How were car emblems designed?

May 23, 2012 2:39 AM

My focus is mainly on the chrome badges that labeled models of the 1940s–’70s, as celebrated at Chromeography. Who was generally responsible for designing the emblem? Were they from inside the car company? Did they have lettering experience or were they more often car designers who were handed the job because there was no one better available? Has the situation changed much since then?

I’ve seen this Neatorama post with some short histories of car logos, I'm most interested in the model badges that changed more often.

posted by Typographica to Media & Arts (1 answer total)

Best answer: At least in the US, all the car companies during that era had in-house stylists and designers handling badge, logo, etc. design. Of course, there would be overlap between them and the car stylists. They were all creatives, afterall.

As for their experience...I would say many of them certainly had lettering experience or training. During the period you refer to, hand-drawn lettering was very common.

Today, I suspect much of the graphic work is farmed-out to contractors, but I can't say for sure. The car business has changed radically since the 70's, and especially over the past 10-20 years.
posted by Thorzdad at 2:16 PM on May 23, 2012