The typeface was conceived in a general overhaul of Volkswagen’s corporate identity. The typeface was used for the Volkswagen and Audi Dealer Organization, and for all non-car related activities of Volkswagen, such as the V.A.G Bank and V.A.G Leasing. One ambiguity which remains from the era of V.A.G is that many parts on Volkswagen Group vehicles - regardless of brand - are still stamped with the logos of both Volkswagen and Audi - thus suggesting that the dominance of the two brands is intentional, giving weight to the former argument that V.A.G did indeed stand for "Volkswagen Audi Group" or perhaps Volkswagen Auto Group. The vision of many brands under one huge roof was left to the auto malls that became common in the USA and later in Europe. Yet, with Audi, Bugatti, Bentley, Lamborghini, SEAT, Škoda, Scania and MAN, Volkswagen AG had realized its vision of many brands. Audi overhauled its corporate identity around the same time, dropping the "Audi Oval" logo that had been in use since the late 1970s, giving prominence to the four rings, and replacing Times with the Univers font for all corporate communications. This was essentially the end of the V.A.G brand and logo, which was abandoned shortly afterwards, with the process being completed by 1997.
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īy 1994, in line with Volkswagen's long term aim of pushing the Audi brand further upmarket towards being a full scale luxury brand on level terms with BMW and Mercedes-Benz, it was decided to separate the joint sales channel used by VW and Audi, and establish a wholly independent Audi dealer network. Bertel Schmitt revealed that the V.A.G name was intentionally ambiguous to avoid rewriting dealer contracts as a legal consequence of the holding company's name change. Theories ranged from "Volkswagen AG" (although the official name of the company during this time was "Volkswagenwerk AG") to "Volkswagen Audi Group." At Volkswagen, insiders joked that V.A.G means Von Adolf Gegründet ("Founded by Adolf"). The meaning of V.A.G was never officially disclosed.
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A free modern implementation is MgOpen Modata. As Desktop Publishing emerged in the mid 1980s, V.A.G Rounded was included in most free font packages and became widely used for that reason. To solve the problem, V.A.G Rounded was put in the public domain. Worldwide availability of the font was a problem. In 1978, the whole Volkswagen and Audi Dealer Organization worldwide was re-branded as V.A.G using the distinct V.A.G Rounded (or V.A.G Rundschrift) as the font for all signage, and for all headlines in their advertising.
It was then perfected on a PDP-8 minicomputer. The original typeface was rendered by hand. Over several years, the identity concept was refined by Bertel Schmitt (creative director) and Manfred Schwarzer (art director). The original idea was conceived by Wolf Rogosky ( creative director) and Gerd Hiepler ( art director). After the company failed to find an existing rounded typeface at the time, the new typeface had to be developed. The new typeface would be neither sans-serif (like Futura) nor serif (like Times), and the idea for a rounded typeface was born. Volkswagen at the time had Futura as their typeface. Finding a distinct typeface was an integral part. GGK Düsseldorf was tasked with the branding concept. Eventually, Volkswagen intended to use this umbrella as the name of their holding company: General Motors in reverse. The new dealer organization, financial services, and all other non-car related activities were to come under one branded umbrella. They also envisioned selling a multitude of brands under giant dealer roofs. They envisioned buying several car companies to round out their offerings. In the following years, Volkswagen AG re-thought their future strategy. In the early 1970s, the dealer organizations of Volkswagen and Audi merged. The main active brand of Auto Union was DKW, but it was soon dropped by Volkswagen and replaced by Auto Union's dormant Audi brand. In 1964, Volkswagen AG bought Auto Union GmbH from Daimler Benz.
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