Automotive Company Logo Database

McLaren Logo Design History and Evolution

Many luxury car manufacturers tend to be Italian, so McLaren is unique. McLaren Automotive stands out because it was founded by a British man in 1963. In modern times, McLaren is still located in Great Britain. Bruce McLaren started the company with dreams of creating some of the fastest road and racing vehicles possible. The company distinguishes itself from other luxury car brands with a bold and simple logo. Instead of being an elaborate crest or shield, the logo at McLaren is straightforward and basic. This article will examine the many design decisions that went into creating the iconic McLaren logo.

McLaren Logo Design Elements

The McLaren logo uses a basic, red and black color scheme. The main feature of the logo’s design is the brand name, “McLaren Automotive.” The word is a thick, white font that is very short and wide. Most of the letters in the logo are bold and straight. However, the M at the front is an italic letter instead.

This angled M conveys a sense of speed and movement as it leans forward. The angle of the M mirrors the angle of the crescent graphic at the end of the logo. The bright red crescent shape loops around the top of the last N in the name. The crescent shape is bordered by a shadowed outline that looks three dimensional. Both the shape and the words are on a black background. Unlike other car symbols, like the Lamborghini logo, McLaren have kept it low-key and minimal both with their color scheme and graphic design.

Changes and Evolution

1. Shape

The McLaren logo design has changed greatly in the past few decades. At first, the logo was a shield that contained a checkered flag, a kiwi silhouette, and a race car silhouette. This logo primarily appeared on items for the racing team. Eventually, the company merged to create McLaren International.

The new 1981 logo featured the brand’s name below a checkered design of chevrons. In 1991, this logo shrunk down to just one chevron above the brand name. In 1998, a redesign turned the chevron shape into a crescent curve. The logo has remained essentially the same since then. The last major change was in 2012 when a rectangle appeared around the rest of the logo.

2. Color

The original logo is the only one in McLaren logo history to feature a green color. The rest of the logos have been black, red, and white. Most versions of the logo had black text and a red shape above the text. The newest version has white text with a black background.

3. Font

McLaren originally used a very bold, thick font for its logos. Modern versions are slightly thinner and more stylized. The logo uses a proprietary, modified version of the Serene font. This custom designed font has been on all logos between 2003 and the present.

Influences/Inspiration

The modern logo is a reference to many of the other logo creations in McLaren logo history. It gradually evolved as the 1981 logo became more streamlined and simplified. The modern logo is almost identical to the 1991 version. McLaren eventually settled on the modern logo because they felt that it was an accurate representation of their company. The crescent shape at the top of the logo is officially referred to as “the McLaren Speedmark.”According to the company, it “bares similarities to the vortices created by our rear wing. It appeared on the top of our cars’ side-pods. They evoke the aggressive markings found on predatory animals and insects.”

Trivia

There have been many different designers and artists involved in the logo for McLaren. Michael Turner designed the original logo. Michael Turner creates many popular racing paintings, and he met the brand’s founder at Formula 1 racetracks. Raymond Loewy, a very successful logo designer, created the second iteration. Other design companies were involved in the creation of other versions of the logo. The newest version of the logo was only created because the company was moving to a high-tech building at the McLaren Technology Centre.

Conclusion

In modern times, McLaren primarily produces cars in the Sports, Super, Ultimate, and Legacy series. The McLaren logo is also on some concept cars and collaboration products done with Mercedes-Benz. The company continues to use physics and engineering to design extremely fast cars. They combine racetrack expertise with sports vehicle standards to create road-going cars for enthusiasts who love speed. Their simple, understated logo clearly depicts McLaren’s devotion to quality design and extreme speed.

Porsche Logo Design History and Evolution

By Anthony Pena Leave a Comment

In 1931, a Czech engineer named Ferdinand Porsche started designing cars in the German city of Stuttgart. His designs quickly gained popularity. Porsche is now one of the main providers of luxury automobiles, and they are also the largest race car manufacturer worldwide. Porsche vehicles can be identified due to the signature Porsche logo that is fixed on each cars hood. The logo has many historical references, so it helps to promote the quality and tradition behind the brand. Read this article to learn all about the historical origins of Porsche logo.

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Porsche Logo Design Elements

The Porsche logo is a shield shape that has a arched top and a pointed bottom. Along the top of the shield is the brand name, “Porsche.” This name is black letters on a gold background. Gold bars divide the rest of the logo into quarters. The top left and bottom right quarters each feature three black antlers. The top right and bottom left quarters feature red and black stripes. In the center of the quarters is a small gold, U-shaped emblem. This center emblem contains a rearing black horse. It says “Stuttgart” in black letters. The logo normally shows up on stamped pieces of gold metal. When drawn as a flat image, the shading of the logo still makes it look like three dimensional gold.

