Audi is one of the most well-known German car manufacturing companies, which was established in 1909 and became a part of Auto Union GmbH in 1932. Today the company, owned by Volkswagen AG is present on all continents and has 13 production facilities across the globe.
In the late 19th century, a mechanical engineer named August Horch embarked on a new challenge that would forever change the trajectory of car companies. Founding August Horch & Cie in Saxony, his vision soon evolved into the creation of a new car company, which would later be known as Audi, a name inspired by the Latin translation of “Horch,” meaning “listen.” This marked the beginning of Audi’s illustrious history, weaving a legacy of innovation, resilience, and distinction.
Audi’s journey through the sands of time is adorned with monumental achievements. From launching the Puppchen, its first small car, to becoming one of the largest motorcycle manufacturers of its time, Audi navigated through the Great Depression and financial difficulties with unwavering determination. Its merger into Auto Union in the 1930s introduced the world to the Olympic rings of Audi, symbolizing the union of four independent automobile manufacturers, including Audi itself as the fourth company. This era saw the creation of the iconic Audi rings, a symbol of unity and strength, reflecting the legacy and the geometric shape that typographer Kurt Weidemann and words of the famous graphic designer would later refine to give a three-dimensional look, enhancing its visual appeal with non-standard font and bold white letters against a background of chrome and silver rings, updated with black borders to signify elegance and modernity.
Now, Audi stands as a beacon of luxury, a second-largest car manufacturer in the luxury cars segment, persisting in its quest for excellence and innovation. The company’s current status is not merely a reflection of its past but a testament to its enduring commitment to leading the future of mobility, with its legacy continuously shaped by its achievements and vision.
What is Audi?
Audi is the iconic automobile brand from Germany, which is known for its luxury sedan and all-road vehicles of super quality and design. Today Audi cars are known and adored all over the globe, and the name of the brand has become synonymous with the high-end driving experience.
The very first logo for Audi was introduced in 1909 and was a prelaunch version, composed of a diagonally located cursive inscription in an oval outline. The logo was executed in a dark gray, which looked professional and strict.
The badge, created in 1909, was only used by Audi for a few months and got replaced by its modernized version in the same year. The first try of this period looked like a voluminous number “1” coming out from a sphere, which was half-hidden behind the black triangle, pointing down. The “Audi” wordmark was written in white narrowed cursive on the black background.
Later in the same year, an official badge was designed — a solid black triangle pointing down with the number one sign above it and the white cursive wordmark with thick smooth lines along the upper line of the geometric figure. This logo stayed with the automaker until 1932 when the Auto Union was formed.
The original Auto Inion logo featured four blue rings. In each ring, the emblem of one of the four brands was drawn, also in blue. The brands were Audi, DKW, Horch, and Wanderer Automobile.
The real Audi started in 1932 when four companies merged into Auto Union. And the iconic four-rings logo the whole world knows today is a celebration of the brand’s history and its roots — a unity of four brands, graphically represented by four connected rings.
In 1949 the four-rings logo was simplified. The brands’ emblems were removed from the badge and replaced by a thin horizontal rectangle, crossing the rings in the middle, with the capitalized sans-serif inscription on it.
In 1969 Audi introduced another logo. It was a simple and strict horizontally stretched black rectangular badge with the white corporate Audi lettering on its left side and the uppercase “NSU” in white sans-serif on the right.
Auto Unions turn into Audi in 1969, and the rectangular banner is removed from the logo. Now the emblem is composed of only four thick blue rings, chained between each other as a representation of strength and confidence.
There was also a logotype, created in the same time period — bold white lettering in a custom sans-serif with the rounded shape of the “D” was placed inside the solid black oval, which was located horizontally.
In 1978 the oval turns red and gets a thin double white and red outline, which created a better contrast and makes the emblem more distinct and bright.
Two emblems become one in 1995. The logo, designed in that year, was composed of a silver three-dimensional rings symbol with an extra-bold red lettering in the same custom typeface under it.
The thin and delicate contours of the rings brilliantly balance the massive wordmark, adding elegance and exclusiveness to the whole image.
In 2009 the logo gets refined — the glossy rings are now bigger, and the nameplate — smaller. The lettering changed its typeface to a more traditional sans-serif with slightly extended shapes. It was now placed on the left bottom part of the logo, making the four-rings emblem the star of the composition.
In 2016 the logo gets simplified. All three-dimensional effects are gone, and now the iconic symbol is executed in plain black, with no additional lettering. Four rings now have more space in the overlapping areas and look truly powerful and stylish.
