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 wonder if there’s a case for Rolls Royce against them, and if Rolls will sue. They should.
There is obviously market competition between them and going to RR even changing orientations seems to be walking, or crossing over, a fine line with the original RR.
They should have stayed w/ the classic design…not that I care about any of these vehicles
Wow! A logo that is actually worse than Kia’s Nine Inch Nails logo.
Splitting Land Rover from Range Rover is the right move. I just drove past the local dealership in Princeton, NJ. The old dealership had propellers on the walls inside, a big rock hill for driving cars over, and a general adventurous feel. The new one, a few blocks down, is a very fancy luxury vehicle dealership. The new Defender can hold up Land Rover pretty well, with the Discovery as a decent 2nd vehicle.
An adventure brand that will have stuff like winches and external storage and offroad tires from the dealer is solid. A luxury SUV brand that’s actually got decent taste and offroad chops is solid. They shouldn’t step on each other’s toes.
Splitting out Discovery is asking for it to die. It’s not special enough to live by itself. Unless they start making LR4s again, I don’t see how this could work.
WTF are they going to call regular Range Rovers? Not the Evoque or Velar, but the full size one? They have to give it a name. I think they should just lean into the land yacht angle and name it “Capital Destroyer.”
Of note here is demotion of Jaguar to the sedan brand of (effectively) Land Rover. That’s an honest place for it. But if they’re trying to sell it alongside RR Autobiographies, they’ll have to do better than a boxy Cyberpunk 2077 purple-mobile.
We need the thoughts of Adrian on this.
A professional graphic designer spent actually time on this- they made a bar array of sketches, digitized and tweaked ideas, made mock ups, presented their work, and this was the result.
My initials are W M. In highschool I had an assignment to make s personal logo, I put the W on top of the M, I did not spend much time on it, I was 13…
At least you weren’t Montgomery Ward.
Yep, this is what I was thinking. If I had come up with this and thought it was my best design out of the lot, I honestly would’ve been too terrified to present it, knowing that it’s lazy and uninspired. This is the kind of thing I’d doodle at first, and then immediately throw into the wastebasket.
This logo would work better on a Bitcoin Car
This is so stupid. As a long time Land Rover owner, I don’t understand why they would be trying so hard to create a separate entity for the RR sub brand. It’s not difficult to follow, Land Rover is the brand, Range Rover is the model, as is Defender and Discovery. In an automotive landscape full of “up and comers”, they should be embracing their heritage.
I would agree, but since Range Rover isn’t a single model now, but a subbrand, it can be a little confusing.
The longstanding naming confusion comes from “Land Rover” and “Range Rover” originally being model names under the Rover Marque.
Since Rover is no more, and has effectively been replaced by Jaguar, I propose renaming the “Defender” to “Land Jaguar”, and the “Range Rover” to the “Range Jaguar”.
Will this help the matter? probably not.
would JLR pay a consultancy firm to tell them the same thing? probably.
After the jaGUar logo debacle, I’m amazed they have the energy to mangle another easily-recognizable brand.
As Stellantis has showed, you just want as many brands as possible. Hell, make each car its own brand. Whatever.
If that’s the case, then why hasn’t Stellantis brought back the likes of DeSoto, Plymouth and others in the USA?
Stellantis LOVES to make car brands. It turns out, they just don’t seem to like making cars. Hence, Dodge and Chrysler out there with practically no models between them.
JLR must have a new top secret consultant, Carlos Tavares, not pictured above.
So instead of being the Land Rover Range Rover, it’s the Range Rover Land Rover Edition Range Rover? This Discovery is not giving me any hope they can Defend this decision.
I cannot believe they gave Forward Control of their branding to these dopes. Are they trying to Evoque GM with their 43 brands?
They really are on a Discovery mission to try and make each model into their own brand. This Series of events should be entertaining.
It’s easy to mock JLR because of pretty much everything they do. However:
You want your brand to be more exclusive?
That means fewer customers.
Bland confusing branding will do that.
I bet the brand team get a bonus if the sales go down. They probably also get a bonus if the sales go up because JLR doesn’t need to make sense.
Tbh it looks more like two P’s than two R’s. PowerPuff? PassionProject? PederastParade?
The logo could look sharp as as a design pattern. Otherwise it’s hideous and reminds me of a candy bar.
For brand identity, could easily incorporate a stylized Check Engine Light in the center square.
I hope, when you win comment of the day, Mercedes can photoshop this for us
They 100% missed the opportunity to incorporate a drop of oil into the new logo like Lumon (from Severance, for those that are unfamiliar).
So related to the rest of the House Of
PancakesBrands announcement, I am disappointed that this seems to mean that the Land Rover’s “Defender 90,” Defender 110” and “Defender 130” will now be the Defender’s “90,” “110” and “130.” I want cars with names.