Changes and Evolution

1. Shape

The main shape of the logo for Porsche has remained the same since it was first created in 1952. Since the logo is so iconic, the brand has not wanted to alter it. All changes have been very minor alterations intended to modernize the brand. Over the years, the horse’s silhouette has become more streamlined. The lettering across the top of the logo is slightly shorter than it originally was.

2. Color

The color of the logo is the most notable change in the history of the logo. Originally, the brand name was just raised gold lettering. In 1994, the company changed the brand name to black. This alteration allowed the name of the brand to look more noticeable. The shade of red in the logo has changed several times. At first, it was a bright, orangey red. Between 1973 and 2008, the red color darkened more and more. Eventually, it was a deep, purplish burgundy. Starting in 2008, Porsche chose to lighten the red so that the logo looked more like the original colors.

3. Font

The font in the logo is a customized font made up of capitalized, sans serif lettering. The company slightly altered the font in 1973. It is mostly the same, but the new font is slightly shorter.

Influences/Inspiration

The Porsche logo history started when the Porsche importer for the United States suggested that the company needed a logo. Previously, the company just engraved their name on car hoods. In response, the founder’s son quickly sketched out a logo on a napkin. Most of the inspiration for the Porsche logo design comes from the history of Stuttgart. The center emblem is the coat of arms for the city of Stuttgart. They feature a horse because Stuttgart was a famous horse breeding center. Stuttgart was also the capital of the political region called Wurttemberg-Hohenzollern. The antlers and stripers are the coat of arms for the state of Wurttemberg-Hohenzollern. The logo for Porsche pays homage to both the city and the general countryside surrounding the first Porsche factory.

Trivia

The metal versions of the logo that appear on the hood of Porsches are handmade. Specialists engrave and mold the signature images onto the gold badges. The artists then carefully fill in each colored area of the badge with a special paint. The Porsche family chose their logo because of its history. However, the decision made the logo look somewhat similar to a few other logos for cars. The horse is the most frequently used automobile logo. A horse also shows up on the Ford Mustang and the Ferrari logo. The Porsche logo manages to remain distinctive because it has an actual historical background.

Conclusion

Due to their reputation for quality engineering and luxurious design, the logo for Porsche is very recognizable. The Porsche logo pays homage to the brand’s hometown while also referencing the speed of the vehicles. The coat of arms design also makes the brand appear older and more reputable. The beautifully crafted logo shows up on some of the most respected and highly coveted cars worldwide.

Mercedes Benz Logo History and Design Evolution

By Eric N. Addams Leave a Comment

With a history of over 130 years, Mercedes-Benz has been through a lot. And we are going to discuss how the company’s logo evolved. It’s going to be a bit more complicated than usual, seeing as the company and the Mercedes Benz logo resulted from the merger of two other companies.

Over its long existence, the company went through plenty of logo changes. So, our main focus will be just the most recent incarnation of the Mercedes Benz logo. This means that we’ll only glance over the other, older ones. We are also going to share some less-known facts about the company and how the Mercedes Benz emblem first appeared.

Changes and Evolution

Over the course of the company’s long and fascinating history, the Mercedes Benz logo has gone through many changes. Starting with the 1902 Mercedes logo and the 1909 Benz logo, the two company logos have evolved simultaneously. The most notable changes took place in 1916, 1926, 1933, 1989, and 2009.

Initially, Mercedes and Benz were two different companies with their own different logos. The Mercedes logo started off as a simple ellipse around the word “Mercedes. The ellipse was filled in black, while the text was all silver-gray. Meanwhile, the Benz logo featured the word Benz inside a circle, with a laurel wreath around it. It also featured what would eventually become the most iconic Mercedes symbol – the Mercedes star logo.

Eventually, in 1926, the two companies finally merged. That’s when the first official Mercedes Benz logo made its appearance. Its main colors were silver and blue, and it combined elements of both company logos. First off, the Mercedes symbol we all know was featured prominently in the center of a double-rimmed circle. The outer rim featured the words Mercedes and Benz, as well as two laurel wreaths.

This version of the logo lasted until 1933. In 1933, the emblem simplified greatly. The laurel wreaths, the rim of the circle, and the name of the company disappeared from the logo. The entire Mercedes Benz logo now consisted of a simple black circle with the Mercedes tri-pointed star in the middle.

In 1989, the company changed their logo once again. It was a minor change, but it brought the symbol much closer to what we have today. The black was replaced with silver, and the tristar received a more three-dimensional look. Finally, 2009 brought along the most recent incarnation of the logo. We will talk about it in the next segment.

