In a bid to expand its retail petroleum business into the international market, Kuwait Petroleum took the radical step of completely changing the name of its subsidiary company, Gulf Oil. Gulf became Q8 in Europe in 1986, based on the English pronunciation of Kuwait.
Its symbol of twin sails refers to traditional Kuwaiti trading ship, and the bright color combination is intended to improve the visibility of the gas stations in the dark.
The new identity was created by Wolff Olins.

1986