Zooming ahead

Rei Yoshimura and PAOS' 1975 logo and corporate identity for Mazda.

Toyo Kogyo Co., Ltd. was the first to develop the commercial application of rotary engines. Despite this technological achievement, it hadn’t been able to move its image away from being a manufacturer of three-wheeled service vehicles.

In 1971, in an effort to reposition the corporation as a leading manufacturer in the minds of consumers it launched ‘Project Eliza’. As part of this, a review of its corporate identity would be undertaken, standardising and bring into coherence all aspects of its communications, future proofing the brand and providing it with a set of stock assets that would live for ‘as long as possible’.

Driving the development of the Mazda corporate image was Japanese design studio PAOS, who defined three ‘conceptual expressions’ to define all aspects of the new corporate identity; progressiveness, high quality and empathy.

Continue scrolling to discover the early Mazda logos. Learn about the final design and the use of colour, and see how these were developed across packaging, signage and vehicle liveries.