What Does the Mazda Logo Mean?

The brand symbol that Mazda uses today was adopted in June 1997. It shows a V-shaped pair of wings inside an oval, set above a wordmark that was blue at first. Mazda's own history, as quoted by Wikipedia, says the wings stand for “growth” and “improvement”. Coverage of the company's wording adds the goals of pursuing ongoing improvements and driving continuous growth.

Many people also see an M for Mazda in the shape, with its arms spread. That reading is natural, since the form is an M-like V, but the sources used here do not reproduce a design brief that says so, and no designer is credited. The oval and wing layout has been refined in chrome in 2015 and 2018 rather than redrawn.

Mazda says its name comes from Ahura Mazda, described as the god of harmony, intelligence and wisdom from the earliest civilization in West Asia. It also derives from the surname of the founder, Jujiro Matsuda. Wikipedia notes that the names Sumera, meaning “god”, and Tenshi, meaning “angel”, were also proposed.

The company started on January 30, 1920 in Hiroshima as the cork maker Toyo Cork Kogyo, became Toyo Kogyo in 1927 and began making vehicles in 1931 with the Mazda-Go three-wheeled truck, the first product to carry the Mazda name. It did not formally adopt Mazda as the company name until 1984.

Wikipedia describes the first stylized Mazda mark of 1936 as three mountain shapes that also form the letter M, duplicated three times for “Mazda Motor Manufacturer”, with side extensions that “represent wings for agility and speed”. The archive shows a wide winged mark of three stacked bars in 1936, which can be read as a stylized M. Mazda has not explained that archive file in the sources used here, so treat the link as a reasonable reading, not a confirmed one.

Other marks looked nothing like it. A red circle badge sat above blue italic capitals from 1959, and the hood of a 1965 Carol shows a ring around a stylized letter. In 1991 Mazda adopted a symbol that it said stood for a sun and a flame, and in 1992 the design was smoothed to reduce its similarity to Renault's logo.