Audi

One brand. one look. everywhere.

What happens when a carmaker with a comprehensive understanding of branding and a progressive philosophy hooks up with a corporate identity agency like MetaDesign? Audi’s success story offers a perfect illustration. The two longtime partners define brand management as a strategic process and implement it accordingly. Brand image emerges from the interplay between company, product and myth. Audi has always embraced this principle: employees have thought and acted progressively since the company was first founded, and they love the idea of proving themselves in competition. This philosophy shapes the carmaker’s products and brand.

Vorsprung_durch_technik_moving_into_the_premium_segment

Audi repositioned itself in the mid-1990s when it recognized that a clear separation from Volkswagen offered great potential for its brand. It anticipated changes in customer environment with new products: models like the A8 were tailored to the targeted group of top earners. MetaDesign visually communicated Audi’s new positioning. Through both the new corporate design program and the content and tonality of communication media, Audi and MetaDesign expressed the brand values that were valid at the time—human, leading, visionary and passionate. The brand slogan “Vorsprung durch Technik” (Leadership through technology) took on a new dimension.

The company aimed to build a consistent visual identity in all areas of communication, from PoS to the corporate website. The work laid the foundation for a change of image. Over the next few years, Audi’s clear visual strategy and matching products enabled the company to establish itself in the luxury car market.

“Taking the lead”: a more focused brand for the future

Audi continued to analyze the positioning and potential of its brand. Like the products themselves, the Audi brand has set itself new goals instead of resting on its laurels. After successfully gaining a top position in the premium segment, Audi now wants to take the lead worldwide. The carmaker began by redefining brand values in 2003 in order to distinguish itself more clearly from competitors. Based on the two previous mission statements (one for the company, the other for products), Audi articulated a single brand mission with three central values: sportiness, progressiveness and intrinsic value. With this new positioning, the company now wants to carry out its mission of “taking the lead.”

Audi drivers have come to expect this leadership from Audi products—in their eyes, it is what the Audi brand stands for. Brand management and optimization are just as progressive as the brand itself.
Entirely in keeping with the spirit of its brand, Audi has formulated a shared goal for the coming years: “taking the lead” in the international market for premium car brands.
As Audi’s lead corporate design agency, MetaDesign has provided conceptual and creative support for this strategic process, working on over 1,000 individual projects. With its profound understanding of the brand, the agency has continued to provide impetus with its own ideas. The MetaDesign project team has its finger on the pulse of the Audi brand.

The audi trademark

High-quality products are not the only thing that counts in the premium market. Brand image also plays an important role.
Audi employs a clear umbrella brand strategy to strengthen its brand image. The Audi trademark is the visual symbol of the brand. All subsidiaries, business fields, products and services use the logo in their communication activities. They not only profit from the brand, but enhance its value—a classic win-win situation.
With its premium design, the trademark created by MetaDesign visually represents Audi’s technological expertise and high quality standards. The agency also developed Audi’s entire brand architecture system./p>

Business fields, services and offerings

Product names and combined terms

Imaging-building activities

The basic design elements to reflect brand values.

These elements are used in all media and create a distinct, consistent brand identity worldwide. For Audi, “Vorsprung durch Technik” means taking the lead in thought and action, and the company also pursues this goal in the implementation of corporate design. With the basic elements and design principle, MetaDesign has created a flexible corporate design program that is able to evolve with the Audi brand.

Audi colors

Audi is a pioneer and technological leader in the design of aluminum car bodies. The color “Audi Alu” stands for technological expertise and intrinsic value, and is therefore the most important color in Audi’s primary palette. “Audi Red” is reserved for the trademark, where it is used for accentuation purposes. There are no other shades of red in Audi’s primary and secondary color palettes.

Audi typography

Audi Sans is the personal handwriting of the Audi brand and a central feature of all communication media. It is a crisp, unembellished typeface that emphasizes the carmaker’s core technological expertise. Staggered headlines set in Audi Sans Extended have a horizontal emphasis and a dynamic effect. The asymmetry of Audi typographic design serves to represent the brand value “sporty.”

Audi design principles

Audi’s visual identity is characterized by asymmetry, dynamism and transparency. In a deliberate contrast to other brands, Audi makes use of
asymmetry in its designs to illustrate the brand values of progressive and sporty. Dynamism and transparency are communicated through
all media, from graphics and photography to
architecture and showroom design. The company’s goal is to emphasize its core brand value
of “intrinsic value” through high-quality designs and materials.

Audi’s photographic style

One of the biggest challenges facing Audi’s agencies and communication campaigns is to present the carmaker’s high-quality products in an optimal way for the luxury car market. MetaDesign defined a photographic style for Audi to ensure that brand identity is implemented consistently across the world.

Eight formal photographic style rules provide guidelines for the premium presentation of Audi cars. Audi uses these rules to set itself apart from rivals. The rules grant sufficient freedoms for specific models and allow for creative interpretation.

Communication media for audi architecture

Architecture is another medium used to increase the value of the Audi brand. The Audi “hangar” has proven this, and the company is pursuing the same goal with the Audi “terminal.” The terminal was designed for inner cities, and Audi will use it to strengthen its presence in these metropolitan areas and the densely populated belts surrounding them. MetaDesign has created objective yet inspiring communication media to give dealers and builders an understanding of Audi architecture. The agency has provided extensive descriptions of all architectural elements, explaining the brand message, depicting technical details and creating digital renderings of exterior views and showroom interiors.

TV COMMERCIAL ENDING

Since 1999, all Audi TV commercials have ended with the distinct “heartbeat sound” and a shot of Audi’s four intertwined rings. This quickly learnt audiovisual logo serves primarily to strengthen the brand’s sonic identity. In 2005, MetaDesign revised this aspect of brand communications in an effort to visually demonstrate the brand’s new quality standards. The curve—a premium stylistic element
in Audi car design—was transformed into a symbol of the brand’s dynamic spirit.