Bentley’s logo redesign by interior designer Young Kwang Nam

CDN caught up with Bentley’s new logo designer

Bentley interior designer Young Kwang Nam led the creative update of the brand’s logo unveiled in tandem with the new EXP 15 concept car. Car Design News caught up with him at the new studio

Young Kwang Nam, known as YK, is a lead interior designer at Bentley Motors, where he applies his design expertise to both form and function. While his background is rooted in interior design, he recently contributed to a key visual update for the brand: the redesign of the Bentley logo. It marks the fifth time in the company’s history that the logo has been redesigned. 

Developed through an internal design competition, YK’s concept was selected for its clean, modern approach that aligns with Bentley’s evolving identity. Drawing inspiration from the peregrine falcon and preserving the logo’s traditional asymmetry, the updated emblem is designed to work effectively in digital contexts while remaining recognisably Bentley.

Car Design News: Tell us about the redesigning of the Bentley logo. Was it briefed into you, or was it a competition internally? How did it go?

Young Kwang Nam: So it was an internal competition. This time, because this transformation means a lot to us, we didn’t want to outsource it. So we had a competition amongst all the designers — actually, not only designers, but the entire team. Everyone had a chance to submit their proposals. We shortlisted a couple of themes, and in the end, they wanted to go beyond — to push even further and have a more progressive design. You’ve seen the EXP 15, so that has a really modern and progressive design DNA. Considering our design direction, we wanted to make it look as progressive as possible. Hence, they picked this theme — my theme.

CDN: Progressive is a nebulous term. It needed to be a bit sharper?

YK: We really wanted to have a cleaner look in the design and to minimalise it a little bit — but we didn’t want to go too far. We’ve seen loads of other brands minimising, but we wanted to do it in a very sophisticated way — in a very Bentley way. That was the big design vision for this icon.

CDN: And is it still asymmetrical? 

YK: Yes. These diamonds are very geometric, and it’s tricky to have an asymmetrical design. It was quite difficult to get the right proportion and to align these different lines. But we managed to successfully keep the asymmetry in the wings. We expressed the feathers with diamonds, and if you count them, one side has ten diamonds and the other has nine — staying true to the roots.

For the 2D logos, we also tried asymmetric numbers of diamonds, but we had to get the proportions looking right. The whole idea behind the asymmetry is actually to help prevent people copying it. So what we’ve done is subtly tweak the size of the diamonds. You’ll see symmetrical diamonds in the 2D logo, but if you overlay them, they’re slightly different.

CDN: And it’s a modular thing as well — you can take the “B” button out. Tell me a little bit about that.

YK: In this digital age, we really wanted to highlight the Bentley “B” as a jewel. All these profile images on social media are quite small, so if we try to put the full winged badge in there, the logo gets too small and doesn’t highlight the “B” properly.So we came up with the idea — almost like a watch face — to treat the “B” like a jewel. We thought, why don’t we make this part detachable to create a different character, while still recognising it as part of the Bentley emblem?

CDN: What’s really nice is that you’re an interior designer who’s done a very significant part of the exterior. How does that feel?

YK: It feels amazing. Surreal. But I think all the experience I had in interior design — where we put a lot of attention to detail — helped me to bring a lot of sophistication into this. Things like sections and precision — yes, I think that experience helped a lot.

CDN: You’re now part of a lineage of British design history. When people write books about the history of Bentley design, your name will appear in it.

YK: Something to tell my future grandchildren.