Avis Logo PNG
Car rental services worldwide have chosen a bright logo to represent their services and actively promote them, attracting potential customers’ attention. So, the Avis logo is moderately serious and dynamic. The massive sign stands for reliability and safety.
Avis began in 1946, when former US Army pilot Warren Avis opened a car rental office at Willow Run Airport near Ypsilanti, Michigan. He started with three cars, $10,000 in savings, and an $85,000 loan. Avis became the first car rental company to have an office inside an airport, serving passengers who arrived without ground transportation.
The model spread quickly. After Michigan, Avis opened in Miami, then built a national network. By 1953, it was the second-largest car rental company in the United States, behind Hertz. In 1954, Warren Avis sold the company for $8 million. In 1956, Avis opened its first international offices in Europe, Canada, and Mexico.
During the 1950s and 1960s, Avis changed hands several times, including under the ownership of Lazard Frères and Norton Simon. Under Robert Townsend, the company adopted the slogan “We Try Harder” in 1962. The line openly referred to Avis being number two behind Hertz and stayed with the brand for 50 years, until the 2012 rebrand.
Avis also invested early in rental technology. In 1972, it launched Wizard, the first computer-based information and reservation system in the US car rental industry. In 2000, Avis Interactive became the first online reporting system for corporate clients. After Cendant bought Budget in 2002, its car rental division became Avis Budget Group in 2006. The group later bought Zipcar for $491 million in 2013 and expanded through a franchise network covering more than 160 countries.
Meaning and History
Avis’s work (named after the founder) began with three cars. That is how many passenger cars were included in its fleet at first. Their owner opened an office at Willow Run Airport in Ypsilanti, Michigan. He rented out vehicles to travelers arriving from other countries and was the first to do so at the airport. Now the number of cars, of course, has increased. Among them are many popular brands whose products are in high demand: General Motors, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Toyota, and Ford.
Until then, the company was actively developing and opening branches across the United States. By 1953, it had become the second-largest American car rental company. Ten years after its inception, Avis established its first overseas offices in Mexico, Canada, and Europe. In 1972, she introduced a computerized information and reservation system; in 1981, she introduced a network to track her cars’ locations.
The brand’s ownership frequently changed, so it rebranded repeatedly, with changes to the motto and logo. In general, it has three emblems. Each new version is, in fact, a continuation of the previous one because they are almost identical in style. The difference is in the smallest details.
What is Avis?
Avis is a car rental company based in Parsippany, New Jersey, in the US. It also has branches abroad, as its car rental service has become world-famous. In total, it owns 5,500 offices in 165 countries. The service’s founder is Warren Avis, who opened it in 1946.
1946 – 1964
The debut logo is the quintessence of the company’s aspirations: it started the business with three machines but dreamed of global coverage across other countries and continents with its service. The globe is above the “i” instead of the classic dot. To make the concept stand out clearly, the designers painted it in black-and-white monochrome while making the other elements red. In particular, this is the top inscription, conveying the company’s abbreviated name. The characters in it are large, bold, and wide. “A” looks especially massive, complemented by serifs of different lengths: the left is short, and the right is long. It stretches down along the entire word and looks like an underline. The phrase “Rent a Car” is even lower, typed in small print, a thin grotesque with hyphens between words.
1964 – 2012
By then, a simple logo with an oblique inscription existed. All letters are in uppercase and minimalistic, without unnecessary design, only wide lines. Since the car rental company shortened its name, the emblem has become simpler: the long serifs, the globe, and the bottom text have disappeared.
2012 – today
In 2012, Avis underwent its largest rebranding in history; it changed everything, including the logo. At the same time, the company did not abandon its visual heritage and corrected the previous version. As a result, it got a text emblem with straight letters, whereas in the past they were italic. Although the red hue has changed, it is still preserved.
Font and Colors
The car rental company has maintained its heritage by updating its visual identity. Therefore, experts sought to create a version that would differ only minimally from the previous one. And it came out for them. The only thing that has changed is the number of elements. The debut logo and the modern one have radically different numbers of details: before, there were many; now, there are none.
The emblem is made with a typeface that has become very popular in corporate America. This is a font from the Helvetica family. However, each logo still has its own distinctive feature. In the first case, the inscription is made in the Oceanic Drift Bold Italic style: slanted and slightly curved, with wide characters. In the second version, the letters in the name resemble the elements of the Hussar BdConOblThree font; in the third, they resemble Xyngia Bold. But the color palette is stable, differing only in shades of red: scarlet, tomato, and raspberry.