The Success Story Of Ford Motors: Past And Present

Any logo, as long as it’s Ford:

How does a corporate logo evolve? With the help of Ford Motor Company’s very own corporate historian, we track the evolution of the Ford brand identity and pick out the waypoints that have informed its development.

Incorporated almost 107 years ago, Ford has almost become a byword for blue-collar corporate America – and has a history almost as turbulent as its mother nation. Little wonder then that, in the shape of Bob Kreipke, it has its own corporate historian. “Throughout the various eras of Ford Motor Company our logo has changed,” he says. “Some of these changes were due to patents and copyrights, technical artistic capabilities and special branding techniques.” Here, we explore the circumstances that surrounded each new brand refresh.

1903

The Ford Motor Company was founded without a distinctive trademark. It is an emblem that was used on the Model C. “It is widely believed that Childe Harold Wills, Ford’s chief engineer and designer, developed the stylised Ford script for publicising the newly formed company,” says Kreipke. As a product identifier, the type face was used in some of the Ford 1904 Model C cars.

1909

An oval trademark had first been used in 1907. But in 1909, Ford in script letters was registered with the US Patent Office on the basis that the trademark had been used by Ford Corporation and by Henry Ford since about 1895. The previous year had seen the launch of the Model T set 1908 – and is now regarded as the year that the automobile became popular. It is generally regarded as the first affordable automobile, the car that opened travel to the common middle-class American, having been the first automobile mass produced on assembly lines with completely interchangeable parts.

1912

The identifying symbol of Ford, the winged triangle in orange, appeared in the Ford Times as well as in newspaper and magazine advertising.

1912

A year after Ford’s first factory outside North America had been built in Manchester, the Ford ‘script-in-oval’ was first used for dealership identification. By the following year, Ford’s first moving assembly line slashed chassis assembly time, but led to high employee turnover. Ford solved the problem by doubling pay to $5 a day. Productivity soared, and with it, the cost per vehicle plummeted. This meant workers earned enough to buy the products they made.

1928

A deep royal blue background was added to the Ford ‘script-in-oval’ and was first carried by the 1928 Model A. The dark blue background of the oval is known to designers as Pantone 294C. By now, Ford had expanded its reach into the luxury auto market through its acquisition of the Lincoln Motor Company.

1957

The first shares of Ford Motor Company common stock were offered in 1956. The following year, the Ford oval is used for the first time as the corporate signature as well as the product mark. Ford had introduced the iconic Thunderbird in 1955 and the Edsel brand automobile line in 1958, following a US$250 million dollar research and marketing campaign, which had failed to ask questions crucial for the marque’s success. Edsel was cancelled after less than 27 months in the marketplace in November 1960. The corporation bounced back from the failure of the Edsel by introducing its compact Falcon in 1960.

1976

In 1973, Ford US brand sales had reached an all time high of 2.35 million vehicles produced. Three years later, a new incarnation of the design was introduced. “Naturally the color scheme, drop shadows, and bands around the Ford script have been modified over time, but all due to catching the public’s attention,” says Kreipke.

2003-present

In May 2003, a dimensional oval was created to represent both the company and the brand. Known as the Centennial Oval, it was introduced as part of the 100th anniversary of Ford Motor Company.