Pininfarina is a luxury Italian brand of car designing company, which was established in 1930. Today the brand is a part of Mahindra Group and provides a variety of services in both automobile and industrial design segments.
The history of the legendary Italian brand began in 1930, when Battista Farina, known as Pinin, founded Società Anonima Carrozzeria Pinin Farina, which designed and produced special chassis for individual customers or small series of cars. But even then the founder of the brand was sure that soon cars would become an integral part of life for everyone. And he worked in this direction.
Pininfarina has always been a family company, even after its international expansion and its “conquest of America”. By 1958 the company had built a new factory, equipped with the latest technology at the time, covering an area of 75,000 m². Soon after its completion, Batista turned over the management of the company to his son Sergio and son-in-law Renzo Carli. They managed the company until 2001, when Andrea Pininfarina, his grandson, took over until he died in 2008.
What is Pininfarina?
Pininfarina is an Italian automobile atelier, which was established in 1930, and is specialized in the enhancement and improvement of cars, collaborating with major international manufacturers, such as Ferrari, Fiat, Maserati, Hyundai, and many others.
The first Pininfarina badge saw the light in 1906 and stayed with the iconic automaker for two decades. It was a classy elegant crest with the letter “F” on it. The lines of the “F” were elongated and slightly curved, white the additional “Farina” wordmark, set above the badge, on the place of the crown, was written in a simple and strict sans-serif font, with the uppercase letters solid and clean. The badge was enclosed between two geometric wings and decorated by a modest crown on top.
The company, named after its founder, Battista Pinin Farina, boasts an elegant and full of heritage visual identity.
The Pininfarina logo is composed of a wordmark and an emblem above it. The wordmark in all the lowercase lettering features an italicized cursive typeface with square lines and softened angles. The font looks futuristic and is a perfect balance for the brand’s classic emblem.
The letter “F” (for Farina) is the central element of the wordmark. Standing in the middle, it is slightly enlarged and has elongated lines.
The emblem is a vertically located rectangular with a bold letter “F” in lower case and its upper part curved. Two red triangles are placed in the bottom right and top left corners, which makes the white background look diagonal and the tail of the “F” cut.
The elegant red crown is located above the rectangular frame, one round pearl is placed on top of it. It adds the sense of luxury and rich heritage of the brand.
The traditional tricolor palette of the Pininfarina logo is a reflection of a sophisticated and high-end company that values loyalty and quality in design.
The Pininfarina logo evokes a sense of authority and expertise as well as an immaculate sense of style and beauty. It is a balance of modernity and classics. A great timeless logo.
The name of the brand is printed using a very interesting calligraphic, italicized font with all the letters being interconnected and these connections lying flat. This font has already been used by the company for almost a century and did not cease to be relevant. It has a metallic silver color, which adds a luxurious touch to the logo. Above the Pininfarina inscription, the logo has “Automobili” printed in sans-serif, delicate font with the letters being spaced widely apart to create two lines of the same length. It is printed in a light sky blue color that is also featured in the “F” emblem placed right above the inscriptions. It features a lowercase “F” done in metallic silver gradient and drawn as if the top of the letter curves behind.
The updated logo is just a black version of a logo created a couple of years earlier. There are no more metallic, gradients, and blue colors, just black. This version looks bold and creates an image of a stable company. Done in black, the lettering adds sophistication.
The lowercase cursive lettering from the iconic Pininfarina badge is set in a custom geometric typeface with the straight lines of the script characters, looking futuristic and unusual. The closest font to the one, used in the Pininfarina insignia, is, probably, Cabriolet Cabriolet, but with the more square shapes of the glyphs and flattened tops of each letter.
As for the color palette of the Pininfarina visual identity, it is set in a classy and extremely elegant red-blue-white tricolor, which can often be seen on the flags of different countries, due to the perfect contrast and meaningfulness of its shades. Blue is the color of confidence and safety, while red stands for passion and power, and white is a symbol of loyalty and reliability.