The new Mazda logo was long overdue

The new Mazda logo has to be the least surprising design news of the week, but it's well overdue. The Japanese brand has been trying to move upmarket, but it's been doing so with a logo straight out of the 1990s.

The company has now trademarked a flatter Mazda logo with a very slightly more angular shape. The new approach takes the same direction as pretty much every other car logo redesign we've seen in the past five years, but it makes perfect sense for a brand that aims to modernise.

As depicted in a trademark application in Japan, the apparent new Mazda logo design is hardly a massive departure. It retains the winged 'M' but now with a more circular outer ring and more angular wings. The company hasn't confirmed what the design will be used for, but I expect it will be part of a broader global rebrand.

That would be unlikely to surprise many people. We've seen everyone from BMW to Citroen and Skoda ditch the three dimensional look for a flat design. Minimalist logos are the order of the day, partly because of fashion but mainly because of digital platforms and the need for a logo to be easy to reproduce at small sizes (see our pick of the best car logo designs overall).

But, while the new logo might reinvent the wheel, it does the job. It's recognisable (unlike the Kia logo), and it would serve Mazda's efforts to shift its brand appeal from a young audience to focus on a higher-end market. Mazda's existing logo was last tweaked in 2015, when the logotype was shifted under the mark, but the brand symbol itself remains unchanged since 1997, and that's fairly apparent in the dated 3D look. A more stripped down minimalist look is a better fit for the luxury market that it's now aiming at.

For more logo design news, see the first Paris OIympics logo and the new Tropicana logo.

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Joe is a regular freelance journalist and editor at Creative Bloq. He writes news, features and buying guides and keeps track of the best equipment and software for creatives, from video editing programs to monitors and accessories. A veteran news writer and photographer, he now works as a project manager at the London and Buenos Aires-based design, production and branding agency Hermana Creatives. There he manages a team of designers, photographers and video editors who specialise in producing visual content and design assets for the hospitality sector. He also dances Argentine tango.