Since the arrest of former Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn, it’s no secret that the company has been struggling. They’ve gone through four CEOs in four years, endured the constant news cycle surrounding Ghosn and his subsequent escape in an audio equipment box, and struggled to keep up with an evolving marketplace and global financial downturn.
Now, however, things are starting to change. Nissan recent revealed that it’s planning on debuting 12 new products in the next 20 months (it was 18 months but some of that planning looks to have been pushed due to coronavirus-related delays).
The 2021 Nissan Kicks Recently debuted in Thailand and just went on sale in Japan.
Photo courtesy of Nissan Motor Corporation
This year, the automaker has already revealed that the company has redesigned the popular Kicks subcompact SUV and compact Rogue, and has plans to debut a redesigned Pathfinder and two Infiniti vehicles in the second halfInfiniti vehicles in the second half of 2020.
There’s also been an evolution of the Infiniti brand. In an effort to cut costs and make a premium product that customers are more receptive of, Nissan will evolve the brand into a “Nissan plus” version that relies on common architecture and power plants to achieve its sales and production goals.
Just in time for the arrival of the company’s first all-electric SUV, the Ariya, Nissan is changing its outward identity, giving its logo a thorough redesign. The current logo had been in place for 20 years.
The logo design was complex because it had to take into account numerous applications from digital to letterhead to on-vehicle branding.Photo courtesy of Nissan Motor Corporation
The design process began in the summer of 2017 with Alfonso Albaisa, Nissan’s senior vice president of global design exploring the possibility of changing the brand’s identity. He set up a design team led by Tsutomu Matsuo, deputy general manager of Nissan’s advanced design department, to study changes small and large, giving the group the keywords “thin, light, and flexible” to use as inspiration.
As part of its process, the team also had to take into consideration what the design would look like on the curved surface of a vehicle, on paper, illuminated, and in 3D. Two-dimensional design was first, followed by 3D and, finally, illumination.
The logo will soon roll out to storefronts worldwide.Photo courtesy of Nissan Motor Corporation
Two years of sketches, meetings, digitization, and presentations later, a new logo was decided upon.
The new logo retains elements of the last one. It still has a familiar circular boundary, this time with openness at the midsection. The “NISSAN” is centered in the circle. On some vehicles, like the Ariya, it appear as that the logo will illuminate like a Mercedes-Benz three-point star, as it sits at the front of the vehicle.
To support the logo evolution, Nissan has already changed its online branding. Next, letterhead and dealership signs, social media, and digital advertising will feature the new logo in one of its four forms.
A New Day for Nissan
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