Brand at a glance
See how André Citroën’s herringbone gears became double chevrons, then returned to an enclosing oval for the brand’s 2022 identity.
The original oval translated André Citroën’s gear-making experience into an automotive emblem.
Official source: Citroën official 2022 identity announcement
Dimensional metallic forms and a red wordmark gave the established symbol a softer modern presentation.
Official source: Citroën official 2022 identity announcement
A flat reinterpretation of the 1919 structure reconnects the brand with its engineering origin.
Official source: Citroën official 2022 identity announcement
Before building cars, André Citroën manufactured double-helical gears whose angled teeth formed a herringbone pattern. When he founded the automobile company in 1919, two stacked chevrons became the natural signature. The first emblem enclosed them in an oval, turning a piece of engineering into a clear badge.
Citroën changed color, framing, lettering, and dimensional treatment many times, but the two chevrons remained. Their simple geometry could be stamped into metal, mounted on a radiator, printed in advertising, or enlarged into a grille design. Few automotive marks connect a founder’s earlier trade so directly to the finished identity.
During the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, the chevrons escaped the oval and took on chrome depth. The 2009 identity paired polished forms with a red wordmark, presenting Citroën as contemporary and approachable while keeping the mechanical origin visible.
Citroën described its 2022 mark as the tenth evolution in 103 years. The chevrons returned to a vertical oval inspired by the 1919 badge, but the flat one-color drawing was optimized for digital environments and new vehicle surfaces. The rounded enclosure adds warmth around the precise technical forms.
The redesign resembles the way Renault recovered an earlier graphic idea for a digital future. Citroën did not recreate the first badge detail for detail. It identified the essential relationship—chevrons inside an oval—and rebuilt it with modern spacing and weight. The result links electric mobility and future products to the same engineering story that began the company.
