porsche Logo - History, Design, and Meaning

Porsche is a marque that values tradition while blending it with innovation. All of its luxury cars feature timeless elegance and beauty on the outside, along with the latest technologies inside. This philosophy is reflected in the company's logo, which encapsulates historic legacy within a frame of style, power, and exclusivity.

The Porsche logo was introduced in 1952 and has remained largely unchanged since then, embodying the brand's uniqueness, grace, and memorability.

Established in Stuttgart, Porsche adopted the crest of Wurttemberg as its emblem to celebrate its history and roots. Stuttgart was the capital of Wurttemberg, a region in Germany renowned for its horse farms.

The coat of arms of Wurttemberg State was created in 1922, featuring a large crest with two deer on either side. It was modified in 1948 after the state was expanded to become Wurttemberg-Hohenzollern.

The coat of arms of Stuttgart, which features a black horse on a yellow background, was designed in 1938 and became the most recognizable part of the Porsche logo.

The original Porsche crest is based on a heraldic symbol, executed in a yellow, red, and black color palette, with two deer positioned on either side of a shield divided into four segments. Two segments displayed a striped black and red pattern, while the other two depicted black antlers on a plain yellow background.

The yellow crest with a black stallion is the official coat of arms of Stuttgart, the birthplace of the legendary brand. It features clean, bold lines with distinctive contours that enhance the brightness of its color palette.

In 1948, the logo's composition was simplified to a clean-contoured crest with a rounded bottom line and a straight top line. It was divided into two fragments, resembling the historical coat of arms of Wurttemberg. The deer and other decorative elements were removed from the design.

The official Porsche logo was introduced in 1952, combining two historical heraldic symbols. The yellow crest with the stallion received an additional golden banner inscribed with 'Stuttgart' on top, and was placed at the center of the Wurttemberg state coat of arms, which also featured a golden banner with the 'Porsche' logotype.

In 1963, the automaker's logo was refined, adopting a triangular shape that created a more chic image for the brand. The color palette shifted to gold, red, and black, with the top banner now arched and the characters extended. The stallion in the center of the crest was also redrawn.

The redesign of 1994 introduced a flat and bold version of the iconic crest, strengthening all the black contours of the logo and using a darker color palette with plain flat shades of all three colors. The lettering turned black, becoming more readable and distinctive, evoking a sense of power and confidence.

The logo the whole world knows today is composed of a golden crest, which consists of four segments and has a smaller crest in the middle. The wordmark is written along the upper part of the crest, in black modern sans-serif.

The four segments of the badge have two different ornaments: the upper left and bottom right parts depict three antlers each, and the upper right and bottom left segments have burgundy and black stripes on them, which are also taken from the Wurttemberg heraldry.

The smaller crest, located in the center of the badge, depicts a black horse with a delicate 'Stuttgart' inscription in sans-serif above it.

In 1963, an additional text-based logo was created for the brand. This logotype can be used on its own or placed under the ornate gold emblem. The custom sans-serif typeface of the all-caps wordmark looks powerful and confident with clean smooth lines, which are slightly extended and flattened.

A modernized Porsche crest was presented several years after the last update. First, the entire logo is now in a matte metallic style instead of shiny gold. The brand removed the bulging background, used a honeycomb pattern for the red stripes, and highlighted the Stuttgart lettering in black. There are also slight changes in the shape of the six horns. The horse looks more assertive and jumps higher on the hind legs.

The first versions of the Porsche logo were brighter and glossier than the one we see today. The logotype of the brand was written along the upper part of the crest in bold golden characters and was not very well visible, as the background featured the same shade.

In 1963, the contours of all elements on the Porsche badge were cleaned and strengthened, with all the main components, including the color palette, being kept from the previous version. More gloss was added to the enamel segments of the crest with red horizontal stripes.

The redesign of 1973 refined the contour of the stallion in the center of the logo and darkened the color palette of the badge, switching bright red to burgundy and adopting a smoother and calmer shade of gold, creating a very exquisite and chic composition.

In 1994, the lettering arched along the top part of the Porsche crest got colored black, hence became more visible, and the overall look of the badge got more balanced and harmonious. The stallion was redrawn again, with thinner and more elegant lines, creating a very sophisticated image in the center of the logo.

The redesign of 2008 emboldened and strengthened the lettering of the Porsche logo, cleaning up the contours of all elements and evening up the surface of the badge, making it smoother and glossier. This version of the crest stayed with the German automaker for half a decade.

The Porsche badge was refined again in 2014, with the golden shade becoming a bit brighter on the main crest, and lighter in the central one, with the stallion. The lettering on the upper banner also got refined, with the extended letters set in medium-weight lines.

The main element of the logo is a rampant black horse. For many people, it is associated with freedom, speed, and great strength, but those familiar with heraldry can get a deeper notion of the symbol. The rampant horse is a reference to the Stuttgart coat of arms — this German city houses the headquarters of the company. Four attached sections are taken from the coat of arms of the Kingdom of Württemberg, a currently nonexistent state which used to have Stuttgart as the main city. Antlers are the symbol of natural resources. Red and black stripes are combined to remind of classical traditions and the tendency of self-perfection (the unity of equipment and technologies).

The brand produced designs for heavy tanks, like the Tiger I and the Tiger II, amphibious off-roaders, and the classical 'car for people,' later known as Volkswagen Beetle.

The emblem of Porsche has gone through several updates during the long history of the brand's existence. However, those changes were not very significant; they were mainly decorative. In particular, the horse was changed. Thus, in 1994, its head got smaller, while its body became thinner.

The text placed in the upper part of the logo has always played an important role. The font hasn't undergone major changes; the peculiarities of the lettering remain the same. In 1994, the gold color turned into black. From one hand, it made the logo look more 'democratic' as 'steel' replaced 'gold.' Moreover, such a combination highlighted the black text on the gold background.

The red color in the logo has gained different tints — from red in 1954 to orange in 1963 and violet in 1973. In 1994, they added golden lines between the colors, which made the sign sharp-cut and well-defined.

The color of the print also changed from gold to black.