Porsche crest 356 steering wheelPhoto via hollywoodwheels.com.

Porsche’s company logo was based on the coat of arms of the Free People’s State of Württemberg of former Weimar Germany. As the cars were made in Stuttgart, the Stuttgart coat of arms was placed in the middle as an inescutcheon.

Porsche crest origin

In 1952, Xaver Reimspieß, who is also said to have designed the Volkswagen logo in 1936, sketched a crest that symbolised the roots of the company. The design is still used today with just a few minor differences in detail.

Here’s an interesting short video showing how the Porsche bonnet badge / hood emblem is handmade.

Porsche crest tool

Porsche crest

Porsche logoThe current Porsche logo.

More details:
The original Porsche crest as a quality seal, on porsche.com.

The stories behind other car logos:
BMW, Skoda, Aston Martin, Mercedes-Benz, Mitsubishi.

Comments

Is it more accurate to call Xaver by the first name – Franz?!)

There, under the link:
During the war, Reimspiess was the chief designer in the center of tank construction at the Nibelungen plant in St. Valentine. Then in Porsche, he was responsible for the construction of the chassis of the Tiger tank (along which it is easy to distinguish between real tanks and film fakes).
He is the author of the Volkswagen logo.

I still dont know what the 6 antler looking things are on the top left and bottom right. Looks super weird.

The Porsche logo which has the horse and Stuttgart, represents where the Porsche factory was originally built, atop a horse breeding farm. Prior to 1952, before West Germany was formed, it used to be known as Wurttemberg, or the federal state of Wurttemberg, of which the capital is Stuttgart. The antlers and black and red stripes represent the coat of arms of this state and is a part of Germany’s history.

Cheers, Rob.

Don’t let our crazy Americans hear anything is tied to history, they’ll have it canceled and burn any tributes to it. I like things tied to their past and history, but I’m rare.

Hello!
Just lately I read a book from Wolfgang Fürweger “Die PS-Dynastie. Ferdinand Porsche und seine Nachkommen” (2007).
In the book it’s told that the idea of the coat-of-arms type of logo came from Max Hoffmann, who was importing Porsche cars to America in the middle of last century.
And that the logo was made by Ferry Porsche himself in 1952. He sketched the first impressions of it on a napkin in New York.
And Erwin Komenda from the design department of Porsche made a drawing out of it. The trademark was then registered in 1953.
Fürweger writes that this is the official version of the story. ;)

Hi, my Dad, Roger Goddard, also had some design input back when he worked for Porsche in 1976.

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