Jaguar Land Rover is doing a funny thing. It’s splitting out Range Rover as its own brand, and that means it needs its own logo. The question is whether they’ve come up with something iconic and recognizable, or bleak and anonymous.
Automotive brands live and die by their logos. They’re honed and finessed by designers and marketing committees, then plastered upon vehicles and advertisements in the millions. The intention is that they leave a lasting impression, creating an instantly recognizable icon that roots itself deep in the public consciousness.
Until now, Range Rover had never really done that. Mostly because it wasn’t a brand, but a subset of models underneath Land Rover itself. Now, that’s all changing. Range Rover has a logo all its own, and brand executives will surely hope it strikes you as memorable.
What’s Going On?
This all came about because of corporate restructuring at Jaguar Land Rover. Namely, the overarching company will operate as four distinct sub-brands—Jaguar, Defender, Discovery, and Range Rover—in what it refers to as the “House of Brands” strategy. Thus far, we’ve seen the new Jaguar logo, which generated plenty of controversy. As reported by Autocar, the Range Rover effort has been revealed in an investor presentation. Defender and Discovery are yet to receive logos of their own.
The new Range Rover logo is simple enough, which can be a good thing. It’s made up of two letter Rs, one stacked atop the other, with the lower R reversed. The result is a sort of rectangular-yet-blobby icon. Modern, but ultimately indistinct. It looks perhaps more fitting for an unimpressive concept EV than a storied luxury vehicle. Because the logo looks like it was drawn today, it has no historical value, nor any link to the past established values of the brand.
Of course, coming up with new logos is hard. It’s even more challenging when you’re working with the initials “RR” for a British luxury brand. We can’t forget the existence of Rolls Royce, and its core logo which dates back to the dawn of the 20th century.
There are other great brands in the R space that Range Rover might have used for inspiration. Team Rocket have an excellent and recognizable R, as did the Red Ribbon Army from Dragon Ball. In contrast, Range Rover’s logo fumbles the R glyph so as to turn it into something almost unrecognizable.
It’s worth noting that the new logo won’t immediately take pride of place on the company’s future vehicles. The company will stick with the classic spelled-out “RANGE ROVER” badging on the front and rear, as has been the brand’s design hallmark for some time. “The Range Rover Motif has been developed as a smaller symbol for where our familiar Range Rover device mark does not fit, such as on a label or as part of a repeating pattern and within event spaces where an emblem is more appropriate,” a JLR representative told Autocar.
In other words, don’t expect to see the RR on the hood of a new Range Rover. Ironically, though, that might have been the quickest way to actually embed it in the heads of the broader public and associate it with the company’s vehicles.
The new logo has also been developed into a bespoke repeating pattern. No word on where this might be used yet, but it could be used on things like dash inserts, interior trim, or embroidered upholstery in future Range Rover models.
As for the old Land Rover name? JLR indicated it will remain as a “trust mark.” Basically, Land Rover will be used to refer to technology and drivetrains used across JLR’s various SUVs, but it won’t be treated as an overarching brand anymore. The change will ease some of the naming headaches the brand has faced when referring to vehicles as the “Land Rover Range Rover,” and so on.
However, that’s not to say the classic Land Rover oval badge is necessarily going away for good. “I really want to reiterate and put this on record that the Land Rover mark will remain,” CEO Adrian Mardell stated in 2023 when JLR first announced its new strategy. “It is still integral to our business, it will remain visible on our vehicles, it will remain on our websites, in social media and at our retail sites.”
The fullness of time will reveal exactly how Range Rover comes to use its new brand identity. As much as marketing teams and company executives try and control these things, the public response to the new logo will be what ultimately matters most.
Top graphic image: Range Rover/JLR
I’m gonna go out on a limb and suggest we may not be the target audience for Range Rover anymore.
I agree, while I don’t exactly like it it’s not awful other than the flat version images out of context. I feel the same way about range rovers too. By the 3rd subsequent generation people will become upset if there aren’t tasteful uses of this logo in obscure locations.
So who else thinks they know what the next generation RR’s (oops that’s Rolls Royce, can’t say that) RaRo’s (ugh) will have for the design of their front or rear lighting? Can’t wait to see a stacked narrow horizontal DRL, near-square headlamp, and narrow horizontal fog or indicator lamp on a Rover looking like an American brodozer imitator. With “subtle cues” of the tuck and the soft corner of the Rs, of course.
Maybe Range Rover wants to be in competition with the jeep spare tire covers with the upside down lettering saying, “If you can read this, flip me over”
It looks like they stole the logo off a packet of gas station boner pills
I think that’s what they were going for.
Man in the case of logos mayonnaise meets tofu here. The stingiest of British uppercrust are saying “a bit bland don’t you think”. Frankly the only way to save this logo is having the mascot be Astro from the Jetsons and have him in the commercials saying RatRo George.
I don’t like their vehicles, and I don’t like this logo.
WTF, looks like a logo for dandruff shampoo. Listen RR and for that matter Jaguar. No amount of legalized magic mushrooms will make these logos any better or worse. Just stop and turn in your University of Phoenix diploma. Please, I beg of you……
The inmates are running the asylum you say?
NO RRRREGERTS
BOB
“No it was the public that was wrong” Another marketing firm doubling down on getting younger clientele by rebranding ala Jaguar.
At what part in time did Tata think “It didn’t work for Jaguar, but it WILL work for Land Rover!”
