Chevrolet as a car brand has been in business for years as its high-quality, reliable cars in various shapes and sizes have given the brand unprecedented popularity. Its bowtie logo is so pronounced and comes with a class of its own while adorning the brand vehicles for decades now. The most frequently asked question has always been where did this design come from. This article is here to answer that question and to through more light on this peculiar chevy logo.
Co-founder for Chevrolet, William C. Durant introduced the design which was a wide, slanted cross in gold and black in 1913. The design can be described as a cross or a bowtie. Unlike other logos, the Chevrolet logo is unique and easily identified but possesses a difficult task when asked what the meaning is.
There is a widespread belief that Durant got the logo idea from a newspaper he read sometimes when he was on vacation and this was further confirmed by Durant’s wife Catherine. According to Catherine, William saw the ad and thought it would be ideal for the Chevy emblem
Margery Durant believes the design was entirely original. In her book about her father, she said her father would regularly doodle nameplate designs. There is another made-to-believe theory that Durant was inspired by a pattern he saw on wallpaper when he was on vacation in Paris. Evidently, Ken Kaufmann, editor, and historian for The Chevrolet Review, found a version of the logo in a newspaper ad from November 2011.
Before the advent of the bowtie logo, the brand used a signature-style wordmark that matched the co-founder’s signature as their emblem. Thereafter, the bowtie logo followed a color scheme of light blue, gold, and white, with black elements to help make the design stand out. This brought about a distinctive logo for the brand. Stick with us let see as we go through the different stages of the logo design.
1934 changes to the logo
To further bring more elegance to one of the most sensitive features of the brand which is its logo, the color scheme of the bowtie was changed to white and black, with a more modern typeface. The write-up became bold and sans-serif.
1940 gold framing color
After carefully reviewing the logo, the brand decided to return to its initial blue and gold color palette giving more intensity to the royal blue as well as the gold framing colors of the logo. The lines above and below the name were maintained but the brand was not still satisfied with it as they transformed it ripping off the bowtie to refill just the write-up with much attention paid to the letter v. The stylized word mark refilled a letter “V” that was more pronounce size-wise to every other letter on the write-up.
1950 Chevy Logo
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Chevy Logo – Another experiment took place in 1950 when the brand came up with a bold red and white version of the logo. This time around, the bowtie emblem was brought back with the font going back to the serif structure. This logo can not last as it portrays more of a health or emergency company service and not as a voice in the automobile world.
1960 Chevy Logo
While still experimenting, a new approach was brought in by 1960. The red emergency-looking background color was removed and a minimalist monochrome logo was brought in, sans-serif style return this time italicized and bold.
1976 Experiment
Still trying to figure out a unique logo for the Chevrolet brand, the blue color was once again brought back in 1976 with a thin white frame surrounding the design and a soft black shadow. The wordmark font size was further reduced to fit into the middle of the horizontal line
1988 Above and Below Approach
1988 was a remarkable year as the Chevrolet team explored yet another approach for the logo as the font of the Chevrolet wordmark was painted red and completely taken out of the bowtie leaving the bowtie empty as the wordmark was placed underneath the bowtie, rather than in the horizontal line. The bowtie maintained the classic blue shade in a thick outline.
The powerful metallic design and 3D image
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By 2001, the metallic color was once again called to action as a contoured red/bronze version of the Chevrolet bowtie on a white background was made manifest. The brand made the bowtie the crux of its visual identity in 2002 as its wordmark still appears at times, in a stylized, all-caps font. The golden bowtie is commonly seen now on the front of most Chevrolet cars on its own adorned with a powerful metallic design and a 3D image.
The Chevrolet bowtie logo today
Currently, the logo has gotten the uniqueness it has been graving for after a series of painstaking experimentation. The emblem now comes with a textured iconic golden bowtie with a slick chrome border. This brings out the elegance and luxury that the brand is known for not forgetting its fantastic performance in all of its product
Occasionally you may find the wordmark underneath the bowtie, be rest assured that the logo itself is recognizable even without the brand name on it. This is how peculiar the emblem is to the outside world
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