The original Cadillac logo is based on the family crest of the man for whom the company was named, the Gascon officer and minor aristocrat who founded Detroit in 1701 -- Antoine de La Mothe, Sieur de Cadillac. His coat of arms, like many family coats of arms, appears to have been concocted and borrowed from a more noble neighbor.

...

Origins of some auto logos:

• Mercedes tri star, the story goes, was inspired by a star Gottlieb Daimler penned on a post card of Cologne, marking where he was living and sent to his children. Today, a rotating tri star is visible on the skyline of almost every German city. Benz brought the wreath when Mercedes and Benz merged in the 1920s. The ring around the tristar was patented in 1923.

• BMW's circle with blue and white quadrants is an interpretation of the image of a spinning propeller, powerfully simple as an early airline poster and suggesting the company's beginnings in building aircraft engines.

• Alfa Romeo hails back to the city arms of Milan and the 12th century bishop who bestowed them.

• Porsche borrowed arms from the city of Stuttgart, where it located its headquarters.

• Ferrari's rearing stallion has roots in insignia of World War I Italian fighter.

• Citroen's chevrons come from stylized gear teeth.

• Volkswagen's iconic buttressing of V and W was the creation of an engineer named Franz Reimspiess, the same man who perfected the engine for the Beetle in the 1930s. He won fifty marks in an office competition to do the job. Before WW II, when the car was still Hitler's "Strength through Joy" car the logo was surrounded by the gear shaped emblem of the German Labor Front that built it.

• In reviving the super luxury Maybach brand of the 1920s, when it was favored by maharjas and marquis, Mercedes updated an almost Wiener Secession looking "M."

Really interesting. I've long been an lover of the designs of automobile emblems, but didn't know the history behind some of them. I was one of those daughters that made their dad proud; I could id any car by its logo/emblem by the time I was 6.

For the record, I loathe the Jeep logo/emblem. It's too self-referential, and busy. They were better off without a logo at all.

Have you tried this game?

Interesting article, although I wish Business Week would copy edit before they posted to the web.


Have you tried this game?

I got 25/26. What's the fourth one down in the left column?

Excellent! I too hate the Jeep logo - the word itself was their logo and didn't need to be changed.

Neat game, iconomy - I only got 14, but use the excuse that there are probably lots of US-only logos there ;-)