Toyota

1977–1989

Refined wordmark

The wordmark that debuted in Japan in October 1977 standardized the letterforms that remain in use today: clean, even-weighted capitals with slightly flared terminals. For over a decade this wordmark stood alone as the corporate signature, before the oval emblem was added alongside it.

1989–2020

Three ovals

Designed by Nippon Design Center

To mark Toyota's 50th anniversary, the company ran an international design competition among ten firms that produced roughly 240 proposals over five years. Nippon Design Center's winning concept, three overlapping ellipses forming a stylized T, debuted on October 2, 1989, first appearing in a Japanese advertisement for the Celsior. The inner vertical oval represents the customer, the horizontal oval the product, and the outer ring the world; the overlapping forms also trace the letters T, O, Y, O, T, A.

2020–present · current

Flat emblem

Starting July 2020 in Europe and rolling out globally through 2021, Toyota removed the wordmark from the primary mark and flattened the three-oval emblem to a single-weight outline. The&Partnership led the European identity work, which also included a custom typeface, Toyota Type, developed with Monotype. Vehicle badges followed on newer models, and the flat treatment became the standard across digital and physical applications.