Good and fair competitions received a bright and memorable logo. The symbols of the Need for Speed logo fly forward, overtaking each other. They cut through the air, personifying cars that, overcoming obstacles, strive to the finish line.
Need for Speed: Brand overview
Founded: | December 1994 |
Founder: | Criterion Games |
Headquarters: |
Guildford, England |
Meaning and History
Car tuning (body tuning) is available in the latest parts of Need for Speed. Some games use realistic physics and are subject to visual and mechanical damage, while others are more benign. Somewhere the tracks are very picturesque, but somewhere gamers ride along the city streets. Moreover, these can be fictional locations in Chicago or London and real ring race tracks like Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and Nürburgring. One of the key motives behind the NFS is police harassment. In some parts, you can even play as law enforcement officers.
The only thing that is always stable is the logo. If it does change, it is only in small things, and the concept always remains the same. Only the first version is knocked out of the general list, which had its design and was distinguished by a very contrasting red and black palette.
What is Need for Speed?
Need for Speed is one of the most popular gaming media franchises. It is based on a series of arcade racing games, the first of which was released in 1994. Since November 2013, it has been fully controlled by EA Sports. NFS fans enter the competition by choosing cars and tracks. Vehicle tuning is available, and in recent games, real car models are increasingly used.
1994 – 1997
The debut game was released in 1994. Its logo looked like a black rectangle with inscriptions. In the upper left corner was “ROAD & TRACK” (bold italic), a little to the right – “PRESENTS” (small block letters with large spacing), in a column aligned to the right – “THE NEED FOR SPEED” (bold italic font). The word “PRESENTS” was superimposed on the article “THE” because they were different colors. Bright red was used for the main title of the franchise, while white was used for the rest of the text. The ampersand was decorated with two dots and elegant curls around the edges.
1997 – 2003
In 1997, the second part of the series came out. Her wordmark was very minimal: simple black lettering “NEED FOR SPEED” on a white background. The slanted and bold type with subtle serifs at the top gave the impression of the very speed the name suggests. At the same time, the letters were slightly extended upward. This logo was used for all games before 2002, including Hot Pursuit 2.
2003 – 2008
Need for Speed: Underground had a completely different icon: the title of the series with an extended “S.” Thanks to the normal ratio of width and height, the letters are now more proportional. The dynamics were created due to the contrasting thickness of the vertical and horizontal strokes. The most conspicuous element was the capital “S,” with an elongated bottom line over which the word “FOR” hung.
2008 – 2013
The creators of Need for Speed: Undercover have introduced a new logo, shortening the bottom of the “S.” To style the text, they chose an unusual italic font with cuts at the ends and a lot of corners. The mixture of lowercase and uppercase letters were striking: “N” looked like this; the word was transferred to lower case, although it did not differ in size from other characters.
To the right of the series, the name was an icon consisting of two deformed elements. In general outline, it resembled an “N” bisected by a diagonal Speedline. This lettering emblem was in use until 2013 and then returned briefly in 2020 with Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit.
2013 – 2014
For Need for Speed: Rivals, a two-tiered logo was designed with the word “NEED” above “FOR” and “SPEED,” taking up all of the free space on the right side. The font is even more elongated than before. Because the letters were compressed on the sides, the spacing between them increased. In this version, the contrast between the words “NEED” and “SPEED” is noticeable much larger than “FOR,” which is lost against their background.
2014 – 2020
On March 14, 2014, the movie Need for Speed, based on the franchise of the same name, was released. Its logo looked like a reworked wordmark from 2008-2013. The designers returned the capital “N” to its familiar look and separated the merged letters to make the lettering more readable. The oblique cuts at the ends of the “E,” “F,” and “S” remained because they created the effect of movement.
The words “NEED FOR” were on the top line, and “SPEED” – on the bottom, and “FOR” was reduced. The tilt angle has become slightly larger than in previous versions.
2019 – 2020
2020 – 2022
The new logo is similar to the previous one but with a slight modification. The title is written in one line, the proportions of the letters have been changed. The word “FOR” has the most noticeable font update: the “F” and “O” are narrower, while the “R” has a pronounced transition from the top to the right leg. Apart from the full-size text mark with the words “NEED FOR SPEED,” an abbreviated one is used – with the abbreviation “NFS.”
2022 – today
Font and Colors
There are no graphic elements on the logo of the video game. The only symbol existed in 2008-2013: an abstract shape like the letter “n” through the Speedline runs. It symbolized speed, which is the foundation of NFS.
Now the movement is encrypted only in oblique letters – it seems as if they are stretched because of the high speed. This reflects the dynamic nature of the game because Need for Speed is a racing franchise.
A font called NFS does exist, but it is not used in a modern logo. The wordmark 2008-2013 served as the basis for this typeface, where the capital “N” looked like a lowercase one. The unconventional design, combining lower and upper case letters, is now irrelevant. Based on the original NFS font, the designers have developed a new version, which retains oblique cuts but has different proportions of characters.
All Need for Speed logos except the first have black oblique lettering. In the debut version, the episode title was red, and the additional text was white. Black was used only as a background.
Need for Speed color codes
Black | Hex color: | #000000 |
---|---|---|
RGB: | 0 0 0 | |
CMYK: | 0 0 0 100 | |
Pantone: | PMS Process Black C |
What does the Need for Speed logo mean?
Now the Need for Speed logo contains only a wordmark and denotes only the name of the series of games. Earlier, the inscription was supplemented with a graphic symbol, which consisted of two parts: a fragment of the letter n and the arrow of the speedometer. This emblem personified speed.
What is the NFS logo?
Now the media franchise uses two versions of the logo – with a full and an abbreviated name. The first one is the inscription “NEED FOR SPEED,” made in the corporate font. There is no spacing between words; therefore, “FOR” is allocated only in a reduced size. The second-word mark contains the abbreviation “NFS,” written in the same oblique script with cuts at an angle of about 45 degrees.
What is the font of the Need for Speed logo?
The modern Need for Speed wordmark is crafted using a custom glyph set. The lettering differs from the NFS font, developed from the 2008 logo because the capital “N” used to look like a lowercase one. Now, this letter has a classic look. Typography features: tilt to the right, cut horizontal strokes, bold lines.