Let’s Take a Quick Look at the Origins of Lexus’ Name and Logo
A logo is a graphical representation of a brand. In the automotive world, car logos come in all shapes and sizes. Some are complex, while others are simple. One of those that is easy on the eyes due to its straightforwardness is the logo of Lexus, which is a popular brand of luxury vehicles.
Keep on reading this article if you’re a huge fan of Lexus or you just want to learn some interesting stuff about it. Below we will talk about how it got its name and what the Lexus logo stands for.
Toyota Decided to Make a Move
Compared to other manufacturers of luxury vehicles, Lexus is a relative newcomer. That’s because its conception took place only back in 1983. During that time, various car manufacturing companies were dishing out vehicles that appealed to consumers who wanted to drive in style and comfort.
For instance, Honda just dished out Acura, which is the well-known car brand’s luxury division. Nissan, on the other hand, just came up with Infiniti, which is its line of extravagant SUVs, coupes, crossovers, and sedan cars.
Toyota was looking for an answer to Acura, Infiniti, and the rest that were spawned by its competitors. And that’s why the company’s early 1980s brainstorming gave rise to the brand Lexus in 1989. It was first unveiled in the United States and Canada, and the very first luxury vehicle offering was the LS400 sedan.
As they say, the rest was history — today, Lexus is being sold in more than 40 countries all over the world, and it’s one of the best selling brands of luxury vehicles.
How the Brand Got Its Name
One of the most important parts of introducing something new to the market is coming up with a name for it. To make sure that it’s going to make a splash, it has to have a name that can make heads turn towards its direction.
This is why Toyota commissioned Team One, which is an advertising agency based in California, US, to come up with a name for the Japanese car manufacturing company’s line of luxury vehicles. Team One, on the other hand, contacted Lippincott & Margulies, which is a brand consultancy based in New York, US, to take care of the task.
A little over 200 names were presented to Toyota. Some of them were “Calbre”, “Vectre”, “Verone” and “Chaperel”. However, Lexus was nowhere to be found on the said list!
What’s there was “Alexis”, which was one of the favorites. Later on during the brainstorming process, the name “Alexis” was shortened to “Lexis”. Eventually, “Lexis” morphed into “Lexus”. This is how the name of the brand of luxury vehicles that consumers all over the world adore came into being.
Conflicting Opinions on the Name’s Meaning
According to Team One, the advertising agency commissioned by Toyota for its division of luxury vehicles, the name “Lexus” doesn’t really have a specific meaning. So in other words, it’s just a word that looked and sounded well as a brand name for a line of vehicles that prioritized not only performance but also style and comfort.
However, many people believe that the name is an acronym for “luxury exports to the US”. Others say that Lexus is clearly the combination of a couple of words: “luxury” and “elegance”.
If you take a look at the official website of the company, you will learn that the name is a mingling of a handful of foreign words. Some of them include the French word “luxe” (meaning: extravagance), the Latin word “Luxus” (meaning: elegance), and the Greek word “lexicon” (meaning: words).
Do you have a theory on the meaning behind the name of Toyota’s brand of luxury vehicles? If so, feel free to share it in the comments section below. But do that after reading the entirety of this article as we’re not done yet — we still have to discuss some important matters about the Lexus logo.
Taking a Look at the Brand’s Simple Emblem
No matter what you wish to call it — emblem logo or badge — its role remains the same: to establish a brand. It goes without saying that the logo of Lexus is the one that makes its various luxury vehicles easy to recognize.
Just like what was mentioned very early on in this article, the logo Lexus has is one of the simplest car logos on the face of the planet. This is both a good and bad thing. It’s good because it’s easy on the eyes as well as trouble-free to remember. It’s bad because some people may think that little creativity went into making it.
One look and it’s easy to see that the logo with an oblong shape features the letter L. There is no denying that it stands for the name of the brand. Because it can easily connect itself to the brand, the logo works wonderfully.
A lot of people can’t help but notice that the font type of the letter L in the logo is different from the font type of the word “Lexus”. Well, the designers deliberately used a different font type to make the letter L look great inside the oblong Lexus logo. What’s more, it represents the streamlined design of Lexus cars.
Let’s Sum Up Before You Go
In the current automotive market Lexus is one of the most popular and revered brands of luxury vehicles. It doesn’t come as a surprise because the brand’s offerings come with stunning designs as well as superb performance and comfort.
The story behind Lexus’ name is quite exciting — who knew that its current name wasn’t even on the list of potential names when the brand was still being conceptualized back in the early 1980s? We’re all glad that Toyota, somehow, managed to come up with the name “Lexus” because it’s commanding and appealing.
In contrast, the Lexus emblem may be too plain for the taste of some. However, that’s okay because the presence of a simple logo means that nothing will take away our eyes from the awesome design that all Lexus cars possess.
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