Native name | 현대자동차 |
Founded | Dec 29, 1967 |
Founder | Chung Ju-yung |
Headquarters | Seoul, South Korea |
Parent | Hyundai Motor Group (2000–present) |
Divisions | Genesis Kia |
Official Site | www.hyundai.com |
Official Facebook Page | www.facebook.com/Hyundai |
Hyundai is the name of the South Korean car manufacturer, which was established in 1867, and by today has grown into one of the largest automobile marques in Asia. Today the company is engaged in the production of all the possible types of vehicles, exporting its cars all over the globe.
Meaning and History
Hyundai Motor Company is the largest producer of cars in South Korea.The oval Hyundai logo in the form of the letter “Н” is the symbol of the company’s striving for expansion.
The oval shape points to the global expansion of the company and slanted “H” is the symbol of handshake of two people (in particular, a company’s representative and its customer).
Chung Ju-Yung founded the Hyundai Engineering and Construction Company in 1947. The Motor Hyundai Company was founded later, in 1967.
The first cars manufactured by Hyundai had just a Hyundai nameplate instead of an emblem. It was rather common for Asian manufacturers at that time. In the course of time, however, the company’s chiefs understood that they need a symbol so that the customers could associate the vehicles with the brand. Initially, Hyundai’s symbol was often confused with Honda’s logo.
The first model of the company, under the name of Cortina, appeared at the Ford company support in 1968. In 1975, the car Pony was produced. Giorgio Giugiaro from ItalDesign was its designer. The Japanese company Mitsubishi Motors provided all its contents.
In the same year, the export to South America namely to Ecuador started. Immediately after that, the export to countries of the Benelux union (Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg) began.
In 1986, Hyundai began to successfully sell its cars in the USA, and its car Excel was offered for the prize as the best product number 10.
The company started to manufacture cars based on its own technologies in 1988, and it began with Sonata. In 1991, the company produced its first gasoline 4- cylinder engine, 4-ех Alpha.
The cars of the Hyundai make were sold in 193 countries of the world, through 5000 dealership networks and automobile exhibition. In 2007, Hyundai appeared on the 10th line of the largest car producers in the world.
Hyundai Motor continues to grow every year, in 2007 the company was in the 72nd place of all the world brands.
1969 – 1970
The original Hyundai badge was created two years after the company’s foundation, in 1969, and only stayed in use for several months. It was an extra-bold sans-serif “HD” lettering with both characters in the uppercase, but the “D” was slightly smaller than the “H”. The abbreviation was accompanied by a thin black rounded outline, and a bold trapezoid frame with softened contours, coming out of the letters.
1970 – 1978
The redesign of 1970 has slightly enlarged the letters of the Hyundai badge, and now the sharp triangular serif, coming out of the upper part of the “H”s bar, got more visible. Another change was made to the circular outline of the badge. It became a horizontally stretched oval, which made the whole badge look more logical and balanced. This badge stayed with the Japanese automaker for eight years.
1974 – 1992
In 1974 the Hyundai logo was redrawn in a completely different style. With the massive stylized “HD” enclosed into a thick rectangular frame. The vertical bars of the “H” featured the same thickness as the solid letter “D”, which had no negative space in it. As for the framing, it was set in the lines of the same thickness as the horizontal bar of the “H”.
1980 – 1992
Exclusively for the local market, the South Korean company designed another badge in 1980. That was the same emblem, created in 1974, but this time it was executed in bright blue, and set on the left from the logotype written in Korean. The size of the hieroglyphs in the inscription matched the height of the emblem.
1990 – now
The most iconic Hyundai badge, with we still can see today, was introduced in 1990. It was a stylized letter ‘H’, enclosed into a smooth, horizontally oriented oval frame, and executed in a soft and calm shade of blue. The letter was slightly slanted to the left and had its bars flaring to the center, creating two asymmetrical frames in the negative space.
2003 – now
The redesign of 2003 has placed the iconic Hyundai emblem on the left from the uppercase logotype, set in the same shade of blue, and executed in a custom sans-serif typeface with some of the angles softened, and the others — straight and sharp. And again, the height of the letters in the inscription was the same as the height of the emblem, set on the left.
2011 – 2017
In 2011 the South Korean automaker introduced a three-dimensional version of the logo, with the emblem executed in voluminous gradient l=silver lines, and placed above the enlarged logotype, which was still written in blue, and featured the same typeface as on the previous version. The logo stayed in use by Hyundai until 2017.
Font
The uppercase Hyundai logotype, which was first introduced in 2003, is executed in a custom sans-serif font, with smooth and sleek contours of the letters, and various angles — rounded and straight. The closes typeface to the one, used in this insignia is, probably, Lustra Semi Bold, which also uses mixed-case characters.
Symbol
Hyundai means «modernity», «new time» in translation from Korean. The Hyundai symbol reminiscent of a capital letter “H” executed by italics actually has a deeper implication.
At first sight, the emblem of Hyundai is very simple. There is no the one-digit version of onset of “H.” Some will say the Hyundai brand name starts with the H letter, and the others will see two people shaking hands with each other in it. It is also considered that the deformed framing oval of the letter “H” symbolizes the long growth of Hyundai.
Color
The blue color in the Hyundai logo signifies reliability, excellence, and supremacy of the brand, whereas the silver color stands for its sophistication, creativity, and perfection.
Emblem
The Hyundai emblem incorporates the custom type of letters designed specifically for the corporation.
At present, Hyundai occupies a leading place on motor vehicle manufacturing in Korea and has the 4th place in the world for the number of sold cars.
The Hyundai Company intends to produce three “charged” novelties, the line of which will be headed by the car Performance N. One of them will be produced under the new premium Genesis sub-brand and will receive the name of G70. It also became known for the presentation of a new compact crossover Hyundai Creta.