MINI Crossman. Vile.

New Peugeot Logo

Hot on the heels of sister company Citroen, and just in time for its 200th anniversary, French carmaker Peugeot has revealed a "refreshed" corporate identity, featuring new typography and an updated rendering of the famed Lion. It's the first change since 1995, and easily the biggest change in the company's corporate identity since the 1970s. Previous updates of the logo design left the basic shape of the Lion pretty much untouched, and mainly involved the simple filling in of the Lion's outline.

I'm unconvinced by the new logo design, as, to me anyway, it no longer looks much like a Lion. The paws could come from a teddy bear, the legs and feet are too blocky, and there's a strange, disjointed looking hump at the back of the Lion's head, which I presume is meant to be representative of its mane. I also have some trouble with the chromed, 3D effect they've applied to it because the shading looks a little bit off. I'm just not sure why.

On the upside, the new typography is pretty sharp looking, and definitely more distinctive than the previous typeface, although the P and O in PEUGEOT are perhaps a little bit too stretched out for their own good.

For better or worse, the new logo and typography will be making their debut sometime this year on the production version of the Peugeot RCZ, a 308-derived small coupé designed to serve as a cut-price rival to the Audi TT and Volkswagen Scirocco.