New F1 logo planned? Trademark application reveals designs

2017 F1 season

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Formula One’s new owners appear to be considering a replacement for the current F1 logo.

The current Formula 1 logo
Three trademark applications registered today with the European Union Intellectual Property reveal the possible changes to the current design. The applications were submitted by Formula One Licensing BV.

Version of the logo omitting the identifying text ‘Formula 1’ have also been submitted.

The submissions have been made under the Nice Classification for goods and services which is recognised by the World Intellectual Property Office. The trademark applications are now being examined.

The current F1 logo, which has gone unchanged for years, features a black ‘F’ and white ‘1’ emphasised by a red graphic.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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99 comments on “New F1 logo planned? Trademark application reveals designs”

  1. Man, i like change, change can be good. BUT those designs are TRASH!!

    1. If you had told me they were designs from years ago I wouldn’t think twice.

      1. They look like WipEout team logos from the PS1 era, so you’re not wrong.

    2. It always struck me that the movement of the current F1 logo goes from right to left.
      That is to say that the image, although leaning or heeling to the right, moves against
      the reading direction as we know it in the western world.
      In cartoons or in the books of illustrated stories, from the beginning of Tintin, the main
      character mostly moves with the reading direction (from left to right) if he is going
      somewhere and when he returns in his track going back he moves in the opposite
      direction (from right to left).
      When we watch a race on television it appears to me that in most sequences we see
      racing cars move mostly from left to right on our screen. If this has something to
      do with the fact that most racing circuits are driven clockwise, I don’t know but I would
      not be surprised if it did.

      Being a graphic designer I took the liberty (!) to reverse the existing image and I think
      that this makes it more dynamic. As if the direction is correct this time.
      Because I think that the original design is quite clever in combining the F and the 1
      I tried to keep this quality in my redesign. Doing this I violated the copyright.

      See (click) below
      https://imgur.com/a/g6gal

      1. I can understand what you mean but with your version you end up with a useless block on the right to make the negative space ‘1’ work and the F is no longer as defined. The original works because the F and the speed accents frame the 1 perfectly without having additional shapes, its a perfect design already.

      2. The moving logo from right to left is the logic way, imagine it is part of a news ticker. Then we read from left to right we move the eyes in a still text. But the eyes can be still when the text (of the original F1 logo) is moving from right to left.
        Apart from that, I like your copy with the colour combination black-white-red, reading from left to right.

  2. HUGE opportunity missed to give the fans a go at this.

    1. +1

      @nemo87

      that would have been a great way to engage fans into it !

      1. @nemo87 @redbullf1

        Absolutely, This is my shot at it…

        A liiiiittle bit too cynical for FOM’s liking, maybe…

        1. Lol! Very nice

    2. Totally agree!

    3. Still an opportunity to let us vote for our favourite.

      I’d go for the one with red speed stripes.
      My 2nd choice is the little blue and green one.

    4. Indeed. Lewis helmet design thing was a great idea, FOM should copy.

    5. I agree with you, and at lease kept the 1 red.

    6. David Joshua Cook
      21st November 2017, 18:50

      yeah, because crowdsourced branding never goes wrong.

  3. I’ve never been a fan of the F1 logo, just looks like a slightly odd-shaped ‘F’ at first glance. Second glance there is a jagged red shape alongside. Third glance, yep it’s a an F and a jagged shape. Fourth glance, oh I think there’s a 1 there. Fifth glance, yep it’s supposed to be a 1. Or is it just me?!

    1. It took me a few years to notice to, I still remember going to my brother ‘the one’s in the gap….’

      To be fair the logo isn’t displayed much it was only on a games loading screen I stopped to look at it.

    2. @unicron2002 @glynh Indeed I was about say, I spent years mistakenly thinking the speed lines shape is the 1. It took me 5–6 years of following F1 to realise that the gap is the 1.

      Having said that, I don’t think it’s a bad logo, but just by chance I happened to be thinking about possible redesigns for the logo a week or two ago.

      One idea is to keep the F, get rid of the speed lines and replace it with a thin line outlining the right side of the 1 (in exactly the same place as it is now). Alternatively, get rid of the speed lines and make the 1 red. Then seperate them with quite a thin line so the whole logo can still be shown all black or all white. The final option, is don’t change it at all.

