Key facts
- Founded
- 1919
- Founded by
- Walter Owen Bentley
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Headquarters
- Crewe, United Kingdom
- Parent company
- Volkswagen Group
- Legal name
- Bentley Motors Limited
- Famous models
- Continental GT, Flying Spur, Bentayga
- Website
- www.bentleymotors.com
Bentley Logo Meaning: What the Winged B Stands For
The Bentley logo is called the Winged B: the letter B, for Bentley, set between a pair of wings. Bentley says the wings express the exhilaration of motion and were perhaps also a nod to W.O. Bentley’s work on aircraft engines during the First World War.
During the war W.O. designed the BR1 and BR2 rotary aircraft engines, and his aluminum pistons were fitted to Sopwith Camel engines. He founded Bentley Motors in 1919, and his friend F. Gordon Crosby, a leading motoring artist, drew the first badge that year.
What is in the Bentley symbol:
- The B: the brand’s initial, redrawn around 1996 and again in 2025.
- The wings: speed and movement.
- The feathers: Crosby gave each wing a different number to stay ahead of fake badges; the 2002 version has 10 on the left and 11 on the right.
- The center jewel: since 2025 the B sits in a jewel that can be used on its own.
The Winged B is the flat badge; the Flying B is the three-dimensional mascot on the hood.
Bentley New Logo 2025: The Redesigned Winged B
The new Bentley logo, which Bentley calls the Bentley Wings, was announced on July 1, 2025. It is the fifth version of the Winged B and the first change to the Bentley car logo since 2002.
What Changed in the 2025 Bentley Emblem
Here is how the new Bentley emblem compares with the 2002 version:
| Feature | 2002–2025 Winged B | 2025 Bentley Wings |
|---|---|---|
| Wing shape | Curved, sculpted chrome wings | Sharper, more dramatic wings, angled like a peregrine falcon’s |
| Feathers under the B | A small fan of feathers below the center | Removed |
| Inner wing pattern | Diamond pattern | Diamond pattern kept |
| Center | B in a black oval | Redesigned B jewel with a beveled glass edge, a chamfered metal surround and a 3D B set below the surface |
The center is styled after luxury watch design, and the B jewel can stand alone as a graphic. The wings are not removable, despite some reports; it is the jewel that works as a separate mark.
Who Designed It and When It Was Revealed
The 2025 emblem was designed entirely in-house. Director of Design Robin Page, who took over Bentley design in 2023, curated the work with a small team. The winning idea came from an internal competition and was proposed by Young Nam of the interior design team.
Bentley formally presented it in Crewe on July 7, 2025, at the opening of its new Design Studio in the original 1938 headquarters building, and a future-vision concept car wore it on July 8. Page calls it the fourth evolution of the Winged B, while Bentley counts the fifth iteration. Both are right: five versions, four changes.
Why Bentley Redesigned Its Logo
Bentley presents the update as simplification and refinement for the digital era and the start of a new design language. Logo sites add that it prepares the brand for electric cars, but the announcement does not say so. Bentley’s pledge to go all-electric by 2030 is a separate plan from November 3, 2020.
Bentley Logo History: The Winged B From 1919 to Today
The Bentley logo has had five official versions: 1919, 1931, around 1996, 2002 and 2025. These dates come from Bentley’s own newsroom. Some logo sites date the third version to 1991, but Bentley says about 1996. No logo change came with the 1998 Volkswagen takeover.
1919–1931: Crosby’s Original Winged B
F. Gordon Crosby, an illustrator for The Autocar and a friend of W.O., drew the first Winged B in 1919. He placed the B inside a pair of wings and gave the two wings different feather counts, which made the badge harder to copy. This is the badge of Bentley’s independent years in Cricklewood, North London, when the Bentley Boys won Le Mans in 1924 and every year from 1927 to 1930.
What changed: the starting point, with uneven wings from day one.
1931–c.1996: The Rolls-Royce Era Badge
Rolls-Royce bought Bentley in 1931, and the Winged B was redrawn that year: symmetrical, with 10 straightened feathers on each side and a simpler B set in a plain black oval. It stayed in use until about 1996, roughly 65 years, which makes it the longest-serving Bentley logo.
