Bugatti Logo: Meaning, History and the EB Badge

What Is the Bugatti Logo?

The Bugatti logo is a horizontal red oval with the name BUGATTI in white capitals, the black initials EB above the name and 60 red dots on a white border. Bugatti calls this badge the Macaron, and it sits on the horseshoe-shaped radiator of every Bugatti.

Ettore Bugatti fitted the first one, an enameled metal oval, to the radiator of the Type 13, the first official Bugatti, toward the end of 1909. The shape is geometric rather than freehand: Bugatti’s design instructions define it as a 45 mm cylinder cut at a 30-degree angle.

The logo of Bugatti in the download button above is the 2022 corporate wordmark: flat black BUGATTI capitals with no oval, dots or EB. So the Bugatti logo PNG on this page shows the company’s logo, not the car badge.

Bugatti Logo Meaning: EB, 60 Dots and Three Colors

Each part of the Bugatti symbol has an explanation, but they are not equally solid. The EB and the colors are explained by Bugatti itself. The 60 dots come with a legend, not a record.

The EB Monogram

The EB in the Bugatti logo is simply the founder’s initials: E for Ettore, B for Bugatti. It sits in black above the white name and is the only lettering on the badge apart from BUGATTI.

Look closely and the E appears mirrored, so the two letters stand back to back. Bugatti has published no explanation for this, so readings such as “speed” or “movement” are outside guesses.

The 60 Dots

Nobody has documented where the 60 red dots around the border come from. Bugatti’s own newsroom repeats the legend: the dots stand for pearls, or for threads drawn in the Art Nouveau style of the day. Such threads worked like splints, joining mechanical parts permanently, which fits Ettore’s lifelong concern for reliable, durable cars.

The engineering behind the story is real: Bugatti engines used safety wire laced through their fasteners in intricate patterns. That the dots depict it is not documented. Neither is the popular claim that they are pearls from his father’s jewelry business.

Red, White and Black

Bugatti gives each color a meaning of its own. In the company’s words, the red means power and passion, the white means elegance and nobility, and the black means excellence and courage.

Longer lists of color meanings on logo websites are those sites’ own interpretations, not Bugatti’s.

Why the Badge Is Flat: No Hood Mascot

Ettore wanted a flat badge and avoided the radiator figures that many carmakers of his era used. He felt a mascot would spoil the design of his cars.

The single exception is the dancing elephant on the Type 41 Royale. It is a replica of a sculpture by his late brother, the sculptor Rembrandt Bugatti, and a tribute to him. That elephant is why an animal sometimes turns up in searches for the Bugatti car logo, but it was a mascot on one model, never part of the badge.

Who Created the Bugatti Logo?

The idea for the red oval with white lettering came from Ettore Bugatti himself. He had already worked out a similar oval, white letters on red, for his former employer Deutz in Cologne before he started building cars under his own name.

Ettore was born in Milan. His father, Carlo Bugatti (1856-1940), designed Art Nouveau furniture and jewelry, and some sites credit him with the logo. Bugatti’s newsroom says otherwise: the idea was Ettore’s. No separate artist is named for the final artwork.

Bugatti Logo History: How the Badge Has Changed

1. 1909
2. 2007
3. 2015
4. 2022
5. 2022

The short answer: very little. Bugatti says it has changed the look of the Macaron only slightly over the years, so Bugatti logos from every decade share the same oval, colors, dots and EB. Only the drawing, frame and finish differ.

Dates after 1909 come from logo archives, not from Bugatti, and some of them overlap. The one big change, in 2022, concerned the corporate wordmark, not the badge on the cars.

1909: The Original Macaron

The first Bugatti logo is the badge fitted to the Type 13 at the end of 1909. It is flat, with heavy white capitals, a black shadow behind the letters, the black EB above and 60 red dots on a white border. Some timelines show a light-gray frame here, but Bugatti describes the border as white.

The image is a modern redraw of that design, not a photo of a 1909 part. Bugatti’s archive photos show the same oval on classics such as the Type 51 and the Type 35T.

Around 2007: A Refined Flat Badge

Logo archives date a refined drawing to around 2007. It stays flat but gets a darker gray band carrying the red dots, a thinner shadow under the letters, wider letter spacing and a brighter red.

Bugatti has not published a date for it, and the archives list it as in use until 2022, overlapping with the 3D version below. The drawing shown also comes from a logo archive, so treat its fine details as approximate.

Around 2015: The 3D Badge

The next rendering, which the archives place around 2015, adds depth: gradient shading on the red field, a frame that looks like silver, darker red dots and a heavier shadow on the letters.

