While the name “ARB” alone does not say anything about the type of product the company delivers, the ARB logo gives the explanation necessary for the laymen.
ARB claims to be Australia’s largest manufacturer and distributor of 4×4 accessories. The history of the company can be traced back to 1975, when company founder, Tony Brown, undertook a 4WDing trip through the top end of Australia. During this trip, Brown realized that his old Land Rover, which was totally rebuilt and equipped with a homemade roof rack, proved to be much more successful in dealing with the local roads and extreme temperatures than most vehicles he encountered on his way. So, when he returned to Melbourne, he started to manufacture and sell his own better quality roof racks.
You can come across various versions of the logo used before the current one. One of them looked very much like the modern logo yet featured the dark blue letters “ARB.” The tagline here was moved inside the red border. Also, there was a version featuring the black abbreviation “ARB” in a lighter, more rounded type.
Earlier, the ARB logo was completely different. Each of the letters looked as if it had been formed by a single long piece of modeling clay or dough.
The current logo features the abbreviation “ARB” in black inside a rectangle with rounded corners. The border of the rectangle is red, while the filling is white. The type is a pretty heavy serif. The lower serifs on the letters overlap, so the glyphs merge together.
Below the rectangle, there is the lettering “4X4 accessories.” Here, a different type is used – it is a simpler, sans serif one. All the glyphs are separated from each other by white gaps.