Car logos you probably didn't know the meaning of...
Until now that is...
Audi
Photo: http://carslogos.blogspot.com/2013/07/audi-logo.htm
Audi's logo simply stands for the four car companies that merged in 1932; Horch, DKW, Wanderer and Audi, this created Audi's predecessor company Audi Union.Â
Alfa Romeo
Photo: http://autocarsconcept.blogspot.com/2012/11/alfa-romeo-logo.html
The meaning behind this logo is an exclusive and interesting one. The red cross on the left is the symbol of Milan, on the right is a dragon/snake eating a man. This represents an important figure in Milan called Otone Visconti who fought against a Saracen Knight and killed him, Otone then took the symbols on the Saracen Knights shield back to Milan, this is the reason why this made the Alfa badge what it is today. Alfa claims that the man is emerging from the snake/dragons mouth as a new man. Bit of ancient history there for you.
BMW
Photo: http://hotcarsfast.blogspot.com/2011/07/bmw-logo.html
BMW stands for Bayerische Motoren Werke, The blue and white quadrants stand for the Bavarian Free State colours but in the opposed order, this is because it was illegal to use national symbols in a commercial trademark.
Ferrari
Photo: http://www.hdwalle.com/2013/01/ferrari-logo.html
Enzo Ferrari stated that the horse was painted on the fuselage fighter plane of Francesco Baracca, who was a heroic pilot in the First World War. Ferrari met Baracca's parents, the mother said to him that he should put his sons prancing horse on his cars because it would give him good luck. The horse was and always stayed black, Ferrari added in the yellow background as it was the colour of Modena.
Chevrolet
Photo: http://gearheads.org/the-history-of-chevrolet/
There were four different theories to the origin of the Chevy logo. The first was that William C Durant (the chevy co-founder) sketched the design at a dinner table one night, the second theory was that he originated the logo from a wallpaper he found in a Parisian hotel, the third but unproven theory is that the logo was inspired by the already existing logo for Coalettes, a refined fuel product for fires. The last theory was that it is a fancy version of the Swiss flag as Louis Chevrolet was born in Switzerland. We're uncertain on this one.
Mercedes Benz
Photo: https://wallpapercave.com/mercedes-logo-wallpapers
The Merc logo is a three pointed star that represents the company's domination of the land, sea and air. Simple but a bold meaning, could we classify this as true?
Mitsubishi
Photo: http://autocarsconcept.blogspot.com/2012/12/mitsubishi-logo.html
The origin of this logo is pretty clever. Being a Japanese company, 'Mitsu' means three which explains to as why their are three diamond/rhombus shapes in the logo, 'bishi' means water chestnut but is also the same word used to describe the diamond/rhombus shape. According to Mitsubishi, the logo denotes from the three leave crest of the Tosa Clan which was the founders first employer, also is comes from the three stacked rhombuses of the Iwasaki family crest.
Photo: From car throttles website where this article is referenced from
Subaru
Photo: http://mycarlogos.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/subaru-logo.html
Subaru means united in Japanese, and it is also the name of the Pleiades start cluster which is one of the nearest star clusters to earth and makes it visible to the naked eye at night.
Photo: http://pics-about-space.com/pleiades-star-cluster?p=2
Pretty nifty right?
Reference used: www.carthrottle.com/post/10-car-logos-that-you-probably-never-knew-the-meaning-of/
Any other car logos that some may not know the meaning of? Comment below!
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Comments (26)
Interesting article, but I knew a different theory for the BMW logo, I was told it represented a propeller (in white) with the blue background (water), this is because before making cars, BMW made boats, or engines, or both, I can't remember
Now this is what a lot of people thought, I thought it at first however it turns out not to mean that at all
Ahh, I see
A German Designer had a job to design the logo for some car companies. The first company was Audi and as a starting point he drew a circle. "I can use the circle to represent the car being good for 100,000 miles" he thought and then added a few more "It's good for 400,000 miles." and the Audi logo was finished.
The next client was Opel. Again the designer started with a circle, "It's good for 100,000 miles", then after a moment, "who am I kidding?" so put's a scribble through it.
You might be on to something ...
But what was this designer thinking when Peugeot came along.
Is it my misunderstanding, or is it Auto Union instead of Audi Union?
You are correct it is auto union, I think there’s a typo which I will correct now 😂
All good. It's s great article. Well done
For some reason I though the Chevy symbol was for a bowtie. Lol
Alfa-- I always was told by my dad that it was "Christ, the maintenance bills are eating me alive"