BMW Badge Redesign: A Before-and-After Evaluation
A practical before-and-after look at BMW’s flattened roundel: what changed in the artwork, how that affects vector files, and what still requires brand permission.
Contents
The logo under discussion
The subject is BMW’s circular roundel: the ring with the BMW lettering and the blue-and-white quadrants. Around 2020 the company issued a flatter, two-dimensional reading of that mark for brand, digital and some vehicle use. This evaluation treats that 2D roundel as vector-logo artwork and compares it with the earlier dimensional, chrome-and-gradient badge that still appears on many physical cars and in older print and web files.
This is not a review of a specific downloadable EPS, SVG or AI file, and it is not a substitute for BMW’s brand guidelines. Construction ratios, official colour values, minimum sizes and licensed templates are not supplied here. Where those details matter for production, they have to come from an authorised master, not from a screenshot or a file whose name ends in a vector extension.
What changed in the badge
The earlier roundel was built as a physical object as much as a graphic: a dark ring, dimensional lettering, metallic highlight, and shaded blue. In artwork that look was often a raster render, a 3D model output, or a vector outline dressed with gradients, glows and inner bevels. Those effects can sit inside a file that still opens in a drawing app, which is not the same as a clean path-and-fill mark.
The newer 2D roundel is a geometric reading of the same parts. The outer ring is thinner. In many official applications the solid black field of the old ring is treated as open or transparent so the badge sits on whatever sits behind it. The blue and white quadrants read larger relative to the ring. Lettering stays custom BMW forms in the ring; it is not a substitute from a retail font. Chrome, bevel and drop shadow are dropped from the 2D mark so the identity can hold up on screens, in interfaces and at small sizes without relying on lighting.
BMW has not, on the evidence available for this article, published a public side-by-side spec sheet of ring thickness, type size or colour codes. The comparison below is a design reading of the two graphic systems, not a measured audit of an official master file.
| Aspect | Earlier dimensional roundel | Flatter 2D roundel |
| Structure | Ring, lettering and quadrants modelled with depth, metal and shade | Same parts drawn as flat geometry |
| Ring | Heavier dark band that reads as a physical bezel | Thinner outline; often open or transparent rather than a filled black disc |
| Quadrants | Blue and white fields inside a thicker frame, often with gradient blue | Larger-feeling flat blue and white quarters |
| Lettering | BMW forms sitting in the solid ring, frequently with bevel or metallic fill | Custom BMW lettering in the thin ring, drawn as flat positive or knockout forms |
| Typical artwork | Raster render, mixed vector-plus-effects, or a photo of a metal badge | Closer to solid fills and circular construction that can exist as true paths |
| Primary job | Read as a sculpted object on a grille or in print with lighting | Read as a sign on screens, in UI and in flat brand layouts |
What that means for vector artwork
A flatter badge is easier to express as editable vector paths: circles or arcs for the ring, four quadrant fills, and outlined or compound lettering. That is a structural advantage of the redesign, not proof that any given file on a computer is a true vector master. A PNG of the new badge, an SVG that only embeds a bitmap, or a PDF that places a flattened image will still be raster at the artwork layer even when the filename looks like a drawing format.
- True vector: independent paths and fills you can select, recolour within licensed limits, scale, and output to print or screen without a pixel grid.
- Embedded raster: a bitmap sitting inside AI, EPS, PDF or SVG; the wrapper is a vector format, the badge is still pixels.
- Raster preview: a web or UI thumbnail of the badge, useful for recognition, useless as a production master.
Do not infer editable paths from an extension alone. Open the file and inspect whether the ring, quadrants and letters are live outlines. If the only selectable object is an image box, you have a preview, not artwork. If the new transparent-ring version is built as a knockout, the “black” of the ring may be absence of fill rather than a dark swatch; placing that file on a dark field without checking the construction will make the ring disappear.
Using the new mark in practice
For people preparing or evaluating a vector logo, the redesign changes the production checklist more than it changes the identity’s meaning. The blue-and-white quarters and the BMW lettering still have to lock up on a common centre. Mixing the old chrome render with the new thin ring in one layout splits the system. Rebuilding the quadrants by eye from a photo, or tracing a compressed web image, will usually distort the ring weight and the letter spacing even when the result looks “close enough” at icon size.
- Prefer an authorised line-art master over a photographed grille badge or a social-image crop.
- Keep the 2D mark flat: adding chrome, shadow or fake depth puts you back in the old system.
- Watch transparency: an open ring needs a background that still lets the letters and quarters read.
- Treat colour as specified by BMW, not as sampled from a screen. Sampled RGB from a photo is not a brand build.
- Physical hubcaps, hood badges and illuminated marks can still be dimensional even when communications use the flat drawing; do not assume one file covers both.
Permission is separate from the file
BMW’s roundel is a trademarked badge. Having a vector file, seeing a download button, or obtaining a pack labelled “SVG” or “EPS” does not grant the right to redraw, recolour, lock up with other marks, or use the badge on goods, sites or vehicles. Modification of the artwork, substitution of the lettering, and commercial application sit with BMW’s licence terms. A cleaner vector construction makes misuse easier to execute; it does not make it lawful.
What this article cannot confirm
No official master was opened for this piece, and no measurements, colour formulas, clear-space rules or file tests are claimed. Exact ring-to-quadrant ratios, Pantone or CMYK builds, minimum reproduction size, and whether a particular public file contains live paths remain gaps. Those answers belong in BMW’s current artwork and legal terms. The practical takeaway from the redesign itself is narrower: the current 2D roundel is the mark to match when the job is vector logo artwork, it is built for flat geometric reproduction, and a trustworthy result still depends on a true path master plus permission to use it.