Vauxhall's new logo
Has Vauxhall simplified its Griffin a step too far?
Vauxhall has unveiled a new version of its famous Griffin, the new Vauxhall logo follows a very familiar direction in modern identity design: cleaner, flatter, sharper and considerably simpler.
There are good reasons for doing that. Logos now have to work everywhere from the front of a car to a tiny digital icon, and Vauxhall says its new, more streamlined emblem has been designed to appear clearer and sharper, particularly when illuminated on the front of its latest vehicles due to be shown in 2027.
But has the simplification gone a little too far?
More than 100 years of the Griffin
The Griffin has been associated with Vauxhall since the company began producing cars in the early 20th century, although the origins of the symbol go back much further. It derives from the coat of arms of Sir Falkes de Bréauté, whose connection with the area eventually helped give Vauxhall its name.
Over the years the badge has changed considerably. Earlier versions showed a much more detailed mythical griffin, part lion, part eagle holding a flag containing the letter V.
Successive redesigns gradually stripped away much of that detail, but the essential idea remained recognisable.
The latest redesign makes one particularly significant change: the flag has disappeared completely.
What's the Griffin holding now?
This is the part of the new design I find slightly odd.
Remove the flag and the Griffin still appears to have an arm or leg, depending on how you read the illustration, reaching forwards. Previously there was an obvious reason for it to be there: it was holding the flag.
Now it's holding… nothing.
That's an interesting problem with simplification. Removing detail from a logo can make it stronger, but if you remove something that explains another part of the design, what remains can suddenly become more difficult to understand.
Rather than simply looking cleaner, the Griffin now feels slightly incomplete to me.
Is it still obviously a Griffin?
There's another issue when the new symbol is viewed very small.
At larger sizes, and particularly when you already know what you're looking at, the Griffin is easy to recognise. Reduce it to the sort of size we see logos displayed digitally, however, and I think some of that recognition disappears.
In fact, to my eye there's something distinctly cat-like about it (but I’m not great with animals!)
That's subjective, of course like all design, but it raises an important point about simplifying an established brand symbol. A logo certainly needs to work at small sizes, but simplification isn't automatically successful simply because there are fewer elements.
The real test is whether the distinctive characteristics survive.
Vauxhall itself describes the Griffin as instantly recognisable. If that's the case, preserving what makes it recognisably a Griffin should arguably be just as important as making it cleaner.
And then there's the wordmark
The accompanying VAUXHALL wordmark is similarly clean and contemporary, although one detail immediately caught my eye: the space between the V and A.
V and A are notoriously awkward characters to space because their diagonal forms naturally create a large area of negative space between them. Good kerning usually compensates for that optically rather than relying purely on a mathematically consistent gap.
Here, to my eye, the V and A feel slightly too far apart.
It's a tiny detail, but typography is full of tiny details. Once you notice an awkward piece of spacing, it's surprisingly difficult to stop seeing it.
Simplification versus recognition
I can understand what Vauxhall is trying to achieve.
The new emblem needs to work digitally, physically and as an illuminated element integrated into the front of a vehicle. A cleaner construction makes considerable sense, and the sharper geometry fits comfortably alongside the rest of Vauxhall's current design language.
My question is whether they've gone one step too far.
Good simplification isn't just about taking things away. It's about knowing what you can take away without losing the idea.
The Griffin has survived more than a century of redesigns because, however much its appearance changed, certain elements continued to tell its story.
Take away the flag, simplify the creature further and reduce it to a tiny digital mark, and I wonder whether we're beginning to reach the point where you need to know it's a Griffin before you can actually see one.
And if I hadn't known?
I'd probably have said it was a cat!
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