What changed: the asymmetry was dropped and the design was simplified.
c.1996–2002: The Third Winged B
In the mid-1990s Bentley reworked the central B so it echoed Crosby’s 1919 letter. The emblem became more ornate, and the wings regained a more pronounced curve. This version ran until 2002.
What changed: a nod back to the original B and a curvier wing line.
2002–2025: The Continental GT Winged B
Volkswagen took over Bentley in 1998, and the Bentley emblem was redesigned for the first Continental GT in 2002. Its wings are uneven, with 10 feathers on the left and 11 on the right, as a tribute to the 1919 badge. The Continental GT is said to have taken Bentley from about 1,000 cars a year to about 10,000.
For the 2019 centenary, cars built that year carried a special version: the B and its oval outlined in Centenary Gold, with the dates 1919 and 2019 on either side of the B.
What changed: Crosby-style uneven wings on a sculpted chrome badge.
2025–Today: The Bentley Wings
The fifth version of the Bentley logo, covered in the 2025 redesign section above, drops the feathers below the B and sharpens the wings.
Bentley Flying B: The Hood Mascot vs the Winged B Badge
There are two different Bentley emblems. The Winged B is the flat Bentley badge; the Flying B is the separate 3D mascot on the hood (the bonnet, in British terms).
| Winged B | Flying B | |
|---|---|---|
| Form | Flat badge and brand logo | Three-dimensional hood mascot |
| First appeared | 1919 | Mid-1920s |
| Latest version | 2025 Bentley Wings | 2019 owl-inspired mascot |
Key Flying B milestones:
- Before production: Crosby drew an Icarus mascot that appeared in early catalogues but was never made.
- Mid-1920s: the first approved Flying B, an ornate upright brass B with its wings held out flat. It is thought to be a Crosby design.
- 1933: Charles Sykes, creator of the Rolls-Royce Spirit of Ecstasy, designed a one-wing mascot with a forward-leaning Art Deco B. It proved unpopular and became a pair of wings. The shared sculptor is the only real link between the two mascots.
- After World War II: a smaller two-wing Flying B rode on Crewe-built cars until pedestrian-safety rules banned solid hood ornaments in the 1970s.
- 2006: it returned in fully retractable form on the Arnage, Azure and Brooklands, and later also the Mulsanne, which went out of production in June 2020.
- 2019: Hoe Young Hwang won a designer competition with an owl-inspired Flying B for the new Flying Spur, in hand-polished stainless steel. It deploys electrically, and its feathers light up with the headlamps.
Bentley Badge Colors and Font
The Bentley logo usually appears in black, silver and white, and a black and white Bentley logo is the classic version. Bentley’s 2025 press images show the new emblem in black and chrome.
Bentley badge colors did have a real meaning once. On the 1920s 3 Litre, a blue badge marked the standard car from 1921 to 1929, while a red badge marked the Speed Model and a green one the 100 mph short-chassis car, both from 1924.
Logo and dealer sites also publish color codes, such as black for the most powerful cars, green for sporty ones and red for limited editions. These schemes contradict each other and none comes from Bentley, so treat them as unofficial. Claims that every car before 1924 wore red, or that blue appeared only on the Azure, are wrong.
Bentley does not name a typeface, so font names on logo sites are guesses. Nor has the letter stayed the same since 1919: the B was redrawn around 1996 and in 2025.
Bentley Logo vs Genesis, Chrysler and Aston Martin: Which Logos Look Like Bentley?
The car logos similar to Bentley are Genesis, Chrysler and Aston Martin, because all three use a pair of wings. Bentley is the only one of them with a single letter at the center.
| Brand | Center of the badge | Wings | Lettering |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bentley | Capital B in an oval, a jewel since 2025 | Feathered; 10 left and 11 right from 2002, sharper since 2025 | B only |
| Genesis | Black shield | Wings on both sides of the shield | GENESIS on the shield |
| Chrysler | No central mark (current logo) | Slim wing lines without feathers | CHRYSLER above the wings |
| Aston Martin | Black rectangle | Scarab-inspired feathered wings, redrawn in 2022 | ASTON MARTIN across the center |
In a Chrysler logo vs Bentley logo check, the quickest tell is the middle: Chrysler has nothing between its wings, while Bentley has the B. Winged badges are common among luxury and performance brands, and Mini uses wings too. See more car logos with wings.
