The Toyota Logo

Toyota Motor Corporation’s guiding principle is to ‘create and develop advanced technologies and provide outstanding products and services that fulfill the needs of customers worldwide’. Since it was founded, the company has been aiming to enrich society through making cars. It is now, one of the world’s leading auto, truck, bus and robot manufacturer and financial services provider.

The Toyota logo, like the company, is widely recognized for its creativity and simplicity. It has become a symbol of pioneering automotive and non-automotive products and services. The Toyota logo bears a meaningful visual identity with strong visual impact. It symbolizes the energetic transition of the company from a family business to the expansion of a worldwide company.

In 1936, when Toyoda Automatic Loom Works Ltd. was launching its first passenger car, it needed a new trademark to commemorate the launch. For that purpose, a competition was held to establish a logo that would promote the company’s vehicles. The design requirement of the company was to create something that will express ‘the feeling of speed’. Thus, the winning logo resulted in the change of the name from ‘Toyoda’ to ‘Toyota’. This was as the Japanese lettering of ‘Toyota’ gave the logo a sleek look and was also chosen because the number of strokes in the Japanese word ‘Toyota’ (eight) was considered to bring luck and prosperity. Although no longer used on products, the original Toyota logo is still used as the company’s emblem and is given to the employees of the company upon joining.

The current Toyota logo consists of the name “TOYOTA” in roman type with three ovals in red and white color scheme. ‘The two perpendicular center ovals represent a relationship of mutual trust between the customer and Toyota.  These ovals combine to symbolize the letter "T" for Toyota.  The space in the background implies a global expansion of Toyota's technology and unlimited potential for the future’.

Visual identity of any brand does not only raise effective awareness of the product, but also assist in expressing the company’s mission and philosophy to the customers. As you can see the Toyota logo brilliantly and perfectly fulfills these qualities.