      @yulocke I concur completely, if it’s going to be one of these, they shouldn’t change it

      1. The current F1 logo does have the similar feature to the arrow in the FedEx logo. Not completely obvious at first, but clever and memorable upon noticing. Took me years to realize the arrow in the FedEx logo. Very clever.

        1. @bullmello indeed, and from that point of view it’s very effective because, as you say, it’s memorable once you notice

    3. it’s because of negative counter shapes, like the Carrefour logo (spoiler, it’s a “C”). If you put it all in black, yo can see more easily the 1, but the red kind of distract you to getting at first glance. Trust me, i’m a graphical designer! :P

      1. @matiascasali Yes, current logo are miles better than these three. I don’t mind about the red part but I think it would be better if the pointy end align with top of the letter F so it has continuation and doesn’t feels like disproportionate.

    4. OMG! That’s a revelation! I’ve spent years looking at it and thought the red thing was the 1!

      Thanks for the late education there!

  4. Just no

    1. Just no indeed. They are all horrible and the current one is good in itself….

      1. Yes it is good, but that will not be not enough to save it in this new era!!

        1. Just need to remove the MGU-H bit from the logo and stick twin turbos on it. And flames.

      2. @fer-no65 Its like the NBA logo.Both are pretty awesome as they are & they are easily recogniseable.No need to change the iconic F1 logo

  5. None of the alternatives is as iconic as the current one. I suppose marketing people just wanted to justify their salary.

  6. There are many other things to change before the logo…

  7. The one on the left looks okay, the other two I’m not so sure. I think Liberty should engage fans and let people send in their own designs, they shouldn’t rush a logo change if it takes another year to get something that looks stunning then I’m sure most fans would be happy with that

    1. Bring back these while you’re at it.

      1. The yellow box graphics I mean.

    2. Oh the memories

    3. The problem with that logo is, that without the FIA component, the rest is just a block of text. Maybe they could take the current logo, incorporate the F1 shape from the FIA logo and make that the logo.

    4. @john-h – I’ve never seen this before (I’ve been following F1 only from the late 2000s, as you can guess).
      Man, that tune, gets the blood pumping.

      I can see why intro is not popular anymore – in this age of instant gratification and attention deficiency, some FOM pointy head probably felt that a 20-second build-up to a logo reveal would just lead to people clicking away from the channel (as if?!)

    5. Amen, sir.

  8. Hmmmm, I have to admit, the first and the third option are pretty nice alternatives. Out of them, I prefer the first the most; it has this futuristic wavy element that is very in-fashion lately in the logo design world. It is also a very minimalist approach and, if I may go on a speculative tangent, I think it also conveys the speed, elegance and heritage of the sport; the curve of the lines, one stacked on top of each other, bundled with the halt provided by the minimalist 1, it provides a good flow in the design. The first curved lines also remind me of circuit racing, though that’s a bit of a reach obviously. But, overall, it is a very solid and great work, there was some thought put into it. Only change needed is for the accompanying font for Formula 1. The a there is especially weird; use the italic/greek α like the current logo does and it should fix it.

    The second one is the weirdest, and worst imo, of the bunch, it takes too long to reform and you’re left wondering what the heck is going on on the left side of the logo before coming back to crash into the f and form the 1 afterwards. I like the attempt at iconifying the famous Suzuka 8 circuit, but it falls flat in execution. Unless they’re going for a unified GP2 category-like logo, I think it should be dismissed outright. Furthermore, the font used is also one of the plainest ones I’ve seen in a good, long while.

    Same goes for the third one too, really, but the logo itself is quite special. It is simplistic, but i like how the lines breaking form the F and provide the speed factor necessary in the 1. It is an alright logo, gets the job done, nicely and tidy.

    If they change it, I hope they go with the first one to be honest. I’m going to miss the old logo, but damn the new one should look good and sexy at least!

    1. Agree the first one is the better of the three, but still not enough to supplant the current one with its identification factor value.

      It does look like the first and second were going for a racetrack type visual in the lettering and the first is somewhat effective in the regard. The second one looks like a scribble though…

  9. If it ain’t broke…!

    1. +1

      @72defender

      Like everything in F1, if it ain’t broken we need to fix it !!!

      1. @redbullf1, are you describing FOM or the fans of F1 with that remark?

        1. quite sure it applies to both.

    2. Pat Ruadh (@fullcoursecaution)
      18th November 2017, 7:54

      +1

  10. I like the existing one, but if they MUST change it and it has to be one of the three above I’d vote for the third one on the right.

