DeLorean Motor Company
The DeLorean Motor Company was formed by John DeLorean in 1975. The brand is best known for its only car model, the stainless steel DeLorean DMC-12, manufactured in a state-of-the-art factory in Northern Ireland.
The sports car gained fame in Back to the Future, even though the motor company was bankrupt in 1982, three years before the film was released, and after just 9,000 cars had been produced.
Christopher Lloyd and Micheal J. Fox in Back to the Future, image credit
I’ve always liked the ambigram.
“I got my 15 minutes of fame when I designed the logo for John DeLorean’s car company.”
— PHIL GIBBON
Quoted from this piece about Phil Gibbon.
When I worked as a tyre fitter in Belfast, one customer drove his DeLorean in.
Photo via Wikipedia
Those doors. Loved them.
DeLorean instrument panel photo by Trevor Eiler
According to this article, when John DeLorean died in 2005 at the age of 80, “he was buried in blue jeans and a black motorcycle jacket, playing the rebel to the end.”
The mark is featured in the excellent Logo R.I.P.
Top DeLorean grill photo by Dipesh Soneji
11 appreciated comments, click here to add one
Rich
It’s hard to say how much my love of this is due to Back to the Future, but it’s a fantastic logo regardless, especially the symmetry.
Feb 12th, 2013
Mattia
Sigh… this is a piece of our life ;)
Feb 12th, 2013
Chris
There’s a local movie memorabilia collector who lives somewhere near me and he has one of the DMC’s used in Back to the Future 2 that he takes out to car shows quite frequently. There’s nothing like pulling up to the local gas pump and seeing Doc Brown’s time machine staring right back at you. I feel like a kid each and every time I see it! Dude even let me sit in it once and tap the time display! Talk about a car that owes its entire iconic stature solely to a movie.
Feb 14th, 2013
Robert Powell
This is such an iconic logo and probably the first logo I really looked at from a design point of view! If this was created these days it would be right up there with the best of them!
Feb 17th, 2013
Chris
Thought you might like this: http://youtu.be/SU0FdTybqOc
Feb 19th, 2013
David Airey
88 miles per hour!
Feb 20th, 2013
Ryan
I wonder how much it inspired the eventual redesign of the Honda Civic logo?
Mar 1st, 2013
Chris
@Ryan – If it was used for inspiration of the Civic’s re-branding, then whomever was “in charge” learned/preserved nothing from it. For starters, the ‘C’ in DMC actually reads like a ‘C’ even though it’s technically a mirrored ‘D’, as to where the ‘C’ at the end of Civic reads like a ‘D’, and nothing else. Even though I “get it”, I only see “The Honda CiviD” whenever that god-awful attempt at being “clever” enters my visual landscape.
Mar 4th, 2013
Randal
I can’t even begin to say how much love I have for this car. The logo was so simple and incredibly memorable but like the rest of these comments it is an amazing journey back to my youth when I wanted to be like Marty McFly whenever I see this car.
I didn’t realise they only made 9,000 of them though. It’s funny because I just took my car in for a service at Service4Service and I’m wondering what the cost of a repair for this old thing would be! Doubt you could even get hold of the original parts for it!
Also does anyone have any idea how many of them are actually left and working?
Mar 25th, 2013
John
The concept art for the DMC2 was amazing; I wish the company didn’t have those financial issues!
It also has one of my favorite logos of all time. I really like those logos you can flip over and still have the same design.
Mar 30th, 2013
Gregg R. Gibbon
I have been a fan of Logo Design Love for about the past year or so now. Full of informative idea’s and information. I must say that I agree with everything I have read so for in regards to the DeLorean logo, especially the one about Honda’s creation with their Civic logo. Aside from that, I have often thought that DeLorean’s logo was so clean, stylish, and simple, that like the elegant gull-winged sports car that it had the priveledge of adorning itself to; that “it” (logo) was ahead of its time. I guess that is why they specifically chose the DeLorean Motor Vehicle to… well do I dare say, go “Back To The Future”.
Then again, maybe my views and opinions are somewhat biased. After all the talent behind creating the logo… was my father!
Gregg R. Gibbon
Ramsey Designs
May 10th, 2013
Reply to “DeLorean Motor Company”
All comments are subject to the Logo Design Love comment policy.