Brand Knowledge

Car logos
Abarth is an Italian racing car maker
founded by Italian-Austrian Karl (Carlo)
Abarth in Turin in 1949. Abarth was sold
to Fiat on July 31 1971, and the racing
team sold to Enzo Osella. Abarth became
the racing department of Fiat, managed
by famed engine designer Aurelio
Lampredi.
The Audi badge the 'Four Rings' is the
emblem of one of the oldest car
manufacturers in Germany. It symbolises
the 1932 merger of the four independent
motor-vehicle manufacturers: Audi, DKW,
Horch and Wanderer. Together with the
NSU brand, which joined in 1969, these
companies are the roots of the presentday AUDI AG. After the war the Audi
name - which is Latin for "Hear!" disappeared, but was revived in 1965,
using the four rings as a logo.
BMW stands for Bayerische Motoren
Werke or Bavarian Motor Company. The
company was established in 1913 and
based in Munich, Germany. It started out
as an aero engine manufacturer, hence
the company logo. The logo comprised
of four quadrants of alternating white
and blue color. It is a stylized
representation of an airplane propeller
spinning against the clear blue sky. The
logo represents a white propeller blade
against a blue sky. It reflects the origins
of BMW as a maker of military aircraft
engines during WWI. Also, white and
blue are the traditional colors of Bavaria.

The Citroen logo looks like something

you might see on an American cartoon
soldier - two inverted Vs. Andre Citroen imagine one of those old black and white
photographs with an ancient man in a
white beard - started in the motor trade
by building gear wheels before
branching out into the motorcar, and the
twin chevrons << are meant to
represent gear teeth in honour of the old
engineer's early fettlings
All racing fans are very familiar with the
famous Ferrari "prancing horse" symbol.
The famous symbol of Ferrari is a black
prancing horse on yellow background,
usually with the letters S F for Scuderia
Ferrari. The horse was originally the
symbol of Count Francesco Baracca, a
legendary "asso" (ace) of the Italian air
force during World War I, who painted it
on the side of his planes. Baracca died
very young on June 19, 1918, shot down
after 34 victorious duels and many team
victories.
The FIAT name is an acronym for
Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino
(Italian Car Factory of Turin), founded by
a group of investors--Giovanni Agnelli
among them--in 1899. The current Fiat
logo has the letters F-I-A-T written with a
silver line between each of them. The
lines were added by the companys
design chief when one day passing
under the factory, he noticed the sky at
the backdrop of the huge FIAT letters on
the top of the building. The lines added
are actually the spaces that he saw in
the name over the building and decided
to keep it.

The Ford oval trademark is one of the bestknown corporate symbols in the world and has
been in regular use for more than 50 years.
The script trademark dates back to the very

beginning of the company when Henry Fords

engineering assistant developed a stylised
version of the words Ford Motor Company.
This last logo is the blue oval that Ford
released in 2003 in honor of the 100 years Ford
Motor Company had been around. It was
named the "Centennial Blue Oval".
The Hyundai Motor Company (HMC) is a
South Korean company manufacturing
automobiles. Their automobiles are
available in many countries around the
globe. In 2003 it was South Korea's
largest car maker and the world's
seventh largest car maker.Its slogan is
"Drive your way". Hyundai Motor
Company is a division of Hyundai Motor
Group which also manages Kia Motors

Jaguar Cars Limited is a British based luxury

car manufacturer, originally with headquarters
in Browns Lane, Coventry, England but now at
Whitley, Coventry. It was founded as the
Swallow Sidecar Company in 1922,by two
motorcycle enthusiasts, William Lyons and
William Walmsley, and changed its name to
Jaguar in 1945. The company has been owned
by Ford since 1989.
The Jaguar logo is a Jaguar leaping across the
company name. The leaping Jaguart is possibly
built to represent the speed, power and
quickness of the car. The Jaguar emblem is
also placed on the front of the car.

The Jeep logo as it stands currently represents

the front of the vehicle. It consists of two
circles representing the headlights and vertical
bars representing the grill in the front of the
car. The word Jeep runs on top of the logo.
Jeep started out as a military vehicle and was
later considered a Willys-Overland model, so it
didn't really originally have a logo unless you
count the word "Jeep" in parentheses, which
appeared in the same typeface from civilian
introduction in 1946 well into the 1960s.
Probably the closest thing to a Jeep logo
appeared in 1963 in the center of Wagoneer
and Gladiator hubcaps and steering wheels.
This was the same time Kaiser dropped the
Willys name, changing the division name from
Willys Motors to Kaiser Jeep Corporation and
establishing Jeep as a stand-alone brand name.
This emblem was a circle (in some illustrations
looking vaguely like a stylized dendition of a
Warn locking hub) with two gold quarters, two
red quarters, and the "Jeep" name across the
middle. After AMC's purchase of Jeep in 1971,
the gold was replaced by blue.The interesting
thing about this logo is that never seen on the
car itself. The car just has the words "Jeep" on
it. The logo is primarily used for advertising
and marketing purposes.