  11. Good to see them focusing on the things that matter. The second one I feel Vettel could describe best – ‘Honestly, what are we doing here?’. It’s awful. The third one I don’t like at all, and the first one, while not completely terrible, is a lot worse than the current one. So please, leave it as is unless you can come up with a cool alternative.

  12. It is all black and white now! Needs some colour adding.

    The F1 Fanatic logo at the bottom left of the image has more colour than this.

    1. @thegianthogweed even worse, it’s a very dull grey, not even a strong black

      1. @thegianthogweed @strontium I imagine they just want to at least have the form and shape of the design trademarked at this stage, with colour to be added later. At least you’d hope…

    2. Its like they asked McLaren to design it, expecting something vibrant and colourful, but instead they were disappointed yet again with the lack of colour.

  13. I like the F1 logo as it is. But if it has to be changed I hope they go for a design where the number can be replaced to form the F2, F3 and F4 logos with the same effect. Actually, I’d prefer the current F2 logo with a “1” rather than the alternatives shown!

  14. I think the first one would fit nicely for F1 as it is now. Narrow piece of tarmac with tons of runoff on both sides. But it has some clear flaws. The design clearly needs a chicane incorporated in the design somewhere and a car passing another cutting the corner with its rear wing drs wide open and it would fit f1 perfectly.

      1. @socksolid hahaha. An IOTD [image of the day] there.. I was thinking about tarmac too

    1. @socksolid ahahah that’s very funny, and I can’t unsee the tons of runoff now you have said it

  15. Having done a bit of graphic design I find nothing compelling about any of the new offerings and certainly nothing better than the current logo. A new logo needs to be compelling and substantially more so than the current design before considering replacing your brand image. (Not that these criteria have been lost on corporate decision makers many times over the years.)

    Even if one does not care for the current logo, it has established name brand identification. That is worth a lot.

    An associate of mine does far more and better graphic design than I do and she could come up with something far better than these examples.

    Typical corporate think to want to put your mark on the brand after taking over. If it must be done, just do it well, or not at all.

  16. It’s amazing how horrible these new logos are, considering that the current one isn’t anything special either, albeit at least memorable and with a hidden quirk in it.

    You could throw a crowd concurs for the fans and you’d end up with at least 10 better designs.

    Make a some contest for the fans, offer a serious money award and give the winner a chance to have their logo represent the number one racing series in the world. That’s a fan engagement if you want one!

  17. If this images come from a brand registration page they might have chosen not to protect the colouring, and that could be the reason why it is completely black

    Or they really are missing some inspiration there.

    I find it difficult to look at any of these, the current one included, mostly because the letter below are not aligned with the end of the logo nor are centered.

    The first one is just a rip-off of the Force India logo

    1. I find it difficult to look at … the current one … mostly because the letter below are not aligned with the end of the logo nor are centered.

      @johnmilk – With the current logo, if you extend the vertical bar of the F (which is diagonal in the logo since it’s italicized), you’ll notice the ‘F’ of ‘F1’ and ‘Formula 1’ align. Likewise, the rightmost part of the foot of both the 1s are aligned.

      The red swoosh is something like a go-faster stripe, so doesn’t factor into the alignment (although it is what contributes to your feeling that the two lines are not aligned).

  18. I prefer the current one.

  19. Could be worse I suppose, $625,000 to make the London 2012 logo, and we know how that looked…

    1. That was great branding.

  20. Given the quality of those logos, i’m surprised none of them used Comic Sans for the text

    1. LOL, I would like to give a shoutout to WordArt from office 98

  21. Michael Brown (@)
    18th November 2017, 1:28

    I like the current one, it’s clever. The space between the F and the shape on the other side is the number 1.

  22. looks like they hired the same people who did re-did google, premier league, best western, verizon, microsoft, at&t, motorola, qantas, whirlpool, gap, met life, mastercard, lenovo, walmart, skype, pandora, prime, etc.

    1. Or you could say the design trend nowadays is: flat, gradient-less, minimalistic, and readable if printed in black and white

  23. The change is understandable in terms of branding. With the logo in a single color, they can change the color to match different cultures/countries, for example use red in China. Also the new logo, will be easy to place on different backgrounds and media.

