Chevrolet Logo Meaning – The interesting story behind bow tie logo

Chevrolet, fondly called Chevy, is a US automaker of mass-market automobiles. It operates as a division of General Motors and its vehicles are very popular globally, just like other GM brands such as Cadillac. Chevrolet logo meaning aka ‘Bow tie’ logo has an interesting history of over 100 years and at the same time, its origins are debated. The Chevrolet logo meaning also takes us to a coal company.

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Chevrolet Logo History 

Chevrolet’s cross or bowtie emblem is among the most easily recognizable logos in not just the automotive world but also in the wider business world and that too without containing the name in the logo. The Chevrolet logo is a simple yet elegant combination of two basic and overlapping shapes – square and parallelogram. The square sits at the center of the horizontal parallelepiped forming a shape which looks like a cross.

The initial Chevrolet car logo featured founder Louis Chevrolet’s signature but it was soon replaced by the bow tie logo which has largely remained unchanged over the last century. However, there are many stories behind the origin of the iconic logo.

Some people credit the logo to Louis Chevrolet’s Swiss origins and looking at the cross logo, the influence of the Swiss flag cannot be ruled out.

However, a more popular version links the logo to the other founder Willian Durant which also played a crucial role in establishing General Motors with Charles Stewart Mott and Frederic L. Smith. Durant is said to have found inspiration from a wallpaper that he had seen in a hotel in Paris. Nevertheless, his family has a different version of the events.

In an interview, Durant’s widow Catherine revealed that he found a similar emblem in a Virginia newspaper around 1912 while vacationing and considered making a Chevrolet emblem on similar lines. This theory gained further weight when Chevrolet historian Ken Kaufmann came across an old issue of Atlanta, Georgia-based “The Constitution” containing a big clue. The newspaper’s date of 12 November 1911 was just nine days after Chevrolet Motor Company was incorporated!

Chevrolet Logo Meaning Description

Prior to 1982, the Chevrolet logo was painted in black and white or blue colors. In 1982, the symbol donned yellow and gold colors with a silver border and this scheme has remained consistent so far. Over the years, the logo has evolved to remain contemporary and the latest iteration in 2013 saw the silver piping acquiring more prominence.

While the Chevrolet symbol has retained its visual identity over these years, it has been subject to various experiments, including being put in other shapes! On the 100th anniversary of the bowtie logo, Chevrolet chronicled the emblem’s history and evolution in an infographic that shows that earlier versions also contained the CHEVROLET inscription on the parallelepiped.