Scion was a short-lived Japanese brand of affordable compact cars. It was launched by Toyota in 2002 and discontinued in 2016. The reason is simple – they created this brand to sell its product to young Americans, and by 2016 there was no need for a specific brand any longer. Toyota took over the production of Scion models.
Meaning and History
Scion is pretty unique as a brand, because the majority of its Japanese counterparts in this industry use a basic red & white color scheme on their logos and other symbols. Toyota instead gave this brand a metallic grey palette to better define it as a car manufacturer in the American market.
‘Scion’ basically means ‘son’ and it was supposed to reflect the relationship between Toyota and their new project.
2003 – 2016
Scion’s logo resembles the emblems of many top car manufacturers, like Mercedes, Opel, Lexus, Mazda, and so on. It’s a round ring with a name-plaque inside and two sharp object on either side of it. Whether the similarities are intentional or not is unclear, but this brand uses a lot from a European style rather than the Japanese aesthetic.
The ring has a metallic color and resembles an oval, although it’s a lot thinner in the bottom and at the top. In the middle it’s horizontally overlapped by a bar bearing a company name in slim square letters painted black. From both sides of this plaque grew two fang-like shapes in a clockwise destination.
The choice behind the fangs is probably due to the fact that most westerners associate fast cars with predator animals or maybe because ‘Scion’ supposedly sounded dangerous or animal. The exact reason is unknown.
Scion’s logo noticeably has a lot of lighting on it, as well as a good doze of volume. As a consequence, each element has several sides and shades. While the bottom half of the ring is generally dark, the top one is dominated by lighter hues of grey and white.
There are no new models that wear this emblem, all Scion cars after 2016 wear Toyota badges and are branded as Toyota models.
Emblem and Symbol
The logo was used as a car badge on all Scion cars almost without change. The only distinction is a black background that filled the otherwise empty space inside the emblem. They also liked to richly chrome their logos, but that’s usual for the car manufacturers.
The Legends
There were only about a dozen models released by Scion independently. A lot of them were based off the Toyota cars, but reworked for American public (2003 xA made from Toyota Yaris; 2003 xB from Toyota bB,).
Scion xB model (2003-2015) is still one of the most popular cars from this brand. Unlike its brothers, xB is a compact hatchback (the majority of them were subcompact coupe or sedans).
