Infiniti is the luxury division of Nissan, a Japanese car manufacturer. According to Infiniti, their logo consists of “two central lines leading off into an infinite point on the horizon,” symbolizing this “luxury performance brand’s desire to be always looking forward – to new horizons, to infinity.” The Infiniti brand was launched in the USA in 1989. Lippincott “revitalized the visual identity” in 2004.
There are two primary concepts at work in the Infiniti logo. The first concept can be found in the two lines that create the illusion of perspective: a road vanishing into the distance. The second concept is that the logo itself is an infinite loop, a twist on the standard infinity symbol. Conceptually, it is an elegant way of communicating the meaning of an infinite road. Visually and aesthetically, it’s kinda dull and looks somewhat like a pizza.
The most distinctive element of the brand is the name Infiniti. It’s unique. The four I’s create a memorable visual repetition. It’s also a predecessor of the contemporary trend of brands like Flickr who misspell ordinary words due to the necessity of differentiation and domain name availability. The downside of the name Infiniti is that it’s somewhat pretentious and silly.
Related Logo: ‘Stay Positive’
On a related note, one of my favorite logos is the logo for the album Stay Positive by the Hold Steady (pictured below). It was designed by Christian Helms. The logo exploits the infinity symbol in a similar way to Infiniti. It’s a very clever and utterly pure visual representation of the words ‘stay positive.’ Christian Helms must’ve had a real ‘eureka’ moment when he came up with it.
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