How did the logos and names of 10 luxury car brands come about?

Alfa Romeo

Milanese car manufacturer Alfa Romeo was originally called ALFA (Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili) until 1915, when businessman Nicola Romeo took control of the company. The company used two traditional Milanese symbols to create its coat of arms. On the left is the cross of the city council, on the right is the snake from the coat of arms of the aristocratic House of Visconti. Apart from a change to red and yellow from 1946 to 1950, the logo has largely retained the same basic color scheme.

The Quadrifoglio logo for Alfa Romeo performance cars, on the other hand, has a much clearer history. In 1920, Alfa hired Ugo Sivocci, an experienced driver who had a bad luck streak and often finished second in races. With the advent of the Targa Florio, Sivocci decided to paint his car a white square with a green four-leaf clover and miraculously won the race. However, just a few months later, Sivocci died while testing a new car at Monza. The car did not have a quadrifoglio, but since then, every Alfa racing car has had a quadrifoglio, with the white square replaced by a triangle.

Aston Martin

Like any other car company, Aston Martin has changed its logo countless times over the decades, but the basic design has remained largely unchanged. As you may know, the name was inspired by co-founder Lionel Martin’s entry into the Aston Clinton Hill Climb and winning. The wings, on the other hand, first appeared in 1932, inspired by scarab beetles from Egyptian mythology. These beetles were considered by the Egyptians to represent the sun god and symbolized new beginnings.

This badge was first used on the Aston Martin LM1 racing car and was updated to include the name David Brown a few decades later. David Brown bought the company in 1947 and added his name to the logo in 1954. The name was dropped from the logo when he sold Aston Martin Lagonda in 1972.

Audi

The Audi logo comes from the merger of four separate car manufacturers: Audi, DKW, Horch and Wanderer. These four companies formed Auto Union AG in 1932, the second largest car manufacturing group in Germany at the time.

The company was founded by August Horch, but Horch couldn't use his own name because there was already a competitor with a similar name. So the solution was to translate Horch's name from German into Latin, which is why Audi sounds so similar to "audio".

In 1965, Volkswagen took over and relaunched the Audi brand, merging Auto Union with NSU Motorenwerke in 1968. Other vestiges of the past have disappeared, but Audi continued to use the Horch name for its A8 luxury model in 2021.

Bentley

The ornate “Flying B” logo found on some Bentley models appears to have the longest history. The current two-dimensional “Flying B” badge is the closest design to the first version of the badge, called the “Winged B”. It was designed by WO Bentley founder F. Gordon Crosby, who has been described as “the most famous car artist of the pre-war period”. The Winged B is said to have been created to represent the excitement of movement, but Bentley’s involvement in the development of aircraft engines may have had something to do with it. Crosby specifically gave each wing a different number of feathers to make them unique and harder to counterfeit. The Flying B, which was inspired by the Winged B, was designed by Charles Sykes, who also created Rolls-Royce’s Spirit of Ecstasy.

BMW

Many believe that BMW's logo was also inspired by aviation like Bentley's, with the circle representing a spinning propeller.

BMW itself spread this rumor, so many people are adamant that it is true. While it is true that BMW was originally an aircraft engine manufacturer, Bayerische Motoren Werke, the design was actually inspired by the colors of the state of Bavaria. It was slightly altered because local trademark laws at the time prohibited the use of the state coat of arms in commercial logos.

The company’s three-tone M design also has an interesting history. In order to attract sponsors for its motorsports activities and impress the bigwigs at the oil company, BMW combined Texaco’s red and blue to create purple, symbolizing the union between the two. The deal eventually fell through, and BMW has continued to use the design because of the eye-catching colors.

Cadillac

The Cadillac badge is derived from the coat of arms of Le Sieur de la Mothe Cadillac, who founded the city of Detroit in 1701. The idea behind adopting the name in 1902 was to honor the “courage, daring and ability of the French explorer”. It first appeared on the company’s cars in 1905 and was trademarked the following year.

Cadillac explained that the “couronne,” or “coronet,” represents the six ancient courts of France, while the pearls signify that the family is descended from the royal counts of Toulouse. The shield, inspired by the shields of the crusaders, and the quarters represent the arms of the Mothe family. Meanwhile, the birds, called “merlettes,” are a variation of the martin but without a beak or legs.

Basically, the Cadillac logo comes from the family of the man of the same name who inspired it, and the logo and badge have nothing to do with cars, they are just meant to represent class and luxury. The black and gold colors symbolize intelligence and wealth.

Ferrari

Legend has it that founder Enzo Ferrari met Countess Paolina Baracca in 1923, and she suggested that he keep the horse on her son's Italian Air Force plane during World War I to bring good luck to his racing cars. Francesco Baracca was shot down and chose to take his own life rather than be captured, but Enzo decided to keep the horse anyway.

The yellow element in the logo represents the yellow of the flag of Modena, where Enzo lived. The S and F on the early Ferrari badge stood for Scuderia and Ferrari, meaning Ferrari Stables. Today, the terms are commonly used to refer to an Italian sports car racing team.

Lamborghini

Lamborghini's bull symbol represents two things. First, founder Ferruccio Lamborghini was born under the zodiac sign of Taurus, whose symbol is the bull. Second, he had a passion for bullfighting, which is why so many of Sant'Agata's supercars are named after famous fighting bulls.

When it was first introduced, the shield was criticised for looking too Ferrari-like, but Ferruccio made no secret of his intentions for the new carmaker. The original design featured a black and white bull on a red background with a black border. The now-familiar black and gold colour scheme appeared in 1972, disappeared in 1974 when the design went monochrome, and finally returned in 1998.

Mercedes-Benz

The name Mercedes-Benz is a combination of Mercedes Jellinkek and Carl Benz. The car company was founded by Benz and Gottlieb Wilhelm Daimler as part of Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft (DMG). The company was originally called Daimler-Benz, but after Gottlieb Daimler's death, Emil Jellinek joined the company and helped develop a 35-horsepower engine in 1900. He named the car after his daughter and the company trademarked the name Mercedes the following year.

The three-pointed star was meant to convey the company's desire and belief in the dominance of its engines on land, sea and air. Other sources suggest that it was because Gottlieb sent his wife a postcard marking his residence with a three-pointed star. In 1926, the logo was surrounded by a circle when Daimler and Benz merged. The four-pointed star was also trademarked but never used.

To the right of the Mercedes-AMG logo are cam lobes, valves and valve springs, while to the left is the apple tree and river symbol, which is the historical coat of arms of Affalterbach, AMG's headquarters.

Porsche

The Porsche badge was originally used as a seal for the 356 in 1952, and has undergone very few changes since. The emblem is said to have been sketched by Franz Xaver Reimspiess, who also designed the Volkswagen logo in 1936. The centerpiece of the design is the Stuttgart horse and the name of the city. The red and black you see are the state colors, and the stylized antlers are inspired by Wurttemberg-Hohenzollern. The “Porsche” lettering at the top acts as an arch that connects all these design elements together. The name of the car company, of course, comes from founder Ferdinand Porsche.