What Inspired Chevy’s Bowtie Logo?
Almost 100 years after General Motors co-founder William Durant debuted the logo, the Chevrolet bowtie is perhaps the most identifiable mark in GM’s bevy of brands. Thing is, it seems there is no real consensus as to what inspired Durant to create the logo in the first place.
Was it hotel room wallpaper? Was it dinnertime doodling? Was it a newspaper ad? An homage to Switzerland?
According to GM, all these theories have been suggested.
Apparently, Durant confirmed the well-known legend that a wallpaper design in Paris hotel had given him the impetus for the now-famous bowtie.
In fact, the brand’s 50th anniversary commemorative publication — The Chevrolet Story, published in 1961 — said: “It originated in Durant’s imagination when, as a world traveler in 1908, he saw the pattern marching off into infinity as a design on wallpaper in a French hotel. He tore off a piece of the wallpaper and kept it to show friends, with the thought that it would make a good nameplate for a car.”
Other accounts, however, suggest alternative theories, including two stories coming from Durant family members.
For example, the book My Father, written by Durant’s daughter Margery, offers one. In the book, Margery talks about him sketching logo designs during dinner.
“I think it was between the soup and the fried chicken one night that he sketched out the design that is used on the Chevrolet car to this day,” she wrote in the book, which came out in 1929.
Then in 1986, a story based on an interview with Durant’s widow Catherine (conducted 13 years earlier) in Chevrolet Pro Magazine indicated that Durant was inspired during a holiday in Hot Springs, Va. , in 1912.
That version contends that Durant was reading a newspaper and a design caught his eye.
“I think this would be a very good emblem for the Chevrolet,” Durant was reported as saying. However, Catherine Durant did not elaborate on the details describing what exactly Durant saw.
That prompted further research by Ken Kaufman, a historian who is the editor of The Chevrolet Review.
He found that Atlanta’s The Constitution newspaper on Nov. 12, 1911 (long before it became the Altanta Journal-Constitution) included an advertisement from the Southern Compressed Coal Co.
The company was marketing its “Coalettes," a refined-fuel product used to build fires that also had a “slanted bowtie” logo much like Chevrolet’s.
Interestingly enough, the Chevrolet Motor Co. was founded on Nov. 3, 1911, only nine days before the ad ran.
Another theory points to the Swiss flag. Of course, Louis Chevrolet — whose parents were French — was born in Switzerland.
While it may not be clear which is actually impetus for the bowtie logo, it appears earliest known use of the logo was in The Washington Post on Oct. 2, 1913, which included an ad bearing the bowtie and the phrase “Look for this nameplate” hanging over the logo.