Lamborghini is an Italian manufacturer of

high performance sports cars based in the
small Italian village of Sant'Agata Bolognese,
near Bologna. Lamborghini is now a
subsidiary of German car manufacturer Audi
AG, which is in turn a subsidiary of
Volkswagen. Lamborghini is the main
counterpart to Ferrari in the italian sports car
business. The Italian company was founded in
1963 by businessman Ferruccio Lamborghini,

who owned a successful tractor factory.

The Lamborghini Charging Bull Logo stands
for the founder's, Ferruccio Lamborghini,
zodiacal sign (Taurus). Most of the company's
cars have been named after famous fighting
bulls (oddly most have been spanish bulls not
italian).

The Kia logos is very simplistic, consisting of

the letters K I and A in white with a Red
background. The A however is designed
differently and is missing the horizontal bar in
between. I am not sure if it was done to give it
an East Asian touch.
Kia Motors Company is a South Korean
automobile manufacturer. Kia was founded in
1944as as a bicycle parts maker and now
produces passenger cars, vans and cargo
trucks. Kia produced
the old Mazda brand cars. In October 1998,
Hyundai was named the winning bidder for 51
percent of the parent company, Kia Motors
Corp. The word Kia has origins in the Chinese
language with the first syllable, ki, meaning to
"arise or come up out of." The second part of
the word, a, refers to Asia. So when you put it
all together, Kia means to "arise or come up
out of Asia." Its slogan is "The Power to
Surprise".

Mazda Motor Corporation is a Japanese

automotive manufacturer based in
Hiroshima, Japan.
It is said that Mazda coincides with the
anglicized pronunciation of the founder's
name, Jujiro Matsuda, who was
interested in spirituality, and chose to
rename the firm in honor of both his
family and Zoroastrianism. The word
Mazda derives from Ahura Mazda, the
Avestan language name for a divinity
exalted by the ancient Iranian prophet
Zoroaster, as the source of wisdom,
intelligence and harmony.

The Mercedes-Benz logo is one of the most

famous brands in the wor;d. The Benz logo is
a simplistic three-pointed star that represents
its domination of the land, the sea, and the air.
The famous three-pointed star was designed by
Gottlieb Daimler to show the ability of his
motors for land, air and sea-usage. It was first
seen on a Daimler in 1909, and was combined
with the Benz laurel wreath in 1926 to signify
the union of the two firms. Mercedes-Benz is
the world's oldest automobile manufacturer.
When the patented name "Mercedes" was
registered in September 1902 Daimler Motoren
Gesellschaft had a successful brand name but
still lacked a characteristic trademark. Then
Paul and Adolf Daimler - the company
founders two sons, and now in charge of the
business - remembered that their father had
once used a star as a symbol.

The Mitsubishi Group is a Japanese

conglomerate consisting of a range of
autonomous businesses which share the
Mitsubishi brand, trademark and legacy.The
Mitsubishi group of companies form a loose
entity, the Mitsubishi Keiretsu, which is often
referenced in US and Japanese media and
official reports; in general these companies all
descend from the zaibatsu of the same name.
The name "Mitsubishi" refers to the threediamond emblem. "Mitsubishi" is a
combination of the words mitsu and hishi.
Mitsu means three. Hishi means water
chestnut, and Japanese have used the word for
a long time to denote a rhombus or diamond
shape. Japanese often bend the "h" sound to a
"b" sound when it occurs in the middle of a
word. So they pronounce the combination of
mitsu and hishi as mitsubishi.
Pontiac is a brand of automobiles first
produced in 1926, and sold in the United
States, Canada and Mexico by General
Motors (GM), marketed as an "athletic"
brand specializing in mainstream
performance vehicles.
The Pontiac brand was introduced by
General Motors in 1926 as the
'companion' marque to GM's Oakland
Motor Car line. The Pontiac name was
first used in 1906 by the Pontiac Spring
& Wagon Works. The name was taken
from Chief Pontiac, an American Indian
chief who led an unsuccessful uprising
against the British shortly after the
French and Indian War. The Oakland
Motor Company and Pontiac Spring &
Wagon Works Company merged in
November 1908 under the name of the
Oakland Motor Car Company. The
operations of both companies were

joined together in Pontiac, Michigan (of

Oakland County) to build the Cartercar.
General Motors in 1909 purchased
Oakland.

Pontiac Original Logo

The original logo was that of an American
Indian headdress, which was used as a logo
until 1956. The American headdress is
connected to the name of brand "Pontiac"
which was the name that was taken from Chief
Pontiac, an American Indian chief who led an
unsuccessful uprising against the British
shortly after the French and Indian War.
Renault is a French automaker producing
cars, vans, buses, tractors, and trucks.
Due to its alliance with Nissan, it is
currently the world's 4th largest
automaker behind General Motors,
Toyota and Ford. It owns the Romanian
automaker Dacia and the Korean
automaker Renault Samsung Motors. The
company is well known for numerous
revolutionary designs, security
technologies, and motor racing.
Producing cars since late 1898, the
Renault corporation was founded in 1899
as Socit Renault Frres by Louis
Renault, his brothers Marcel and
Fernand, and his friends Thomas Evert
and Julian Wyer.

