Is FCA allergic to proper logos?

"Kar Wai Wong" (kingawesome467) 04/18/2020 at 12:42 • Filed to: fca, FCA LLC, fca design, fiat chrysler, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Car Badges, Car Logos, badge, Badges, badging, logo, logos, automotive logos, emblem, emblems

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2009: Whilst battling bankruptcy, Chrysler officials fire nearly all of their graphic designers for cost cutting measures.

They take a look at Jeep’s logo, one of their only positives in the business, and realise that there must be a pattern. The Chrysler 2015 branding initiative is founded, aiming to replace all of their brand’s badges with just their names by 2015.

2010: Ram is split off into their brand, and steals the ram’s head logo from Dodge. The word DODGE becomes their main logo instead.

They do have a secondary logo, based on the Dodge crosshairs, mostly used on the steering wheels.

2012: Fiat shows off the Fiat Bravo Xtreme concept at the São Paulo Motor Show, featuring their secondary corporate logo on the front, rather than the Fiat badge. Little fucks are given.

SRT is also promoted into their own brand, due to years of excellence of lacking a real logo. Despite that, their only standalone product is the Viper, which always has its own unique badge.

2014: Chrysler and Fiat tie the knot. They cap it off with a new logo, that happens to be the word FCA. Chrysler celebrates the demise of the Pentastar logo.

Suddenly, fucks are given about the FIAT badge on the Bravo Xtreme, and the Fiat badge starts being removed from the rear of new South American-designed Fiat models. Higher ups in Italy are still undecided on this FCA 2020 branding initiative , which is making lots of progress this year in response to all the extra brands in the fold to rebadge, and continue to use the Fiat badge on the rear of European models.

The Chrysler badges are completely removed from the Chrysler 300 SRT...

...and the Dodge crosshairs badge starts being phased out of their steering wheels.

This particular example was inspired by horse branding.

After months of meetings, and despite some promising looking design studies, Ferrari just wouldn’t agree to ditching their horse badges and Scuderia shields, citing confusing stuff like heritage, brand recognition and hats, and therefore, agreements are made to split off Ferrari to become fully independent.

Despite all the progress FCA had made on removing badges, the higher ups were furious to find out that the skeleton crew of logo designers at FCA, was secretly working with a skunkworks group at SRT on a logo for the secretive new Hellcat engine. FCA has since had to stuff Hellcat engines in as many products as possible to recoup the costs.

2015: FCA starts introducing trims for Ram, such as the Rebel, Limited and Power Wagon, that ditch the crosshairs and ram head logo for oversized RAM script.

2017: The Dodge Viper is killed off. There were a number of factors leading to its demise, the biggest one being they would’ve had to design a new Viper logo, so that was a no go.

The Dodge Challenger SRT Demon is revealed, with a special unique logo. The FCA logo designers literally had to sell their soul for this one, and therefore the Demon only lasted one model year.

2018: FCA starts replacing the crosshairs grille on all Ram model s, with the oversized RAM script becoming the new design direction for Ram. They still use the Ram head logo elsewhere on the vehicle.

2019: The Fiat Concept Centoventi is shown off, with the Fiat script badge prominently being used rather than the Fiat badge.

2020: Fiat finally ditches their badge completely in South America, with the FIAT script becoming their new logo, and is now affixed to the rest of the vehicle.

The new Fiat 500 became the first European designed Fiat to have the new Fiat name as their logo, but only on the rear. Everywhere else, it uses the word 500 in place. To celebrate the demise of the Fiat badge, the new Fiat script logo has been plastered everywhere on the launch editions.

The Airflow Vision concept is shown off at CES 2020. The vehicle features minimal branding at all, with just very small instances of the word AIRFLOW being used.

Fiat in 2021 shown donating military vehicles to help aid the war effort.

2022: After the zombie apocalypse of 2020-2022, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Groupe PSA finally merge to create PFAJ, (Peugeot, Fiat and Jeep). The Chrysler brand is discontinued, due to the fact it still had a logo and Alfa Romeo was sold and merged with Jaguar Land Rover, as they couldn’t fit the words ALFA ROMEO into their scudetto grille.

2023: Peugeot starts removing the Peugeot Lion from their cars, leaving the model name as the only badging on their models.

