Braconnier rebrands Masters Historic Racing as a House of Icons

The Brand Identity: Five stars arranged in a cascading diagonal, tilted slightly forward. It’s a deceptively simple motif – one that appears across the new Masters identity at every conceivable scale, from embossed leather patches to animated sequences. Used large, the constellation hits with the force of a racing graphic, motion and energy streaking across the composition. Used small, it settles into something more discreet that might sign a collaboration or sit on a garment collar. “Large, they perform; small, they belong,” says Creative Director Bastien Braconnier.

That duality runs through every layer of what Belgium-based studio Braconnier has built for Masters Historic Racing across six months of intensive work. In the world of motorsport, Masters occupies an unusual position. It is a respected championship, yes, but it also brings together some of the most iconic machines ever built – cars spanning the 1960s to 2018 – and a community of drivers who treat historic racing as something approaching a lifestyle. Braconnier recognised early that the brand was already operating at the intersection of several worlds. The question wasn’t whether Masters had cultural weight.

It was whether the identity could express it. The answer arrived in the ‘House of Icons.’ “We wanted Masters to feel less like an organiser and more like a cultural house, something closer to a fashion house or a club with its own codes, objects and rituals,” Braconnier explains. Once that positioning took hold, it became the anchor for everything that followed – tone of voice, hierarchy, merchandise, even the way the rebrand would be revealed to the world.

The identity had to feel like it belonged to a house that curates icons, one that carries the weight of racing history and the confidence of a brand with its own distinct codes. The typographic system reflects that tension between heritage and forward motion through three complementary type families. Roobert, from Displaay, acts as the contemporary backbone – precise, geometric and highly structured, bringing energy and clarity that resonates with the performance side of motorsport.

There’s a quiet period reference buried in the choice, too: its designers drew inspiration from the Moog logo and its founder, a pioneer in synthesiser development, lending the typeface subtle retro undertones beneath its clean geometry. Tobias, also from Displaay, introduces the historical counterpart. As a serif family, it carries echoes of tradition and continuity that felt essential for a championship rooted in racing’s past, its subtle detailing offering character for a discerning eye. “The dialogue between these two families became essential to the identity: part heritage, part momentum,” explains Artistic Director Nicolas Bebronne.

A third typeface, JetBrains Mono, completes the system. The monospaced font introduces an engineering aesthetic and is reserved for technical information – race data, timing, mechanical details. The Masters wordmark is custom-built, and its references are specific. Braconnier designed the logotype as a nod to the technological universe of 1980s and 1990s automobiles, drawing from Japanese high-tech brands like Casio, Clarion, Mazda and Alpine Electronics to evoke a retro-tech quality that feels simultaneously nostalgic, solid and technically sophisticated. The challenge was calibrating that tone carefully.

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The rebranding of Masters Historic Racing into a 'House of Icons' signifies a strategic evolution in brand identity within the motorsport sector, making it highly relevant and impactful for brand strategy professionals, while also introducing a fresh perspective on cultural significance in branding.