The History of Car Logos, Revealed

Like all things Rolls-Royce, the marque's signature hood ornament is a study in extravagance. However, the origin of the Spirit of Ecstasy — also called the "Silver Lady" and the "Flying Lady" — is scandalous. The first iteration of the hood ornament was a custom creation by sculptor Charles Robinson Sykes for the Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow owned by John Walter Edward Douglas-Scott-Montagu, second Baron Montagu of Beaulieu and editor of The Car Illustrated magazine in the early 1900s. Sykes created a likeness of Montagu's secretary and not-so-secret mistress Eleanor Velasco Thornton, depicting her in flowing robes with a finger pressed to her lips to signify the couple's furtive love.

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When William H. Murphy and Henry M. Leland founded the Cadillac Motor Co. in 1902, they paid homage to the man who founded the Motor City: Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, a French explorer who established Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit. Not only did Leland and Murphy use Cadillac's name, they used the man's coat of arms as well, registering the emblem as a trademark in 1906. While the modern version incorporates wreaths and a clean, linear design, the original badge was based on a literal version of de Cadillac's badge, including the two sets of three merlettes (ducks, basically) to represent the Holy Trinity, and a nine-pointed crown on top, representing the ancient counts of France.

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Here's a bit of trivia: Ferrari's logo of a black horse on a gold background appeared on Alfa Romeo race cars in 1932 at the Grand Prix of Spa in Belgium before it ever appeared on a Ferrari vehicle. But even before that, the black prancing stallion emblem adorned a number of World War I fighter planes piloted by Italian Count Francesco Baracca, an accomplished equestrian known as "the cavalier of the skies." After the pilot's death, the count's mother presented the emblem to Enzo Ferrari, who added the canary-yellow background and the colors of the Italian flag across the top. It's been the symbol of Ferrari ever since.

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Alfa Romeo's logo was created by an Italian draftsman in 1910 and combines two symbols from early Italy. On the right is the "biscione," a man-eating serpent used as the coat of arms for the famous Visconti nobility of the Middle Ages; on the left is a red cross on a white field, the emblem of Milan, Italy, where the Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili company was founded and remains based to this day. The symbol was redesigned in 1918, adding a dark blue metallic ring with the words "Alfa" "Romeo" and "Milano," though the final word was dropped in the 1970s, along with minor details such as a laurel wreath that symbolized the company's racing history.

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After "Mercedes" became a registered trade name for the Daimler-Mercedes automotive group, the company searched for a defining logo. In 1909, Paul and Adolf Daimler, sons of company founder Gottlieb Daimler, came up with the idea of using a star as the symbol for the automaker's badge. When first employed as the technical director of the Cologne, Germany-based Deutz AG engine factory in 1872, Gottlieb had marked a star above the image of his house on a postcard, writing to his wife that the same star, symbolizing prosperity, would one day shine over his own factory.

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Lots of BMW fans know this one: The famous BMW roundel, trademarked in 1917, represents the aircraft-manufacturing roots of the Bayerische Motoren Werke (Bavarian Motor Works) — a spinning white propeller against a blue sky. That explanation is a common misconception. In fact, the roundel combines the company-name-within-a-black-circle style of Rapp Motorenwerke — from which BMW GmbH sprang — with basic imagery derived from the blue and white diamond flag of the Bavarian Free State. However, the blue and white color scheme within the BMW roundel is reversed from that of the flag, because at the time it was illegal to use national symbols in commercial trademarks.

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The instantly recognizable Chevrolet bow-tie emblem was created by General Motors and Chevrolet co-founder William C. Durant, but there are various stories as to how he came up with the logo. The long-accepted story is that he was inspired by the pattern on the wallpaper of a Parisian hotel. However, his daughter Margery said in her 1929 book, "My Father," that Durant, always doodling during meals, came up with the image "between the soup and the fried chicken one night." And Durant's wife, Catherine, told an interviewer that he had spotted the logo — possibly used for Coalettes, a refined fuel product from Southern Compressed Coal Co. — while reading the newspaper in a Virginia hotel room.

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General Motors introduced Pontiac in 1926 as a companion brand to its Oakland automobile line, which it had recently acquired and which was based in Pontiac, Mich., and within its first year the performance-oriented Pontiac was already outselling its GM sibling. The name "Pontiac" came from an American Indian, Chief Pontiac, who led an unsuccessful uprising against the British after the French and Indian War; this reference was apparent in the brand's original logo of an American Indian headdress. The headdress logo was phased out in 1956, but the American Indian imagery remained with the introduction of "the Dart," a stylized red arrowhead with a silver star in the middle.

Bing Images: Chief Pontiac

Josh Condon has covered everything from nanotechnology to champagne and caviar for the likes of The New York Times, Popular Science, Men's Journal, Cargo and RL Magazine. He's recently relocated from Brooklyn, N.Y., to Los Angeles and is spending way, way more time in his car as a result.

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