It mirrors a real change to the physical badge. Work on the Chiron’s Macaron began in 2014. The result was 14 mm wider and 8 mm taller than the Veyron’s, with the lettering and dots on one enameled plane and the background almost 2 mm lower, which gives it genuine depth.

2022: The BUGATTI Wordmark

The new Bugatti logo of 2022 is a wordmark: BUGATTI in flat capital letters in a custom condensed sans-serif. The main version has no oval, no dots and no EB.

Shown in black on white, it is the black-and-white Bugatti logo many people look for, although the 2022 palette also adds a new Bugatti Blue.

2022: The EB Monogram as a Brand Mark

Next to the wordmark, the 2022 identity uses the EB initials on their own. Bugatti treats the EB as part of its heritage and uses it to mark the brand beyond the cars themselves. Design coverage of the launch reported that the monogram itself was left unchanged.

The New Bugatti Logo: 2022 Corporate Identity

Bugatti presented its new corporate identity on July 25, 2022, in Molsheim, built on the line “Create the Incomparable.” The branding consultancy Interbrand created it with Bugatti and also developed the new typography.

Three things changed: the corporate wordmark, the typeface and the color palette. The typeface draws on the original Bugatti lettering and on French typography. The new Bugatti Blue, Bugatti says, refers to the brand’s French origins. One design-press report linked it to traditional French Racing Blue, but Bugatti’s own announcement does not say that.

Alongside the new slogan, Bugatti restated Ettore’s own motto: “If comparable, it is no longer Bugatti.” The rollout started with the logo on social media, stationery and a new event setup, and parts of it were already in place at dealers. The timing followed a change of ownership: Bugatti Rimac had begun operating on November 1, 2021.

What the rebrand did not do is retire the red oval. It replaced the logo Bugatti uses for its communication, and it kept the EB.

Wordmark vs Macaron: Which Bugatti Logo Is Which?

The two logos now do different jobs. The wordmark stands for the company. The Macaron is the Bugatti logo on the car, and reports on the launch said it would stay there.

	Corporate wordmark (2022)	Macaron badge
Where it appears	Social media, stationery, events, dealers	The radiator of the car
What it looks like	Flat capital BUGATTI, no oval, no dots	Red oval, white BUGATTI, black EB, 60 dots
How it is made	Digital typography by Interbrand	Handmade from sterling silver and enamel on modern cars
Status	Corporate logo since July 25, 2022	Not retired by the 2022 rebrand

The Macaron: The Silver Bugatti Emblem on Every Car

The Bugatti emblem on a modern car is solid silver. The Macaron on the radiator is made from 970 sterling silver and enamel, by hand, by Poellath, a family-owned embossing firm founded in 1778 in Schrobenhausen, Bavaria.

Poellath has made Bugatti’s emblems since 2003, starting with the Veyron 16.4, and is said to be the only company able to produce the badge with its 3D enamel effect. The enamel is now lead-free. The older type was about half lead.

Red is the standard color of the Bugatti badge. Only a very few cars, such as the Chiron Noire and the Chiron Super Sport 300+, wear the Bugatti symbol in black.

Macaron by the Numbers

Detail	Figure
Material	Solid 970 sterling silver with enamel
Weight	About 150 g of silver; 159 g with enamel and fastening screws
Labor	About 20 skilled workers, roughly 10 hours spread over several days
Embossing	Several passes at up to 1,000 tonnes
Enamel	About 0.5 mm thick, fused at 750-900 °C
Lettering	Raised 2.1 mm from the base
Dots	Enameled and finished by hand

The figures come from Bugatti’s press release on the badge, dated October 15, 2020.

Bugatti vs Lamborghini Logo: How to Tell Them Apart

The two logos share nothing. The Bugatti logo is a horizontal oval with initials and dots. The Lamborghini logo is a shield with a bull. If a supercar badge shows an animal, it is not the Bugatti car logo.

	Bugatti	Lamborghini
Shape	Horizontal oval	Shield
Symbol	EB initials and 60 dots	Bull

The Company Behind the Bugatti Symbol

Bugatti is a French car brand. Ettore Bugatti founded Automobiles Ettore Bugatti in 1909 in Molsheim, Alsace, which was then part of the German Empire and is now in France.

Ettore died on August 21, 1947. His son Jean had died in 1939, so there was no heir to take over. The original company stopped building cars in 1952 and was sold to Hispano-Suiza in 1963, which wanted its aircraft-parts business and built no Bugatti cars.

Romano Artioli revived the brand in 1987. In 1998 Volkswagen took over the Bugatti name, and on December 22, 1998, it set up Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S., a wholly owned French company. The hypercars that followed, the Veyron and the Chiron, carry the red oval on their radiators.