The story behind the Logo

There have been countless occasions when we have seen a brand, taken one look at the logo and identified it without a hitch. Car manufacturers too had to think long and hard before creating logos for their respective brands. Some just happened, others born after serious discussions ibehind closed doors while some have a longish history to it and an emotional connect. In this series we try to understand the idea behind these logos, right from the colour schemes to the way they were designed.

Every week we take a look at 5 car manufacturers and dig up their history to find out what actually made this logo happen.

Skoda

We all know about the cars this Czech car manufacturer has under its belt but if you go back in time, you will realise that the first logo this company got was when it produced bicycles. The badge comprised of the Slavia term plus the names of the two owners, Laurin & Klement.

But the first time a logo was seen under the brand of Skoda was in 1962 but it was just the name and some decorative laurels around it. However, the logo what we see now - the famed winged arrow - was created in the late 20's and used thereafter in different forms till finally in 1993, the company added its corporate colours of black and green. The two colours are supposed to represent the company's interest for environment protection and its 100-year history, respectively.

The logo was believed to be the creation of commercial director of Skoda Plzen, T. Maglic.

Lamborghini

Now we all know what a Lamborghini looks like, you can spot it from the corner of your eye. The exhaust note is another thing but these are fire breathing beasts named after some ferocious bulls. The logo itself which consists of the bull actually stands for the founder's, Ferruccio Lamborghini, zodiacal sign. Yes, he was a Taurian. The logo is obviously accompanied by the company's name, Lamborghini and we all know where the name came from. The cars have been as untamed as the bulls they were named after. Thank God for small mercies!

Hyundai

One might feel there is nothing phenomenal going on with the logo of the Korean car maker. All it needed was a circle with the 'H' typed out in Italics. But, it isn't that simple, as the logo has a lot of hidden meanings.

Let's start with the oval that surrounds the H letter. It represents the company's expansion which leaps beyond the Asian Continent. The 'H' inside the oval represents two people shaking hands; one being the company, the other the customer and that's how the logo came into being.

We are not reading too much into it, but this is the reason why the Hyundai logo is the way it is.

Ferrari

I am sure you don't need to be a car enthusiast to know what a Ferrari is. For most they are all fast cars and that is not far from the truth. Ferrari's are immensely fast and fun too and that is what most of the people think the 'Prancing Horse' on the logo represents - Horse Power?

That's not true. There are various theories doing the rounds and I'll tell you all of them. The first being that the black prancing horse on the yellow background was first used by Count Francesco Baracca, the Italian airforce in World War I. Baracca was Italy's top fighter and his combats in the air are legendary. He was credited with 34 aerial battle victories in his Nieuport 11 single seat fighter.

Then there is another one in which it is said that the Ferrari founder's family owned lots of horses so the new company adopted the prancing horse as a symbol of power. The one fact that is absolutely true is that the three colours appearing on Ferrari's logo represent Italy's national flag.

BMW

BMW's (Bayerische Motoren Werke) logo has quite a history to it. The roots for this can be traced back in 1913, when the company was part of the aviation industry. Since, this is the background there are multiple interpretations to the logo and we trace all of them.

The first one is the fairly common and known one. It is said that the blue and white colours, which are traditional colours of Bavaria, represent a white propeller on a blue sky, which takes cues from the car manufacturer's aviation past.

Then there are those who believe that the two colours are only used because BMW wanted to honour the place where they have been headquartered.

There are a lot of such theories doing the rounds and you can see that car manufacturer logos are a bit more complicated than you would think.Next week we will bring another series which promises to be interesting and not to mention surprising.