Citroën Logo PNG
Citroën is a French brand of cars manufacturing company, which was established in 1919 by Andre-Gustave Citroën. In 1976 the brand became a part of PSA Peugeot Citroën Group. Within the first ten years of its history Citroën has become one of the largest car companies in the world.
Meaning and history
The original Citroën logo was created in 1919 by the brand’s founder, Andre Citroën, whose family company Engrenages Citroen was specialized on design and production of helical gears. The herringbone teeth of the gears became an inspiration for the famous chevron logo.
1919 – 1922
The original Citroën logo featured yellow and blue colors. The emblem was composed of oval-framed chevrons, executed in fine lines. It was a sophisticated and light brand’s logo.
1922 – 1932
The blue and yellow color scheme remained, but the blue became a prevailing color. Now the oval emblem is placed on a solid blue octagon. The yellow lines are bolder and brighter, which makes the logo modern and crispy.
1932 – 1935
The only version of the Citroën logo, where one more graphical element is added. A white swan facing left is placed in the center of a round logo, with two chevrons above the swan and a blue bottom part, symbolizing water.
This is the first time when the wordmark appears on the brand’s icon. It is located on a blue background and has a wave shape.
1935 – 1959
The come back of the octagon. It is now more confident and framed in yellow, with a Citroën wordmark below the chevrons. The letter “I” features a dot on the top of it, which balances the two dots of “Ë” and make the logo slightly ironic.
1959 – 1966
The logo is redesigned with a modern approach. The wordmark is gone and the chevrons are three-dimensional now and enlarged. That is the first time when two teeth are different in their shapes. The bright yellow is still the main color, and there is no more blue. The only addition to chevrons symbol is a thin contour of horizontally oriented oval as a background.
1966 – 1985
The Citroën logo came back to its original color palette, but the irregular 3D chevrons remain. They are now placed in the withe circle, which is located inside the blue square. The brand’s wordmark is placed in a white rectangular and executed in blue bold typeface, in all-caps.
1985 – 2009
The color scheme of the logo has changed dramatically. Now the emblem is composed of two white chevrons placed in a red square. The wordmark is bigger now, with clear confident lines in black.
2009 – 2016
The logo, designed by Landor associates, brought back the symmetry of the chevrons and made them three-dimensional again. The color palette was changed to silver-gray and red, where silver is for the emblem and red — for the wordmark.
It is a sleek and stylish logo, showing the brand as strong and reliable, reflecting its power and passion.
2016 – 2019
The Citroën logo has a flat and simple design, but is full of style and sophistication. It is modern and luxurious. The gray color accents the sleek lines of its custom typeface, while the emblem looks more confident than ever.
2019 – 2022
The redesign of 2019 has played with the shade of gray on the primary Citroen logo, using a darker and deeper tone, which made the whole badge look more distinctive and professional. Also, the chevrons on the emblem became more compact and narrow, adding balance to the whole composition.
2021 – 2022
In 2021 the brand also introduced a badge where its name tookfirst place. The logo, used by Citroen for several months was composed of a heavily enlarged uppercase logotype, with the small solid black emblem on its left. The whole badge was set in plain black, against a white background.
2022 – now
The redesign of 2022 has created a sharp geometric badge for the legendary French automaker. The triangular chevron emblem in plain black is now enclosed into an oval frame and accompanied by a clean futuristic uppercase logotype in a sleek sans-serif font with the contours of the characters horizontally extended.
The Emblem
The legendary Citroën emblem features an image of two helical gears, which were patented by Andre Citroën. The gears look like two letters “V” turned upside-down. On almost all the brand’s logo versions the two chevron arrows are identical.
The color palette of the emblem changed several times through its history, but the chevrons never left the brand’s logo.
