Polestar Logo PNG
The Polestar logo is sharp and cool. Its starry glow shows the development of new safety technologies, with no heat or fumes. The sign conveys the beauty and brilliance of modern body materials and states that the future belongs to electric vehicles.
Polestar began on the racing side of Volvo’s world. In 1996, Swedish driver Jan “Flash” Nilsson founded Flash Engineering in Halmstad to compete in the new Swedish Touring Car Championship. Volvo backed the team with funding and cars, starting with the Volvo 850. Nilsson won the debut STCC season in 1996 and repeated the title in 1997.
In 2004, Nilsson sold his stake to Christian Dahl, who renamed the company Polestar Racing. Nilsson kept the Flash Engineering name and continued separately with BMW and Porsche. Dahl built Polestar around racing results and technical development, turning it into a performance partner with deeper road-car engineering skills.
In 2009, Volvo made Polestar Racing its official performance partner. That year, the team won the STCC with the Volvo C30, and Polestar followed with the 405-horsepower C30 Polestar Concept. In 2013, the first production Volvo S60 Polestar was introduced in Australia in a limited run of 100 units, followed by sales of the S60 and V60 Polestar in eight countries in 2014. Geely had already bought Volvo from Ford Motor Company in 2010.
In 2015, Volvo Cars bought Polestar’s production business, while Dahl’s racing team continued as Cyan Racing. In 2017, Volvo Cars and Geely relaunched Polestar as a standalone premium electric brand under CEO Thomas Ingenlath. Polestar 1, a 600-horsepower hybrid GT, was built from 2019 to 2021, and Polestar 2 followed in 2020 as the brand’s main electric fastback. In 2022, Polestar went public on Nasdaq under the ticker PSNY after a SPAC merger with Gores Guggenheim.
Meaning and History
Despite logo transformations and changes in production concepts, the sign has always remained true to the star theme. The celestial symbol runs through all modifications of the identity. The company’s cars are inextricably linked to leadership, whether in racing or in the development of future technical solutions. The star reflects this leadership. The symbols read futuristic, striving to become the brand of Earth, not of a single country.
What is Polestar?
This Swedish premium car manufacturer carved out its niche in the automotive industry after emerging from Volvo’s racing division. Retaining its racing roots through elegant, minimalist Scandinavian design, the company, formerly known for tuning Volvo cars, has evolved into an independent brand focused on electric vehicles. Under the ownership of Volvo Cars and Geely Holding, the brand creates cars with unique design and driving dynamics, combining expertise in performance with traditional Swedish quality.
1996 – 2017
The logo seems to reflect the company’s name. The blue square has “Polestar” written in thin white letters and a Polar Star at the top, above the R. The blue background conveys the celestial smoothness that merges with the white snow, which has a bluish hue behind the Arctic Circle.
However, this concept does not quite fit the original idea.
The name was coined by company founder Jan “Flash” Nilsson in 2005 when he renamed the team Polestar Racing, and is not directly related to Polestar. The word consists of a compound of two concepts:
- Pole position (Pole), the most favorable position on a race track. The term came from horse racing, where poles with this name marked the racetrack. The most advantageous position for a horse was closer to the center, to the limiting poles.
- The star, meaning the star of the race, is the team climbing to the top.
Therefore, the blue in the logo rather conveys the Swedish flag, and the star indicates victories in races and the rise of the company’s popularity in the sky. The placement of the inscription at the bottom of the logo hints that the racers have room to grow.
2017 – 2020
After a long and fruitful collaboration, Volvo buys the tuning division, and the racing team changes its name from Polestar Racing to Cyan Racing. Together with Chinese partners, the giant is gradually changing the direction of the acquired firm. In 2017, it was announced that Polestar would produce electric cars.
It was from this year that the company’s car models began to be called Polestar. The interpretation was chosen to show the base country’s northern location and to indicate the new engines. For full conformity, the logo was corrected, leaving only the star.
The celestial star is depicted as a four-pointed star associated with a guiding star. Only the shaded edges of the luminary rays are traced on the emblem, which makes the drawing abstract and reminiscent of the meeting of two boomerangs. The two elements in the sign represent the company’s flourishing and growth following the merger of Polestar Performance AB and Volvo. This collaboration is a guiding star for development.
The four beams are considered a symbol of career growth and good luck. Since 2017, two electric car models have been introduced, and three more are planned to appear systematically until 2026. The production capacity is designed for 500 cars annually, which is an excellent start.
The contrast between white and black indicates a transition from gasoline-powered to electric-powered vehicles. The first Polestar model ran on gasoline, and the second and third are already on the current market.
2020 – today
The Gores Guggenheim Group, Inc. entered the business, and by 2021, Polestar went public to attract new investment. This allowed a move into active production of electric cars, which launched in 2019-2021.
The logo was made lighter to reflect the discontinuation of the gasoline operation. The emblem still only shows part of the star formed by the two boomerangs, but the use of shades allows it to show the figure’s volume. The image seems cold, made of ice, corresponding to the brand’s name.
Font and Colors
The main shades of the image are light gray and white. The light tones evoke the snow of the Polar region, which is associated with purity and hint at concern for the environment and a shift to pollution-free engines. White is the primary color of the brand’s first two electric-powered cars.
The logo has no alphabetic designations and is understandable for people who speak different languages.
Polestar has official fonts it uses in its branding. The primary font used in the Polestar logo and other graphics is “GT Walsheim.”
GT Walsheim is a typeface designed by German designer Noël Leu in 2010. It was created based on traditional Grotesque fonts, characterized by clean lines and no serifs, with some modern modifications. This typeface comes in several styles: Regular, Medium, Bold, Black, and more. It is often used in automotive and tech design due to its modern aesthetic and good readability.
In addition to GT Walsheim, other fonts may be used in Polestar graphics, but GT Walsheim is the brand’s primary font and is most commonly used in its designs.