    1. @bridgemkr they could do that with the existing logo if they want to. The official version obviously has two colours but they often show it as just black or just white. If changing the colour is something they want to do then it could be done using the existing logo

  24. Maybe they’re going to have a competition, and those are just three quick efforts knocked up by the work experience kid that they’re going to use as examples.

    Buuuuut more realistic me is expecting a poll in the coming weeks/months asking us which one we prefer.

  25. I created a petition to try and convince Liberty Media to not change the logo.

    https://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2017/11/17/new-f1-logo-planned-trademark-application-reveals-designs/

    Please sign and spread the word!

  26. Carlos Furtado das Neves
    18th November 2017, 2:26

    Is this the best thing the designers can do? Some Word fonts can do better!
    No more comments…

  27. I like the current F1 logo simply for its clever use of negative space for the ‘1’. To me, it’s the kind of logo that rewards you for studying it.

    The first thing that caught my eye is that the trademark applications are all monochrome – this makes it immensely easy to theme and colour based on need, unlike the current logo which is red and black.

    Of the 3 logos that were trademarked, I like the right-most one the least – it looks clunky and inelegant, and I cannot understand why the middle of the ‘1’ is offset to the right (I understand its offset similar to the horizontal stroke of the ‘F’, but why?).

    The first one is probably the easiest to recognize, as it contains a clear ‘F1’ lettering. But beyond that, its boring and feels old school.

    The second one is an attempt to design a clever logo – a track layout, with a 1 in it. However, the execution falls flat, since a ‘1’ does not lend itself to such a design. That said, if they ever redo the Formula 2 logo, then a ‘2’ could inspire a neat chicane (but don’t do it, the current F2 logo is a very tidy one).

    I’d just ask Liberty to go back to the drawing board, or better still, fan-source the logo.

  28. They are all terrible designs – I can’t even put into words how Unimaginative these designs are. Several people have stated it correctly , if you’re going to redo the defining image of a sport it should look unquestionably better than the one it replaces

  29. Fact: The Current F1 Logo is the 6th best logo in the world, The ‘1’ makes it special and BTW it took me 4-5 years to figure it out

  30. Keep the current logo the three of them are ugly and they look like doodles.

  31. Problems with color paints !!!

  32. There’s nothing wrong with the current one, so just keep it instead. ”If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

  33. I’d never actually noticed the “1” until now!!! Now that I have, I like this design more. They should stick with it.

  34. If it ain’t broke ….

  35. Run sort of competition via a design website like Dribbble.com and they’d get far better options than these 3. Not awful, but the typefaces and shapes are pretty bland.

  36. Can’t see the new one(s)? Anyway it’s good to see that Liberty are marching on instigating vital changes that will save F1’s future!

    1. Oh! You mean that black & white scribble at the top of the page? Nope.

  37. A reliable source of the paddock suggested that a new logo will be used in Abu Dhabi this upcoming week…

  38. The current logo is one of the most iconic designs of all time, no need to change this.

  39. I like the current logo. It needs a good graphical clean up though. Designers like the logo’s negative space but seeing the text at the bottom of logo looks… off and the red part looks goofy. The new logos look cool, but the original has a timeless feel that make he rest obsolete.

  40. It looks as though they’re using a similar design language to the F2, F3, F4 and Formula e logos. Gp2 and Gp3 logos also have a slight resemblance due to the thin lettering although no curves.

    Of I was to pick one from above it’d be the leftmost one. Although I think a more consistent option would be to use the same logo as F2, F3 and F4 and replace the number with a 1.

  41. Would be nice to have a new logo, but I think it should keep the design principle of the original, i.e. the use of negative space.

  42. Hi – the current logo is just fine and as iconic as the sport itself. I can’t believe people are lining up their best choice out of the three on offer? It ain’t broke ….

  43. I’m not the only one to perceive the logo for most of my life like this, am I? ;))
    http://i.imgur.com/FnP0e7d.jpg

  44. As stated in earlier posts, they are appalling.
    I hope the ones shown are a joke, all well and good giving the intern a go, need to learn somehow but don’t publish them!

    If you want to do a bit of refining to the existing identity, maybe to signal new owners, new direction (insert meaningless design rationale here), then OK.

    We get that but don’t throw out the existing brand equity. FFS.

  45. I have allways thought the current logo is a brilliant design. It’s fast, catchy and easily recognizable.
    The work of a genius! (No, it’s not mine!)

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