After Jaguar's unveiling of its daring new identification was met with backlash on-line, Sophie Tolhurst deconstructs and analyzes the rebrand.
It gained't have escaped your discover that final week British automobile model Jaguar launched a brand new identification and marketing campaign video forward of unveiling an electrical automobile (EV) idea on the upcoming Miami Artwork Week. The response on-line was fierce, to say the least.
Whereas any rebrand is more likely to undergo backlash, Jaguar was all the time going to have a very difficult process: hoping to show the web page after years of poor efficiency by going 100% electrical, in addition to at a a lot increased value – all with out a shiny new product to point out off.
With out one thing strong to again it up, the combined case branding is all too simple to scoff at
Coming throughout a hiatus in manufacturing and gross sales forward of its all-electric relaunch in 2026, Jaguar hoped to put the groundwork with this model reveal. “The New Period. Seismic change is coming,” says Jaguar's web site. Optimists maintain the product reveal.
What do we all know to this point? The primary look, and the one which prompted a stir, was the 30-second marketing campaign movie, which featured not vehicles however a various forged of individuals wearing brilliant monochromatic outfits watching a barren, rock-strewn pink panorama. What does all this imply? Give some naughty youngsters.
The branding parts revealed to this point have been much less universally reviled, however not precisely fashionable: a tool mark, a monogrammed circle, and the maker's mark. However with out one thing strong to again it up, the mixed-case gadget model – learn JaGUar – is all too simple to mock, coming throughout as a bogus answer extra INTERNET SPEAK than iPhone individuality.
Additionally, the monogram roundel lacks readability: is it a J and an R, or two Js? And whereas I can see a sure feline high quality and even the stress of a coiled wind within the clean, spaced letterforms, there's loads of potential for upset in ditching heritage for a brand new aesthetic seemingly designed to alienate its previous buyer base , with even the named animal faraway from distinguished place.
After the video, some extra car-like shapes had been revealed, maybe prompted from Jaguar by Elon Musk: “Do you promote vehicles?” submit on X.
So what's subsequent? With its said ambitions to grow to be a luxurious model, there’s numerous new floor for the buyer or would-be client. However does Jaguar nonetheless know what it’s?
To be truthful to Jaguar, idea automobile reveals are sometimes a case of smoke and mirrors
Somewhat than exploring its personal heritage because the core of a brand new, seismic thought, merely wanting a brand new thought is outwardly the concept, echoing model founder Sir William Lyons' assertion that “a Jaguar must be a duplicate of nothing”. For now, the long run Jaguar gives feels extra complicated than visionary, leaning on different individuals's visions of the long run till it finds its personal.
The sledgehammer mannequin within the Jaguar film is paying homage to one of many well-known first Apple Macintosh commercials, proven on the superbowl in 1984 and directed by Ridley Scott, wherein a lady races to interrupt by an Orwellian grayscale dystopia for Apple's brilliant new future. They didn't hassle to say or present a product both.
Elsewhere, it evokes the white and glossy generic technological futurism of the 2010s, and the place there are similarities to right this moment's branding codes, they’re, to the amusement of on-line commentators, these of vapes, private hygiene merchandise or intercourse toys.
To be truthful to Jaguar, idea automobile unveilings are sometimes a case of smoke and mirrors, or relatively, Plexiglas and light-weight, launched as installations at artwork or design festivals – as Jaguar quickly will likely be. Latest Lexus EV launches, for instance, have seen collaborations with artists and designers resembling Marjan van Aubel and Suchi Reddy – helpful for including a little bit of aura to the idea scene.
It was a daring transfer by Jaguar to attempt to launch one thing so vaguely severe earlier than the help of a commerce present context or car-like type to drool over. With said ambitions to grow to be a luxurious model, transfer into an experience-driven or cross-category future, it depends on pure expression to cowl new floor. For all of the speak of modernism, it in all probability would have been simpler to go together with type and performance.
Whereas the mission is credited as in-house, press releases state that Jaguar needs to “advo[cate] for inventive expression, in all kinds”. Right here's hoping certainly one of Miami's two gallery areas can sketch a compelling image subsequent week.
The marketing campaign is paying homage to different forms of false progress
However the place they've hinted at wider creativity right here – notably within the much-mocked fashions with angular haircuts and monochrome outfits – I don't get the sensation they'll be a part of Jaguar's luxurious imaginative and prescient.
Disadvantaged of context, they remained extra like a hairdressing exhibition and, as I typically do, I really feel after style. Hardly ever understood by different design disciplines, it’s nonetheless put within the service of a imprecise place – however with out the care and a focus it deserves (nobody may have stretched or photoshopped their lapels off their garments to look pretty much as good as attainable?)
And as for the individuals carrying the garments, such was the furor over who’s and isn't within the advert that Jaguar chief government Rawdon Glover expressed his disappointment to the Monetary Instances on the “ugly hate” generated by it, whereas additionally saying, “This isn’t an outline of what we expect our future clients are like.”
On the lookout for the substance behind the change, there’s £15bn of funding over 5 years to help the change to electrical energy, resembling a battery recycling mission linked to Jaguar Land Rover to scale back the necessity for uncooked supplies – however not this one is the factor. of the rebrand.
As an alternative, the marketing campaign remembers different kinds of false progress: out with the dangerous, soiled smoking and a whiff of flavored, kid-friendly vapes; cloud computing eradicating bodily litter and easily sweeping it clear underneath the digital rug – to not point out electrical vehicles. Are these rocks within the pink Jaguar panorama a rose-tinted reference to the exploitative, unfair and harmful mining business behind the miracle battery supplies?
Not that you simply'd look to the high-end auto business for a brand new mannequin of sustainability. And if this all seems to be a genius promoting transfer, Jaguar is outwardly blissful to take these parts that stand out – range, ambitions for a greater future, artistic work – and make a joke out of them.
Sophie Tolhurst is a design author and former designer from Sheffield. She was beforehand a senior author at Design Week and deputy editor at FX Journal. Her writing has additionally appeared in Inventive Evaluation, Disegno, Monetary Instances and Frieze.
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