BY Armin

Ducati Paves a New Road

As far as brand associations and alliances go, motorcycles may inspire some of the most fervent, committed and passionate. You may have in your closet both nike and adidas sneakers but you don’t have both Harley-Davidson and BMW bikes — or a Ducati — in your garage. In 2007 the Italy-based Ducati had announced that, through the “Ducati Industrial Plan,” between 2008 and 2010 they would release ten new motorcycles (which I am guessing is a lot) and as part of this push they have released a new logo.

I am no Ducati (or bike) connoisseur so I’m not sure if there is a strong meaning to the old logo; I imagine it’s a road bisecting a circle that happens to form an uppercase D on the right side, but maybe there is more to it. The new logo maintains the old typography which is nice, given that an all uppercase sans serif italic does a good job in magically conveying seriousness, tradition and speed. The name is now contained within a red, beveled shield — perhaps to align the consumer brand with Ducati Corse, the subsidiary of the company that deals with its involvement in the world of racing — that also has a more obvious road running through the it.

It is an evolution of the historic brand name, which now includes a new red shield featuring a graphic symbol alongside the classic Ducati script, making this motorcycling logo even more eye-catching and unique and communicating passion, competition and performance.
— Press release

There isn’t much more insight than that in the press release, but you should follow the link to see a video introducing the logo that apparently suggests where the shape of the logo came from and that it is also perhaps shaped like a heart. As I mentioned, I’m not very familiar with Ducati, but I would think there were plenty of people attached to the old logo and icon and have been, instead, handed this UPS look-alike. It is not terrible, but it certainly isn’t too unique and if we assume that the logo must be three-dimensional to survive, then the feel of it is more of plastic than steel, making it seem more amateur than it should be. The new logo is an improvement in creating a wholly contained badge, but not quite an improvement in communicating the quality and tradition of the company.

Thanks to David Holm and Steve Radtke for the tip.

\n\nAs far as brand associations and alliances go, motorcycles may inspire some of the most fervent, committed and passionate. You may have in your closet both nike and adidas sneakers but you don't have both Harley-Davidson and BMW bikes — or a Ducati — in your garage. In 2007 the Italy-based Ducati had announced that, through the \"Ducati Industrial Plan,\" between 2008 and 2010 they would release ten new motorcycles (which I am guessing is a lot) and as part of this push they have released a new logo.

Many thanks to our ADV @ UnderConsideration Partners