DID YOU KNOW THE ICONIC PORSCHE CREST HAS ROOTS IN 50'S NEW YORK?
The Porsche crest is iconic, obviously thanks to the line of great cars dating back almost 100 years now. The crest didn’t always look like this though, and it wasn’t featured on Porsche cars until 1952, but it’s still had an evolution all of its own since that inception albeit it at a much slower rate than the cars Porsche cars themselves. When a logo is good it shouldn’t be messed with too much, especially when it has worldwide recognition. In March of 1951, Ferdinand Porsche and Ottomar Domnick, a Stuttgart doctor and original Porsche customer came up with the idea of a design competition with the German Art Academies with a decent 1 000 Deutsche Mark first prize. The pair didn’t like any of the submissions though but news of the search for a logo reached New York City. It was here that Austrian-born Max Hoffman from iconic auto importer Hoffman Motor Company got involved after importing the first, and badgeless, 356 Porsche. The car won the award for the most interesting car at Concours d’Élégance in Watkins Glen. He decided the car needed a seal to finish it off, meaning a badge to represent the brand.
In late 1951 New York at a business dinner with Ferry Porsche, Hoffman brought up the need for a quality, visually-appealing seal to help create even more identity for the Porsche brand and so the seed was planted. After a bit of a think, on December 27 of the same year, Mr Porsche scribbled down “Steering wheel hub featuring ‘Porsche’ and the Stuttgart coat of arms or something similar.” Back in Germany, the creation of the much-needed crest was tasked to Porsche designer Franz Xaver Reimspieß with the instruction to “design a trademark that symbolically reflects the company’s roots as well as the quality and dynamism of the products.” In 1952 the crest had its debut on the steering wheel hub of the 356, in 1954 it was affixed to the front of the car, and in 1959, the hubcaps. Inspired by the Stuttgart city seal, the coat of arms features a central rearing horse framed by the contours of a golden shield. The city name is above and has the state colours on either side, and those stylized antlers are taken from the Württemberg-Hohenzollern coat of arms while the Porsche lettering acts as a protective covering.
Take a look at the YouTube video from a decent ten years ago that shows the manufacturing process of the iconic badge, nay, crest that adorns every Porsche model from the 911 to the Macan: Manufacturing an unmistakable trademark: the Porsche Crest | Porsche
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