Mercedes Benz Logo Design Elements

Seeing as the Mercedes Benz logo started out as an amalgamation of other logos, some degree of complexity might be expected from it. However, throughout the Mercedes Benz logo history, the emblem has only been getting simpler and simpler.

Below, we are going to talk about the different design elements of the logo. The ones on which we are going to focus are its shape, its font, and its color. These are the elements which were particularly designed to give the company its image.

Shape

The current Mercedes Benz logo consists of the classical Mercedes star inside a thin, silver circle. It is often joined by the company’s name either alongside or underneath the emblem. Interestingly, there are at least three versions of the Mercedes Benz logo going around at the same time.

First of all, there’s the three-dimensional circle so often used as a hood ornament. It is perhaps the most recognizable version of the logo. Then, we have a simple, gray version. This one lacks any sort of 3D effect. It is exactly the same as the previous one, but resembling a 2D vector. It is meant to be used on official documents and other such mediums.

Lastly, we have the third version. It still has the same shape as the previous two, and it has a somewhat more artistic design. It looks more like a sketch of the Mercedes-Benz logo than something which could be used on an actual product. This version is mostly used in commercials and posters. It is more black than silver, and it frequently features the Mercedes-Benz text underneath it.

Color and Font

The colors most associated with the Mercedes Benz logo are silver and black. They both stand for superiority and elegance, as well as power and perfection. However, the two colors also have their own meaning.

Silver usually depicts creativity, sophistication, sleekness, and high-tech, while black tends to stand for elegance, purity, and integrity. And these are the exact characteristics for which the automaker wants to be known.

As for font featured in the logo, it’s a simple custom typeface. Very similar to Times New Roman, the Mercedes Benz logo features a serif font. It is meant to inspire trust and seriousness, as well as cleverness and simplicity. The font means to show that while the company focuses on simplicity, quality is even more important.

Inspiration and Trivia

Both the Mercedes logo and its name have some interesting stories behind them. And we are going to share both. First off, the Mercedes three-pointed star has a very clear meaning, albeit a not very popular one. It stands for the company’s domination over all three mediums of transportation – land, air, and water.

Before Mercedes became Mercedes, it went by Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft. Gottlieb Daimler founded the company in 1890, and passed away in 1900. Then, Wilhelm Maybach, his chief engineer, took over the company. He also made Emil Jellinek, a racing enthusiast, his partner. This is where the Mercedes name comes from.

Emil had a daughter, Mercedes Jellinek. He named the first batch of 36 cars after his daughter, Mercedes, in 1901. By 1902, most of the company’s cars started being trademarked as Mercedes. In a somewhat strange move, Emil legally changed his name in 1909 to Emil Jellinek-Mercedes.

Next, in 1909, Daimler’s two sons recalled a very interesting postcard their father once sent them. Adolf and Paul Daimler remembered how their father once sent their mother a drawing of a three-pointed star. He said that the star would shine over their house in Germany, bringing them prosperity. Eventually, that would become the world-renowned Mercedes Benz logo.

One of the most famous automakers in the world, Mercedes Benz, went through plenty of changes throughout its existence. The Mercedes Benz logo has long stood for quality, power, and respect. For more automotive logos, check out our articles on the Lexus logo, the Dodge Logo, or the Cadillac logo.

Image source: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Audi Logo Design History and Evolution

By Anthony Pena Leave a Comment

One of the world’s leading automotive brands, Audi has had a long and interesting history. The company and the Audi logo have become synonymous with German efficiency, style, elegance, and technological evolution. The German automaker is renowned for the company’s luxury vehicles, and it is one of the most successful automobile companies in the world.

The company’s history is particularly interesting seeing as it resulted from the merger of four different companies, one of them already named Audi. The name comes from both the Latin word for ‘listen’ and from the name of the company founder, August Horch – Horch meaning to listen.

Audi Logo Design Elements

The main design elements of the Audi logo (not to be misspelled as Audy, as it so frequently is) are, of course, the four rings. The truth is that while everybody knows the evolution and Audi logo history, it is yet unconfirmed what the original inspiration for the logo was.

While some claim that it was inspired by the Olympics rings and that you can take that to the bank, other tend to disagree without offering any alternative. The truth is yet to be revealed, but we’ll get to that later.

Changes and Evolution

Over the years, the Audi logo took many shapes and forms. Pics of the logo depict it throughout its transformation over the years, from when the company was actually four different ones that eventually merged into one. So, the true Audi logo meaning is basically unity.

Back in the last two decades of the 1800s and in the first decade of the 1900s, there used to be four different car companies priding themselves on being the best at engineering their vehicles – Audi, DKW, Horch, and Wanderer. Two of them, Audi and Horch, were owned by engineer extraordinaire August Horch.