Jaguar’s rebrand was a cluster-fuff. The only thing going for it now is none of that avant-garde marketing.
I disagree with a lot of the hate here, and in the right placement think it’s not that bad, or at least when you look at the gold + silver top shot, however the flat version looks awful. I could see this being used in places like the center cap of the wheels, the steering wheel, and other places you just want to put an accent better than spelling out Range Rover. It’s also more appropriate for stamping onto injection molded or cast parts like you see with most BMW or VW parts.
There is nothing here that screams Range Rover. all it screams is a double-down on the Jaguar rebrand that failed.
Is it horrible? No. But it looks like a hot-iron cattle brand you put into a flank of beef cattle to ensure its yours. That is it. The only thing they learned is not to making it a rejection of the old-history and embrase the new history ala Burberry. The New Money AKA idiot footballers got ahold of the brand and ruining it.
What JLR needs to do is take everybody in the marketing firm on a camel trophy and leave them in a desert for 2 weeks and ask them how their brand worked for them in grueling environments.
I like the cattle brand analogy, but I think that works against you. People would probably go nuts for that if you could get a bunch of these logos branded into a seat then finished with nice stitching. For the last 10+ years you don’t buy a range rover because you want the ultimate off-roader with luxury added later, you buy one because you want the ultimate luxury car with off-road added on. This kind of branding works well for the people spending new car money on an SUV, but they’re more concerned about luxury with a long heritage than if it can live up to the heritage from before they became luxury.
Did you guys know the new Mazda CX-5 was revealed today??
This looks like a logo designed primarily for licensing – as in, put on a ton of clothing, purses, shoes, etc. that you’ll first see celebrities sporting, and then total douchebags.
Exactly.
1) Their repeating pattern of R’s is clearly for that purpose; so that they can be a recognizable and unique “lifestyle brand” just like Louis Vuitton, Coach, etc.
2) So then soon, every middle class woman and teenage girl can carry Chinese knock-off RR branded fashion items.
3) Profit?
“Range Rover” in script was their logo. And it was an effective one. So effective, everyone seems to have copied the idea for their rear end treatment. Hell, even Tesla switched to it in their new Model Y.
It’s a shame they insisted on using two R’s. If only there wasn’t some other iconic car brand that already took the good logo idea.
Minor niggle, Range Rover isn’t in a script. It is just an extended sans-serif typeface.
Ha! Yeah, you got the point. Written out, “Range Rover” was their logo.
There’s been a black oval, same as the LR green oval, with “Range Rover” just written out inside, one word above the other in the typical block typeface. Basically a wordmark logo, and it was perfectly recognizable.
This new logo strongly aligns with designer label vibes, and that’s exactly what they’re going for — a “designer” brand identity. But it also signals that JLR may be unabashedly focusing on the poshness and not so much on building a vehicle that’s both off-road rugged and posh. Which is fair, given the direction JLR has been taking pretty much since the beginning.
There are plenty of us who still view the Range Rover marque as traditionally being very intentionally a posh truck that’s equal in terms of luxury and off-road chops. But I don’t think that’s where JLR wants to go any longer, and it’s sad because it dilutes the marque for those who’ve known it from the past century.
This came up in the Mazda thread too, but Range Rover was not the first to write a wordmark across the rear end.
To my knowledge, Porsche started that on the 356 in 1948, and has on various models since, long before the first Range Rover came out in 1970.
So Range Rover copied just like many others.
I didn’t say they were the first. They have been most consistent with it; it’s been part of their identify for several decades now.
This “House of Brands” strategy sounds like what pre-split Rover did in the late ’80s when they dropped the Austin name but didn’t want to put Rover on the Metro (yet), Maestro and Montego so they were just badged with their model names.
That would also be a good logo for the Burger King Texas Double Whopper.
Strange. I would have thought Jeep would have done the upside down logo thing first. At least they didn’t re-brand as Ultradyne Systems.
Edit: Wait I get it now! The owners are underwater on their loans!
The Rover fell over?
It looks like the logo for a sports betting startup that will go out of business after 2 years.
The repeated R’s pattern just… broke me. This isn’t a logo, it’s typography run amok.
Who doesn’t want to drive a weird B?
“B for… Bange? Bover?”
“THEY’RE Rs! IT’S A RANGE ROVER!”
we should all just start referring to them as new Toyota BB’s
What’s wrong with replacing the “Land” in the green badge with “Range”?
This is Uncharted-level stupid.
consultants cant charge enough for that
Consultants will do whatever the corporation wants. Typically, it is the C-suite that wants to believe that a new marketing strategy will solve decades of corporate incompetence. The more egregious the years of corporate incompetence, the wilder they want the rebranding to be.
They’ve done that before. Simple block “Range Rover” text in a black oval. A lot of literature placed both oval logos side-by-side, and dealers usually had both on their signage. The brand relationship was obvious. JLR seems to have forgotten.
Mmm, I have contained my rage for as long as possible, but I shall unleash my fury upon you like the crashing of a thousand waves! Begone, vile logo! Begone from me! This is a starter logo and this car is a finisher car! A transporter of gods! The golden god! I am untethered, and my rage knows no bounds!
The great thing about his acting is you really feel he believes in what he’s saying at that point
The Marketing Droids must be very, very, very bored these days to be dicking around with so many logos that have no need of being dicked with.