-old silversmith firm in Birmingham’s jewellery quarter, connecting the digital identity to a tangible craft tradition.

Logo history

Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford founded Aston Martin in 1913, with the name combining “Aston” from the Aston Clinton hillclimb where Martin competed and his own surname. The first logo in 1921 was a circular monogram of intertwined “A” and “M” letters. In 1927, the wings appeared for the first time as a wing-shaped wordmark stretched horizontally. The pivotal 1932 redesign by SCH Davis introduced the scarab beetle-inspired wing silhouette that persists today, chosen for the scarab’s association with new beginnings in Egyptian mythology. Subsequent updates in the 1950s, David Brown era (1947-1972), 1984, and 2003 refined proportions and detail but maintained the fundamental form. Peter Saville, known for his Factory Records album covers including Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures, was brought in by Chief Creative Officer Marek Reichman for the 2022 update. Saville described the changes as “subtle but necessary enhancements” to accommodate new technologies, digital applications, and future product.

Design philosophy

The 2022 wings address a specific problem: the previous logo’s fine details collapsed at small digital sizes. Saville removed visual noise, particularly the semi-circular line behind the wordmark that blurred on smartphone screens, and thickened the remaining lines to maintain legibility from 16-pixel favicons to 60-foot billboards. The bespoke sans-serif wordmark, developed with type foundry Dalton Maag, replaced letterforms that previously resembled Optima, a humanist sans-serif. The solid Aston Martin Green in the central lozenge anchors the mark in British Racing Green heritage without attempting to replicate any specific racing shade. The wing geometry still carries the 1932 scarab influence, with each vane drawn to suggest both feathered flight and aerodynamic surfaces, making the badge function simultaneously as heraldic device and engineering reference.

Brand identity

Aston Martin’s identity system operates under the tagline “Intensity. Driven.” introduced alongside the 2022 rebrand. The wings serve as the singular brand mark across the entire portfolio, from the DB12 grand tourer and Vantage sports car to the Valkyrie hypercar and the Aston Martin Aramco Formula One team. The physical badge’s production at Vaughtons, the same Birmingham firm that crafted the FA Cup trophy and 1908 Olympic medals, positions the emblem as jewelry rather than mere automotive trim. Green dominates the color system, extending through the F1 livery’s Aston Martin Racing Green to dealer environments, digital platforms, and printed materials. The brand architecture is flat: unlike some competitors, Aston Martin applies the same wings across all models without sub-brand marks, letting price and specification differentiate tiers from the Vantage entry point through the limited-production Valkyrie.

Cultural impact

The wings have appeared in twelve James Bond films, beginning with the DB5 in Goldfinger (1964), creating an association between the emblem and cinematic sophistication that no amount of advertising could replicate. This Bond connection gave the wings cultural reach far beyond the automotive world, embedding them in popular consciousness as shorthand for British elegance and controlled aggression. On the racing circuit, the 1959 Le Mans victory with the DBR1 wearing British Racing Green established the color-wing combination that the F1 team revived in 2021 after a 61-year absence from open-wheel racing. The brand’s survival through multiple ownership changes, financial crises, and seven bankruptcies makes the wings’ continuity itself a statement: across 110 years and eight logo iterations, the fundamental winged form introduced in 1927 has never been abandoned.