Each of them had their own logos, with Audi having an upside down equilateral triangle with the number one stylized as a gearshift rising from behind it. Around 1932, the four companies merged into one – the Auto Union AG.

This led to the unification of their logos as well, and also to the first incarnation of the Audi logo. Over the years, many minor changes would eventually lead to the new Audi logo present on the high-quality luxury and sport cars we know today.

Shape

The shape of the modern Audi logo first began to take shape in 1932. When the Auto Union AG first came to be, the conglomerate’s logo consisted of four interlocking rings with the logos of the four companies inside each ring. It was meant to stand for unity and cooperation.

Over the years, the logo slowly and steadily became what we know today. It dropped the logos of the four companies, replacing them with the words Auto Union, only to eventually drop everything and only keep the four interlocked rings.

The last change came in 2009, with the company’s 100^th anniversary. The rings were slightly modified, making them look more welded together than interlocked. While on the one hand it suggests the idea that with time and cooperation a true unity can be born, on the other hand it sort of takes away from what the logo stood for at first. Interestingly, people use the new Audi logo wallpaper more than they used the old one. Pretty much every Audi logo is available for download in HD.

Color and Font

First of all, let’s talk about the color of the Audi logo. The bright and slick silver chrome coloring of the car maker’s logo gives the brand a very modern and sophisticated touch. It is meant to symbolize the brand’s innovative power and creative design, as well as its elegance and sophistication.

Traditionally, silver is used in logos and other designs to transmit meanings of modernism, industrialism, sleekness, and high-tech. It is often associated with sophistication, glamor, grace, and elegance. And, of course, pretty much every Audi car, such as the A3, A4, A6, Q7, R8, RS, or TT, has those characteristics made obvious in their design.

Meanwhile, the black color often seen in commercials and other types of publicity alongside the silver-chrome Audi car logo is meant to represent elegance, power, and formality. Of course, the German automaker stands for all of those qualities. That is best seen in the Audi S line, on cars such as the S3, S4, or even S5.

As for the font in which the Audi name is written alongside the logo whenever it is featured, it also has a story of its own. In fact, the Audi logos only have the Audi name written next to them since 2009. Previously, in 1997, the Audi Sans font was created by Ole Schäfer,

Later, around 2009, MetaDesign was commissioned to design the custom corporate typeface for Audi. Designed by Pieter von Rosmalen and Paul van der Laan, Audi Type would go on and be featured in most of Audi’s products and marketing materials ever since, including on things such as floor mats, tires, and plenty of pictures and wallpapers.

Inspiration

As with many old companies that are still up and running these days, the origin of the Audi logo is mostly shrouded in mystery. One theory in particular has gained the most traction, although there really is nobody who could confirm or deny. The theory is made even better by the fact that Audi got sued by the Olympics Committee for copying their logo.

Back in 1936, the Summer Olympics took place in Berlin. Since it was around that time that the four automotive companies merged to give birth to Audi, it widely believed that the Olympic Games logo actually was the inspiration source for the Audi logo. Nobody actually confirmed this theory, however.

Trivia

Perhaps one of the least mentioned, yet most interesting things about the Audi logo is how much it resembles the Olympic Games logo. While most people see it as just a passing resemblance, the Olympics committee didn’t see it as such at one point. This is how the International Olympic Committee sued the company in 1995.

Back in 1995, members of the Committee thought that the Audi logo resembled the Olympics logo too much to be just a coincidence. So, they sued the company in the International Trademark Court and ended up losing. This is despite the fact that the most prominent theory regarding the inception of the Audi logo involved the Olympic Games.

While the Audi logo truly is one of the most recognizable logos in the world, the company’s slogan didn’t fall too far from the tree either. Vorsprung durch Technik is Audi’s corporate tagline, and it is translated literally as Progress through Technology. However, the tagline has been changed in a few countries in an attempt to make it sound better.

This led to some pretty awkward discussions when the emissions scandal came to light last year. One of the most memorable things that happened was when Kermit the Frog poked fun at the disgraced Audi CEO by saying “It’s not that easy being green.”

Another interesting little tidbit about the Audi logo is that there is a knock-off logo that gets even more hits on Google than the original company logo. The dope Audi logo, as it is referred to, simply consists of the word “dope” stylized to look like the famous logo. The internet is full of vector images, be they EPS, PNG, and pretty much every other image format of the knock-off logo.

Belonging to one of the most beloved and respected automobile companies in the world (with the exception of the 2015 emissions scandal), the Audi logo represents the brand perfectly. Both the color and shape of the logo transmit the same qualities the German automaker stands for, making it one of the best logos in the world.

Image source: 1, 2, 3, 4