Bentley Logo vs Genesis Logo: Why They Look Alike
The two look alike because both split a pair of wings with a central mark. On Genesis that mark is a black shield with the brand name; on Bentley it is a B in an oval. In a Genesis logo vs Bentley logo comparison, the shield is the giveaway.
Genesis was announced as a separate Hyundai brand on November 4, 2015. Its chief creative officer, Luc Donckerwolke, was previously Bentley’s design director. That is a link between people, not proof that the logo was copied. Genesis has not said what inspired its wings, and no legal dispute between the brands has been found, so “similar” is the fair word.
The same goes for Aston Martin. Its wings date from 1927, the 1920s aviation boom, and its own logo history does not mention Bentley, so claims that it copied Bentley are unsupported.
Bentley Logo on the Car and PNG Download
On the car, the Bentley car logo appears as the flat Winged B badge, and some models add the Flying B on the hood. Logo sites note that the emblem also shows up on interior trim.
The feathers are the quickest way to date a Bentley car symbol. Symmetrical wings with 10 feathers a side point to the 1931 badge, used until about 1996. Uneven wings, 10 on the left and 11 on the right, point to 2002 through 2025. No feathers below the center means the 2025 Bentley Wings.
The Bentley logo PNG from the download button above is for identification and editorial use. The Winged B is a trademark of Bentley Motors Limited.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Bentley a Rolls-Royce?
No. Bentley and Rolls-Royce are separate brands, but they were sister marques for decades. Rolls-Royce bought Bentley in 1931 with a £125,000 sealed bid placed through a front company, and Bentleys used shared Rolls-Royce chassis until about 2004. That is why critics called them rebadged Rolls-Royces.
Is Bentley a BMW or VW?
Bentley belongs to the Volkswagen Group. VW bought Rolls-Royce Motors, including Bentley, in 1998 after outbidding BMW, offering about £430 million against BMW's £340 million. Since 2022 Bentley has been managed under Audi within the group. BMW has never owned Bentley.
Why did Rolls-Royce and Bentley split?
The split came with the 1998 sale. Volkswagen bought the car company and got the Bentley name and logos, plus the Spirit of Ecstasy and grille-shape trademarks, but not the Rolls-Royce name or logo, which stayed with Rolls-Royce Holdings plc. From January 1, 2003, Volkswagen alone supplied cars under the Bentley name.
Is Chrysler related to Bentley?
No. Chrysler has never been one of Bentley's owners. Bentley has belonged to W.O. Bentley's original company, Rolls-Royce, Vickers and, since 1998, the Volkswagen Group. The resemblance people notice comes from the winged badge, a motif that many luxury and performance car brands use.
What is the difference between the Bentley emblem and the Aston Martin emblem?
Bentley puts a letter B at the center of its wings, while Aston Martin spells its full name across the middle. Bentley's wings date from 1919 and F. Gordon Crosby. Aston Martin's first wings came in 1927, followed by feathered wings from racing driver Sammy Davis in 1932 and a redraw by Peter Saville in 2022.
Are Genesis and Bentley the same company?
No. Genesis is Hyundai's luxury brand, while Bentley is a British carmaker owned by the Volkswagen Group. Bentley does not make Genesis cars, and the two companies have no ownership link. What they share is a winged badge that looks similar at a glance.
What does the name Bentley mean?
The car brand is named after its founder, Walter Owen Bentley (1888–1971), known as W.O. He started Bentley Motors in 1919 in Cricklewood, North London. According to Bentley's own history, his aim was a car that was fast, good and the best in its class.
Who owns the Bentley logo?
Bentley Motors Limited, part of the Volkswagen Group, owns the Winged B. The original company never registered its trademark in the 1920s; Rolls-Royce registered it right after buying Bentley in 1931. When Volkswagen took over in 1998, the Bentley name and logos came with the deal.
