![]() In 1980 a new decade arrived, bringing with it more angular designs. The 1978 25th Anniversary Logoġ978 was the Corvette’s 25th Anniversary, and cars released that year got this fancy badge:Ĭorvette’s from ’79, however, reverted to the design of the ’77. The fleur-de-lis from Louis Chevrolet’s family crest is still up front on the red flag, with the Chevy “bowtie” partially obscured behind it. In 1977, Chevy ditched the “sunburst” design for their Corvette logo and went with (above) this clean, graphically-stylized update on the original crossed flags. ![]() But next Chevy would move into more graphic-design-y territory. Perhaps it was a sign of ’70s excess, and it was certainly very different from the minimalism of the logo of just ten years before. Though they look kind of cool now, these last two “sunburst” designs were an uncharacteristic and somewhat gaudy detour for the Corvette emblem. Once again typography is added to the periphery.įrom 1975 to 1976, the letters are dropped again. In 1973 we see the first “sunburst” design. In 1967 the flags get an angle change, and the design remains the same until 1972: In ’65 the logo goes minimalist, dropping the fluff and keeping just the flags. The circle is also dispensed with, as the logo is now shaped to follow the pointed “nose” of the new ’63 body design. In 1962, the letters move outside the circle to the hood of the car:ġ963 sees an interesting change: The American flag is sort of snuck back into the logo, though the French would probably see a Tricolor. In 1958 we see a typographic update that persists until 1961: In 1956 and ’57, a Chevrolet chevron was added to the design: Amassing a photo list has proved trickier than expected, as there were multiple emblems for the hood, tail and fenders, but we’ve tried to put together a visual chronology focused on the nose badges. What we do know is that Bartholomew’s design stuck around until 1957, then underwent multiple tweaks and changes throughout the years. Sadly, after that story, all mention of specific designers associated with subsequent logos are nil. New badges were whipped up based on Bartholomew’s drawings, and the Corvette debuted in 1953 at New York’s Waldorf-Astoria hotel. (It’s not clear why they waited until four days before the car’s unveiling, but you can practically picture Bartholomew sitting at his drafting table saying dammit.) Bartholomew’s last-minute replacement was a flag sporting both the Chevrolet logo and a fleur-de-lis, a French symbol that was reportedly part of Louis Chevrolet’s family crest. However, using the American flag to promote commercial products was illegal at the time, and Chevy execs reportedly decided at the last minute to nix that part of the design. Bartholomew’s design (above) featured two crossed flags: One, the checkered flag that symbolized race victory, the other, the American Stars ‘n Stripes. When the 1953 Corvette first appeared to the public at the Waldorf Historia Hotel, the redesigned emblems were in place.When Chevrolet was preparing their new Corvette sports car in the early ’50s, the task of designing the emblem (or logo) fell to Chevy interior designer Robert Bartholomew. They decided to use the fleur-de-lis along with the famous blue Chevrolet bow tie on a new flag which replaced the American flag on the Corvette. Unfortunately, they came up empty, but they did realize that Chevrolet is a French name and the fleur-de-lis (flower of the lily) is a French symbol meaning peace and purity. They looked at the Louis Chevrolet family history in an attempt to discover a crest or some type of heraldry that they could utilize. Where did the fleur-de-lis come from? At the time, Chevrolet was conducting research on various emblem designs for the 19 passenger cars. The new emblem contained the checkered flag on the right side as well as the white racing flag, red Chevrolet bow-tie symbol and a fleur-de-lis (Figure 2). Right before the show, redesigned emblems were attached to the front hood and steering wheel of the Corvette. The problem with the proposed emblem was that it included the American flag which is illegal to use on a commerical product. However, four days before the Corvette was to go on display at the show, Chevrolet management decided that it should be redesigned. It had crossing staffs with the checkered flag on the right hand side, and the American flag on the left hand side. This emblem was destined to appear on the 1953 Corvette prototype which was introduced to the public for the first time at New York's Waldorf-Astoria hotel in January of 1953. The original Corvette logo (Figure 1) was designed by Robert Bartholomew, an interior designer at Chevrolet in 1953.
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