2024: With the introduction of the new Hellcat powered Omega OPC, Opel starts adding small OPEL script to the front of their models. Vauxhalls remain unchanged.

2026: Corporate suddenly remembers that Lancia still exists. Promptly kills them for still having a proper logo.

Shown here on the Levante Cabrio, the 10th best selling car in Belgium.

Luxury SUV company Maserati ditches their trident logo, to match the rear of their vehicles, which already uses the word Maserati at the rear. The PFAJ 2030 branding initiative starts looking like it may be heading towards completion.

2028: PFAJ starts phasing out Citroën in favour of DS, in a bid to eradicate more French weirdness from the company, better satisfy the middle and upper class with luxury as the lower class continue struggling with the fallout of the War and mostly because their logo is pretty much the word DS.

2029: PDF merges with Geely to create Peugeot-Fiat-Hellcat-Geely, or PFHG. Higher ups groan at the influx of new brands they have to remove badges from.

dogisbadob > Kar Wai Wong 04/18/2020 at 12:48

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Maybe they think a real logo implies quality, which they’re also allergic to :p

DipodomysDeserti > Kar Wai Wong 04/18/2020 at 12:51

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No, although the old one with the blue banner was better.

jimz > Kar Wai Wong 04/18/2020 at 12:52

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the last Dodge-specific logo they had before adopting the Ram was the “fratzog.”

I guess from a design standpoint it’s easier to work in a badge that just has the name vs. one with a specific shape.  

jimz > Kar Wai Wong 04/18/2020 at 13:09

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plus, sometimes logos don’t go as well as planned. For a while, the Viper logo looked like a happy snake:

I mean, c’mon. It’s a brutish V10 roadster, and the best you could do is design a snake which looks like it’s saying “hey, ‘sup guys?”

Then the 2003 came out with a much more sinister looking logo:

Until you turned it upside down, then it looked like Daffy Duck.

I was actually in Auburn Hills at the time (supplier resident engineer) and “Evil Daffy” was a phrase you simply did not say in front of certain people. 

boredalways > Kar Wai Wong 04/18/2020 at 13:28

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This is good Oppo

Slant6 > jimz 04/18/2020 at 13:45

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My Dart has a fratzog! Always thought it should come back. 

jimz > dogisbadob 04/18/2020 at 13:49

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Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > DipodomysDeserti 04/18/2020 at 13:59

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That Abarth logo is fantastic and pretty much half the reason you would want an Abarth Fiata.

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > Kar Wai Wong 04/18/2020 at 14:01

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I really don't understand why FCA got rid of the good looking and adaptable crosshair grille in favor of, what, like two baguettes poking each other? And did they end up taking the II out of Dodge II? What about Abarth?

Chariotoflove > jimz 04/18/2020 at 14:20

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Pffff, clearly a chicken anyway.

My bird IS the word > Kar Wai Wong 04/18/2020 at 14:42

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Minimalist logos are in now, the thought being it stands apart from all the advertising clutter.

Lots of advertising is based on dubious psychology.

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > Kar Wai Wong 04/18/2020 at 15:12

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The new Electric 500 not having a FIAT logo is not odd at all. I don’t like it, but their plan is to make ‘500' it’s own brand a la ‘DS’ for Citroen.

Kar Wai Wong > Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available 04/18/2020 at 17:33

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The two red lines? It seems that was actually an addition, sometime round 2013 I think? Although it seems the lines only started being added to the steering wheels around 2015?

2011 Charger:

2013 Charger:

2014 Durango:

2016 Durango:

Kar Wai Wong > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars 04/18/2020 at 17:43

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Unsurprising , although it seems in Europe, the Panda might be the only non 500 model left soon .

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > Kar Wai Wong 04/18/2020 at 17:52

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It was all about how it is a whole new Dodge, despite not having a single new product. I didn’t mind it and it wasn’t bad from a marketing perspective, but it was entirely silly given the age of their lineup. I think the Dart was supposed to mark a resurgence for the brand but we all know how that turned out.

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > Kar Wai Wong 04/18/2020 at 18:28

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Which really sucks as making small cars is what FIAT is known for :(

pip bip - choose Corrour > Kar Wai Wong 04/18/2020 at 21:06

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this is a good take.