Evolution of Car Logos

Often I get a doubt when I get stuck in traffic! In front of me there stands a BMW, Cadillac I get a doubt regarding the origination of their LOGO and all other stuffs related with their LOGO! Well this blog post will be quite useful for people who get such a doubt like me. This post gives a clear view and information about a range of cars in the auto industry.

Mitsubishi Logo History

Mitsubishi Automotive Company is known for its production of large cars with high power engine and this company dates back to 1870s. This company earned huge amount of profits right from the starting and it also has a very stylish logo which is like three diamonds in red color.
Well there weren’t many changes in the logo. There was only change in the caption and the full name like for some period it was Mitsubishi Motors, Mitsubishi Electric and then just Mitsubishi and finally it designed the logo with the name Mitsubishi Corporation which connotes the entire company.

Benz:

There are few talks which tell that the history of Benz Car dates back to 1880s but the modern Benz traced its lineage to a 1926 which is merger of two companies Daimler-Motored-Gesellschaft or DMG (founded by Gottlieb Daimler), and Benz & Cie (founded by Karl Benz). The name Mercedes came in 1900 and Mercedes Benz logo had just slight variations over subsequent years.


Skoda


1926 - 1933
This company has been founded in the year 1895. In Mladá Boleslav cars have been manufactured under the brand Skoda and though the name brand has been completely changed in form of novel product logo is visible continuity with previous stage and the logo of this company has a novel which is of oval shape where the brand name is yet a dominant one in the center bounded laurels.

1926 - 1990
The first logo of became so popular which is of which is of winged arrow and this particular one has already been used earlier in 1926.Below is a clear view of logos of Skoda company with clear description behind the design!




Fiat

Fiat is one of the famous car company which was set up in the year 1899 by a group of investors. Fiat means Fabbrica Italiana Torino which means Italian Automobile Factory of Turin and Giovanni Agnelli was one of the prospective investor of that company and later became its Managing Director. The first Logo was designed by the Company’ Chief Designer. Currently this company is producing cars with attractive styling and exciting engines and also the cars which enhance the quality of everyday life!

Renault

There are many talks on this company regarding the year of set-up of this company. Few say that this company was initially set up in the year 1899 but it started manufacturing cars from 1897. Well Louis Renault made his first car at the age of 21 and soon got many orders for cars in the year 1898 and this made him to open his own company by name Société Renault Frères in Boulogne-Billancourt, France.

In the year 1900 the first Renault Logo was drawn by him. This logo features three initials of Renault Brothers Louis, Ferdinand and Marcel and in year 1906 Logo got changed to a front end of a car enclosed in a gear wheel.

Audi

Initially let me note that this company was found by August Horch and the name Audi was basically suggested by Franz Fikentscher’s son where Franz was a business partner. Initially August Horch used to work for Karl Benz and then he founded his own company in year 1899 by name A. Horch & Cie and later he was forced to be out of his own company and well he set up another company by name Horch but since his former partners sued him he was forced to look for some other new name and finally got its name Audi which was named by his partners son. Well there were many logos designed for this company and finally the current logo has been designed by them which is quite a trendy one!

Cadillac

The second Automobile Company was set up by the Ford Motors by name Henry Ford Company was in a position of liquidation but an engineer by name Henry M. Leland told them to continue the business and hence this business was continued and this formed Cadillac Company. In simple words Cadillac Company came into existence from Henry Ford Company. This company was founded in the year 1902.

When we look at the story of Logo, first Logo was designed based on family crest of a minor aristocrat that the company was named after Antoine de La Mothe, Seigneur de Cadillac. Well there were many variations in the logo of this company from 1916-2002 and this company earned good returns over subsequent years.

Opel:

Opel Cars history dates back to 1902 and Opel commenced the manufacture of cars with high powered engine and attractive models in a slow and steady way. Opel was a leading European Car producer vending small versions in large numbers and the logo of this company varies from one year to another year. There was a drastic change year by year in models of cars and engines manufactured by Opel and below are the pictures of Logo of Opel which clearly shows variations from one year to another.

Ford

Ford Motors was found in the year 1903 by Henry Ford and this company is the third auto company. The other two companies by name The Detroit Automobile Company and Henry Ford Company didn’t run out well in the market and he finally in a slow motion earned good returns in this third company.

And the first Logo of Ford Motors was created by Childe Harold Wills, chief engineer and designer of Ford. The famous oval in blue got added up for 1927 model A which remained in use until today.

Buick:

Buick is quite a famous company which came into existence in the year 1903 by a Scottish American inventor by name David Dunbar Buick. And Buick is the person who founded a company which slowly and steadily became world’s largest automotive company, General Motors.

Buick dropped out from school at the age of 15 and he started working for a plumbing fixture manufacturer and that company was taken over by him and his friend due to the plunge of the company. Later he faced many problems in life where he suffered many days penniless and finally came to a good position. When we come to the story of Logo there were many variations to be found from the year 1937-2002 because of various reasons. Below are pictures of Buick Logo.

Toyota

As we all know Toyota is one of the companies which is successful in many ways and has a lot of milestones in its history. This company as founded in the year 1907. When we come to the Logo, earlier it had a traditional logo which was not that attractive in color and later it designed its logo with its name alone and then with a design excluding the name of the company and finally it designed a very stylish logo combining the design in grey color and the name in red color

Alfa Romeo

Alfa Romeo is a car company which commenced its business in the year 1910 and initially Milan aristocrat Cavaliere Ugo Stella entered into a partnership with a French company Darracq and when this partnership didn’t work Cavaliere shifted the company and renamed it as Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili (Lombard Automobile Factory, Public company) which is also known as A.L.F.A.

