Jaguar, State of UX
This issue is about the reactions to the Jaguar rebrand and the excellent report on The State of UX in 2025.
The Jaguar Rebrand
Two weeks ago, Jaguar revealed their new branding. The work they shared was in stark contrast to the Jaguar image until that day.
To show you a visual comparison, I used a tool that is excellent at giving the most common, mediocre, flat, average, free-of-nuance answers to your questions, ChatGPT.
Prompt: Create a mural that summarizes the public perception of the car brand: Jaguar. Emphasize Jaguar's historic achievements, their origin, their design, and the highlights of their brand history. Include iconic cultural references to Jaguar.
ChatGPT said this was against content guidelines and suggested removing James Bond references (who would have thought), and produced this:
In comparison, here is the launch video for the new brand:
The launch video for the Jaguar rebrand.
This was intentional
It is very hard not to notice the abrupt break from what made Jaguar, Jaguar. My initial reaction was: omg the agency ripped them off sooo bad... But the rebrand project was undertaken by Jaguar's internal marketing/design teams. So this was really neither an accident nor a result of seller mind tricks from a marketing agency. They did this very much on purpose, literally sitting in the driver's seat.
There were rumors that they were going to follow up soon with a vision concept car. A week later, they revealed Type 00 in blue and pink at Miami Art Week. Here is the presentation:
Jaguar Type 00 reveal video.
Getting attention in today's world is not easy... We are delighted to have your attention... We create new objects of desire... Exuberance, feeling of occasion, it doesn't conform... why should it... We don't have a desire to be loved by everybody... and that is OK.
It is exuberant
The car on the stage was made available for social media videos. It is real. And it matches EXACTLY what they said the new brand stands for.
The whole new brand is executed quite well. The car definitely stands apart as a vision vehicle, despite looking a bit like a mix of Audi and Peugeot. The brand elements are quite strong in their application as seen on the car, their presentation and their current website. The message is consistent across their channels. The design team is content with how it turned out.
Why the reaction then?
It is disrespectful at its core
Jaguar is a car manufacturer. On a technical level, they are not much different than other cars in the same technical class. Maybe even lagging behind a little.