Road & Track magazine has had an ampersand in its nameplate ever since 1954 when the then-art director complained to the editor that Road and Track was just too long to fit across the top of the publication’s cover. The editor suggested an ampersand as an easy fix, and the change became permanent. For more than 70 years, it has been used as a styled and recognizable element in the publication’s logo/nameplate.
Now Pentagram’s Matt Willey of Pentagram and Road & Track AD Nathan Schroeder have transformed the ampersand into the centerpiece of a new identity for the magazine. The design of the new version was inspired by designs used in the early 1960s.
“Naturally, it’s undergone a makeover with a little taken out here, a little added there, some stretching, etc. That’s emblematic of the way I see this magazine, rooted in the past but always evolving,” says Road & Track editor-in-chief Dan Pund. “[W]hat they arrived at is beautiful. Strong and modern, fresh but familiar, this is a logo that will live happily on all the various channels of modern media.”