The logo of this company has been created in the year 1910 in a unique way by draftsman name Romano Cattaneo. Reason behind the selection of Alfa name is basically taken by seeing the Milan Flag. He completely got inspired and he liked the way two dynasty knots lacerated the words ALFA and MILANO.

The other part i.e. the Romeo part came in the year 1916. It was exactly when Neapolitan businessman Nicola Romeo took over the company and this company got converted its factories to manufacture munitions and machineries for World War I. After the completion of War the company went back to manufacturing of cars and earned good profits by manufacturing sporty and trendy cars in the market!

Aston Martin

This company started in the year 1913 by Lionel Martin & Robert Bamford. Though Martin & Bamford Limited manufactured singers racing cars they desired to produce more sophisticated model of their own and finally they did as planned and named their first car as Aston cars because Lionel Martin and the Aston Clinton hill climb racing course where their Singers car that backed prize! Well gradually this car company has also got more output in the auto industry and has good logo!

BMW:

BMW began its life in 1990s. Initially it was completely dealing with aircraft factories. In the year 1913 there were two separate air crafts founded by two different people Karl Friedrich Rapp and Gustav Otto and later these two merged and formed as BMW which is known as Bayerische Motoren Werke AG. These two people had just little bit of work to do with car manufacturing but there were three persons by name who played pretty big role in designing BMW a modern manufacturer of cars.

BMW logo looks quite catchy one. When we look at the history of this logo the circle is known for spinning propeller of a Bavarian Luftwaffe and the reason behind the white and blue color is aircrafts were painted with regional colors and the color of Bavarian Luftwaffe were white and blue and its also said that the pilot saw the propeller as changing segments of white and blue! The roundel is a nod to Karl original company.

Citroen

This Automotive Company was founded by Andre Citroen in 1919 and he led his life as an engineer many years in the automotive industry manufacturing gears and at the time of wars he produced munitions. This company launched its first car Type A in the year 1919 in which a sv 1327 engine was incorporated. Subsequently Type b and Type c cars were unveiled. Well slowly it started producing more number of cars and earned higher returns. The logo of this company had slight variations among various years. But it name never changed in the Logo it remained standard all the time.

Mazda:

Mazda Company started its company in Hiroshima at Japan in the year 1920. This company was stated as Toyo Cork Kogyo Co. In 1927 Jujiro Matsuda came and this company started manufacturing tools, three-wheeled trucks and later came to cars. The company adopted the name Mazda after World War II and in the year 1936 logo the M shaped curve was inspired by the emblem of Hiroshima city.

When we come to the logo of this company, in 1936 logo the M shaped curve got inspired by the emblem of Hiroshima city, in 1991 & 1992 logos is of a wing, the sun and circle of light and lastly the current logo is given a pet title as ‘owl’ Logo which was designed by Rei Yoshimara in the year 1997. And in this present logo the stylish M is to look like stretched wings but instead of M many mistook it as stylized tulips!

Chrysler

This company was founded in the year 1925 and the original Chrysler Logo vanished after 1954 and slowly n steadily Chrysler Automotive Company started producing cars in attractive models and their Logo also got designed in a stylized way. Below are Logos which clearly tells us the vast variations among various years.

Ferrari Logo history

Ferrari Company is known for its sporty look and royalty and this company was founded in the year 1929 by Enzo Ferrari and the symbol of Ferrari is well known to every one it’s the Horse rising which is 2 feet of black shield/yellow rectangle.


This figure also features a famous opinion as a horse badge on the car which will always guide the driver towards the step of Success/victory! Though this cars are quite pricey, it equally has good engine and with good features in it! Below are Logos of this company and there weren’t much variations in the Logo over the years!


Volkswagen:

The founder of this company is Ferdinand Porsche and few sources state that this car company was found in year 1930. This company is basically a German based company and the very first car was designed based on the idea and directives of Adolf Hitler.

He told Porsche to design a car in such a way it carries two adults and three children with top speed of 100 km/h, fuel consumption of 42 mpg. Porsche promised Hitler to deliver design as per his instructions with prototype cars to be built by Daimler-Benz.

Later Hitler added one more secret specification which was running in his mind for long time i.e. it should be designed in such a way that it carries three men, machine gun, and ammunition. Well in middle British came and took over this company and renamed it as Beetle and later on handed over back to the German government in a trust.

Slowly and steadily this company earned higher returns vending 21 million cars and Volkswagen Beetle would become one of the best selling cars. The Volkswagen Logo was specially designed by an employee of Porsche by name Franz Xavier Reimspiess and he was awarded with the payment of 100 Reichsmarks (about $400).

Nissan:

Nissan Automotive Company was founded in the year 1933 and when we look at the history of the Logo it has taken the national symbol of the Japanese “rising sun” and earlier all its products were sold under a different name called Datsun and had a logo with letter ’D’ and founders of this company are Kenjiro Den, Rokuro Aoyama, Meitaro Takeuchi, Yoshisuke Aikawa. There variations in the logo as described below:
Dodge cars

The Dodge Brothers with a Gold winged shield was replaced by Chrysler roughly about in 1938. Well there were changes in the Logo’s of this company and this company manufactures all cars which gives a very pretty and trendy look. Most of the cars produced reveals a sporty kind of appearance which attracts more buyers and earns good returns!


Saab:

Saab (Svenska Aero plan Aktiebolaget) which is known as Swedish Aeroplane Limited was initially created to meet the requirements of Swedish Air Force. This company is born form jets i.e. it’s known for Jets. In order to diversify its business Saab started in making a novel car in 1947 by name Saab 92001/ursaab which means original Saab.