The Rolls Royce logo consisting of the two Rs

or the double R clearly stands for the Rolls and
Royce, the two founders of this car
manufacturing company. There is nothing
special about the design of the logo, but the
brand name is so strong, the logo looks
special. In 1998, BMW the option on the
trademarks, licensing the name and "RR" logo
for 40m.
In 1884 Frederick Henry Royce started an
electrical and mechanical business. He made
his first car, a "Royce", in his Manchester
factory in 1904. He was introduced to Charles
Stewart Rolls in a Manchester hotel on the
May 4 that year, and the pair agreed a deal
where Royce would manufacture cars, to be
sold exclusively by Rolls. A clause was added
to the contract, stipulating the cars would be
called "Rolls-Royce".
he Peugot lion logo is a strong visual
brand for the Peugot car. The first lion is
designed for marking saw blades and
steel products. It symbolizes the three
qualities of Peugeot saw blades: the
toughness of the teeth, the flexibility of
the blade, and the speed of the cut. In
1850 the lion image appeared for the
first time on the 'Peugeot Bros' arrow.
Initially put on saw blades, this logo was
registered in 1858, and for many years
would mark the tools manufactured by
the brand.

Saab is a line of automobiles manufactured by

Saab Automobile AB, and is currently a
wholly-owned subsidiary of the General
Motors Corporation. Originally, Saab AB was
an aviation and defense company based in
Sweden and founded in 1937 in Trollhttan. Its
name was an acronym for "Svenska Aeroplan
Aktiebolaget" (translates to Swedish
Aeroplane Limited), thus written as "SAAB".

In 1939 Saab merged with the Linkping

based ASJA and the headquarters moved to
Linkping. During changes in company
ownership in the 1990s, the company name
became Saab AB.
The logo of this SAAB depicts a mythological
bird which is also used on the official coat of
arms of the Count von Skane. The symbol was
used as the symbol for the Swedish province
Skane, where the SAAB company was formed.
Skoda Auto is an automobile manufacturer in
the Czech Republic. In 1991, it became a
subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group. The
origins of Skoda go back to the early 1890s
where, like many long-established car
manufacturers, the company started out with
the manufacture of bicycles.
It was 1894, and 26-year old Vclav Klement,
who was a bookseller by trade in Mlad
Boleslav, in today's Czech Republic, which
was then part of Austria-Hungary, was unable
to obtain the right spare parts to repair his
German bicycle. Klement returned his bicycle
to the manufacturers, Seidel and Naumann,
with a letter, in Czech, asking for them to carry
out repairs, only to receive a reply, in German,
stating: "If you would like an answer to your
inquiry, you should try writing in a language
we can understand".
A disgusted Klement, despite not having any
previous technical experience, then decided to
start his own bicycle repair shop, which he and
Vclav Laurin opened in 1895 in Mlad
Boleslav. Before going into business
partnership with Klement, Laurin was an
already established bicycle manufacturer from
the nearby town of Turnov.

Subaru is the automobile manufacturing

division of Japanese transportation
conglomerate Fuji Heavy Industries Co.,
Ltd (FHI). FHI was established on July 15,
1953 when five Japanese companies,
known as Fuji Kogyo, Fuji Jidosha Kogyo,
Omiya Fuji Kogyo, Utsunomiya Sharyo
and Tokyo Fuji Sangyo, joined to form
one of Japan's largest manufacturers of
transportation equipment. Subaru is
known mainly for its all-wheel drive
vehicles such as the Subaru Forester and
the Outback.

I own a Toyota Camry and never gave much

thought to what the logo meant. From far it
looked like a T to me, which stood for Toyota.
While doing the research for this logo, I found
out that it is actually three elipses depicting the
heart of the customer, the heart of the product,
and the ever-expanding technological
advancements and boundless opportunities that
lie ahead.
I finally found the official explaination from
Toyota, thanks to JoAnn Paules
The Volvo Group is a Swedish supplier of
commercial vehicles such as trucks,
buses and construction equipment, drive
systems for marine and industrial
applications, aerospace components and
financial services. Volvo was founded on
14 April 1927 in the city of Gothenburg,
as a spin-off from the roller ball bearing
maker SKF.

The name Volvo means "I roll" in Latin

and is derived from the Latin word
"volvere" which means "to roll". The
name originated from the original
company that manufactured bearings for
the car industry. The logo for Volvo is the
ancient symbol of Iron, which is a circle

with an arrow pointed diagonally

upwards to the right. This symbol also
represented "Mars, the God of War" and
also the symbol for "Man" as well.
Vauxhall Motors is a British automobile
company. It is a subsidiary of General
Motors Corporation (GM), and is part of
GM Europe. Alexander Wilson founded
the company in Vauxhall, London in
1857. Originally named Alex Wilson and
Company, then Vauxhall Iron Works, the
company built pumps and marine
engines.In 1903, the company built its
first car, a five-horsepower model
steered using a tiller, with two forward
gears and no reverse gear. This led to a
better design which was made available
for sale.