My pops sent over this link and I thought you fellas would enjoy it... The evolution of car logos.... <BR><BR>To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.
Very cool. I always thought that the Audi logo was a result of their all-wheel drive prowess. I like the real story better. I am kinda surprised there is not documentation on Chevrolet.
i love all these, they are so cool looking. i'd have to say my favorite though is the 1920?'s logo chevrolets with the eagle on top and the black bowtie. they should really bring that back.
The script is C.H. Wills' signature... he was an engineer at Ford. There was a guy in our Model A club who used to tell us Wills was his uncle... don't know if it's true though. I also think there was a block letter Ford badge... I remember in the 80's, I think it was... Sam.
Just as we have thousands of fonts on computer today, fonts were available to graphic artists of the day, and the Ford script was one of the popular fonts available in the day. I doubt it was a signature because of the broad and varying strokes.
Somewhere I read once that the 'bow tie' used for the Chevrolet logo was a design that was pirated from wall paper in a Paris hotel by Louis Chevrolet's wife. Id on't know if this is entirely true or not, but I remember reading it once and thought it was interesting.
Correct me if I am wrong but I heard from more than 1 source that Chevrolet's bowtie was from a design on wallpaper seen in a hotel room in France by one of the company's early "bigwigs".
Apparently, just like the cars, the logos get duller and uglier over time. Here is an interesting page related to the bowtie. http://home.earthlink.net/~scrippsbooth/chevbowtiehistory.html
This kinda fits here. Not a car but an automotive logo. Here is the history and the evolution of the michelin man http://www.michelin.com/corporate/front/templates/affich.jsp?codeRubrique=99&lang=EN Museum display link http://bibendum-in-museums.michelin.com/indexen.htm
This is a very interesting thread, don't we all love history. I especially enjoyed the info. on Buick and Caddy.
Here's my take on the Bowtie... Durants daughter doesn't know what she's talking about, his wife knows the truth, and Durant himself was trying to cover his ass for copyright infringement by saying he got the idea for the bowtie from a French hotel instead of stealing the idea from an ad he saw in the newspaper! Sam.
A quick snipit of trivia I found out last summer was Ford produced only one year with blue letters, white oval. I believe it was 1921 or 1923. Rick Kirk is an avid Ford guy around these parts. He has one of those signs in his museum. That's how I found out. Reverend Jake
Great post Ryan. Heres a link to the evolution of the John Deere logo. http://www.deere.com/en_US/compinfo/history/trademark.html?sidenavstate=00000011