The Autobot sign is an essential part of the visual identity of the Autobot army. It has been used universally across all Transformers continuities to differentiate Autobots from Decepticons. The red mask has an interesting history.
In all likelihood, the designer that crafted the Autobot emblem used a stylized depiction of Prowl’s toy’s head as a source of inspiration (Prowl is the Autobot military strategist). In the world of Marvel Comics, the distinctive red mask is often referred to as the “Autobrand.”
According to the official legend, the Autobot symbol was created with reference to the face of the Last Autobot, the guardian that Primus prepared, against the day that he wouldn’t be able to rein his own army. By the way, we can’t but mention that the same sign was used as a symbol of the Quintesson slave brand.
The logo, designed for the Autobots in 1984, is the one, that is still used by the franchise today, despite the fact of creation a newer version in the 1990s. And not without a reason. This minimalistic geometric mask emblem in solid red looks very symmetrical and balanced, with the small sharp elements placed at a slight distance from each other, and some of the parts decorated by the white lines of the same thickness.
There’ve been several situations when the Autobots logo played an essential part in the story. For instance, when Skyfire decided to join Autobots in the Generation 1 cartoon continuity, he removed the Decepticon sign from his body and replaced it by the Autobrand.
Also, you might remember an episode when Mirage stole the sign in order to fool Insecticons and make them fight against the other Decepticons.
At the Marvel Generation 2 comics, the Autobot army started to use a new sign, which looked more like Optimus Prime than the Last Autobot.
We can also refer to one of the episodes of the Unicorn Trilogy. Megatron was capable of fooling Transformers to the Decepticon cause. For instance, Inferno could switch from the Autobot to Decepticon logo. When Inferno was trying to resist the power of Megatron, his own sign would toggle back and forth. At last, everyone could see a new Transformers Autobot logo on his body.
The Autobrand consists of only a picture and doesn’t contain any text. The lack of any lettering relies on the assumption that this is a mark that is globally known and understood.
The regular Autobot Insignia is given in red against the white background. However, we can’t but mention that the color of the logo may vary depending on the visual context. For instance, the logo may be featured as a 3D picture comprising a variety of colors and shades.