The original symbolism of the Audi rings, a design that has become one of the most famous rings in the world, had more to do with politics than with actual design or typography. This strategy stemmed from Audi AG’s policy of uniting four major automotive manufacturers based in Ingolstadt, Zwickau, Chemnitz, and another city, a move not labeled a merger to avoid offending the owners of the three other enterprises, apart from Audi. Initially, this joint venture was given the universal and neutral name Auto Union, reflecting a harmonious interaction for the benefit of the consumer—a principle that later defined the work of all divisions of the company, including its subsidiaries.
The transition back to the classical design of the logo in 1985 reinforced this symbolism. The Audi rings standard, with its specific ring thicknesses, was a nod to the company’s rich history, including its roots in producing bicycles, two-cylinder and four-cylinder cars, and even two-stroke engines. This breadth of innovation, from the predecessor of today’s luxury automobiles to the first motorcycles, underlines Audi’s commitment to its own business under the name Horch, and later, as we know it today, Audi.
Modern Audi logo is well known all over the world, and in terms of its influence it is quite comparable with Mercedes and BMW, being in top three of the German automotive market and in top ten of the most successful European automakers.
The shape of the logo perfectly complements horizontal lines of the radiator grille, and it looks great in any other contexts.
Despite its world-wide fame, Audi has been using the font content from its very first logos. The inscription “Audi” had some slight changes, but the font remained generally unchanged until 2009. Its distinctive feature was a notch on the uppercase letter “A”, a simplified writing of the letter “U”, as well as a specific form of “d”, making the letter look more like a note.
It is also interesting to know that the modern form of the logo was created by August Jorge for the process of uniting four automotive companies under the Audi brand. One of these companies was a long ago independent Horche enterprise (already owned by other owners) which was once created by Augustus Jorge himself.
However, in 2009 the brand decided to unify the logo – the font was simplified, and no longer has such obvious individual features. In addition, the font element changed its position – it moved from the center to the left, under the logo itself.
The color solution of the logo hasn’t changed much throughout the history of the brand. Adhering to classical forms, Audi used classic black color for the logo. At the same time, the white font looked great on a black background.
However, in 1985, the famous Audi rings became silvery, and the font color was changed to red. Thus, the brand emphasized a new page in its history (a return to the classical form of the logo), as well as an innovative policy in the technological sphere. In 2009 version, the font color slightly changed from scarlet to cherry.
Why does the Audi logo have 4 rings?
The four rings on the Audi logo stand for four companies, which merged in the 1930s. The companies are DKW, Horsch, Wanderer, and Audi. The Auto Union was formed after the merger, and later the company was renamed, Audi.
After the redesign of 2016, Audi started writing its Ted logotype in a simpler and stricter typeface, than it used to during most of its history. The new inscription in a title case is executed in a bold and modern yet minimalist sans-serif typeface, which is very close to such fonts as Allumi Std Extended Bold and Corbet Wide Extra Bold Wide, with some very elegant lines of the letters.
The visual identity of the famous German automaker is executed in orange of the most traditional and powerful color palettes — black, red, and white, where the four-rings of its iconic emblem are drawn in black, and the delicate yet strong logotype — in red.
The combination of these shades stands for confidence and expertise and evokes a sense of professionalism, at the same time showing the company’s value of high-quality design and style.
What does the Audi emblem represent?
The four rings on the Audi emblem signify the merger of four companies: Audi,
Horch, DKW, and Wanderer in 1934, and the creation of the Auto Union AG. Initially, the Audi logo was used only on racing cars, but simple cars were produced by each company under its brand and decorated with their emblems.
What does the Audi logo represent?
The current logo of the Audi automaking brand, composed of four intertwined rings, is a celebration of the company’s history. This badge was introduced with the largest automobile merger in German history when in 1934 the Auto Union AG was formed by Audi, Horch, Wanderer, and DKW. Each of the four rings contained the badge of one of the four companies.
Why is the Audi logo four rings?
The logo of the Audi automaker is composed of four rings, with its initial concept introduced at the beginning of the 1930s, after the formation of Auto Union AG, a German group of automakers, founded through a merger of four large brands. Each of the four rings stands for one of the companies-members of the Auto Union.
What do the four rings in Audi’s logo represent?
The iconic Audi badge stands for facilitation and consolidation. And the four rings on the logo represent unity and cohesion. It was a great idea to graphically show the merger of the four brands, which have stayed with Audi for decades.
