Although I wasn’t aware of it until now, I acquired a portion of my designer’s instinct to critique the quality and effectiveness of logos from an introduction to automobile marques. While passing the time on long drives, as a passenger in my dad’s 1958 two-tone Buick—with its marque of triple shields in a chrome circle—I’d try to guess the make and model of other cars on the road (something I still do 65 years later) by looking at their logos. I got pretty good at recognizing particular enigmatic tags, too. This was the period when many autos were simply fun to look at; when they had aerodynamic tail fins that made them look like space ships, in addition to futuristic names that were styled into chrome script letters. Marques could also be abstract pattern designs and distorted letterforms affixed onto a hood or grill.
Marques of the Machine by Kurt R. Hohl, with photographs by Michael Furman, is a treasure chest of early American auto company trademarks. I never realized how many there were around the early 20th century. Asked to write an introduction for this volume through virgin eyes, I was excited that every page offered a different artifact. Most were for long-ago failed motor works, but a few have stood the test of time.
Cadillac, Chevrolet and Ford were the most familiar for me to pick out. I learned that each one has a legacy, with variations of the originals still being used. Seeing them reproduced in this book makes me nostalgic. What’s more, the rationale for which images and typefaces of respective marque designs always interested me.
Why was Chevrolet type designed in a bowtie shape? Was there any significance to Ford’s script in the blue oval? Did the swans on Cadillac’s coat of arms have a hidden meaning? And who decided on the final design scheme for a particular automobile’s marque?
From a historical perspective, marques are a missing link in the evolution of graphic and logo design. They are, on the whole, artifacts of industrial and capitalist revolutions. These marques branded innovation and ownership. And in many cases, they are all that remain of an invention that, like the printing press, forever altered humankind.
