P-O-R-S-C-H-E – THE BRAND LOGO WHICH STARTED ON A NAPKIN

As everyone knows, Porsche is a German automobile manufacturer specialized in high-performance sports cars. For most of the people, it is the dream car due to both tangible and intangible benefits and feelings: it is a really attractive and unique brand, the pleasure of feeling its sporting spirit and intelligence, besides enjoying a high social status are just some of the things that the brand Porsche would definitely deliver you.

Now, back to reality, unfortunately just a few lucky people are owners of these engineering marvels, and I am convinced they would speak very good about Porsche. Truth told German people are great at designing and selling fast and sexy cars.

Having said that, we are all fans and lovers of this great brand, so the best way to get a bit closer and more connected to Porsche would be to understand its story behind. Since I am also really interested in this German car-maker beast, here we go!

Regarding its origins, let me tell you that the company was founded in 1931 by Ferdinand Porsche and his son Ferdinand Anton Ernst Porsche. From now on we will refer to his son as Ferry Porsche. Obviously, since Porsche is such a distinctive and appreciated symbol within the high-performance car industry, there are many curious stories about the original, as well as its counterfeits. To clarify this point, Porsche experts have deepened into the real logo story.  

Max Hoffman, a famous automotive importer in the US, will be a key player in this story. Hoffman used to travel around Europe to bring the best cars to his country of origin. In one of these trips in Germany, it seems like he saw the first Porsche manufactured in the world, the Porsche 356A. The story says that he asked the driver to go for a drive together in that new car, and Hoffmann got impressed.

Porsche 356A from the Porsche official website

As mentioned before, Hoffman´s main objective was to bring in to the U.S. the best cars he could find in Europe and Porsche was definitely out of the ordinary. That car made a real impact on Hoffman, so he noted down the name of the manufacturer, the model and head office details. Back in the U.S. Hoffman was able to get ahold of Ferry Porsche to talk about those great cars and discuss the possibility of becoming the official importer of this new brand, setting that meeting to be in New York. Ferry Porsche accepted the invitation without knowing that meeting would definitely change the course of Porsche´s History…

Sometime later in 1952 in that meeting that took place at a restaurant in NY, Ferry was congratulated for the great design of such small cars, sporty spirit, and rear-wheel drive engines. We cannot forget that Hoffman was a famous car importer, with a broad knowledge of the U.S. markets needs: from a marketing and sales point of view, the brand and its corporative seal are definitely really important when thinking about importing cars in the North American country. We would think that the expert Hoffman believed in Porsche since the beginning, but the brand needed to be strongly recognized and wished by the market.

Porsche demonstrated its capacity to design and produce really attractive and sports cars, but truth be told that its marketing strategies were not Porsche´s strengths. While dining, Hoffman raised the need for a strong logo or symbol for those great cars. Ferry Porsche, decisively pronounced the famous sentence that many of you might already know: “If all that you need is a logo, we can also design one”.

Ferry Porsche took a napkin and a pen and outlined the first draft of the Porsche logo in just a couple of minutes, which included (and still does it) both the shield of the Württemberg region and the Stuttgart city shield.

Porsche logo from the Porsche official website

This story is, of course, full of romanticism and it is ideal for Porsche. Other stories around the brand claim that it was more business-oriented, entrusting the design of the logo to the designer Franz Xaver Reimspiess by the publicity agent of Porsche Herrmann Lapper – even it is often challenged whether the lunch between Hoffman and Ferry Porsche did really exist or not.

Since that lunch in which Ferry Porsche decided to sketch the first logo for Porsche, the logo of the brand has never changed, maintaining three key elements: the Baden Württemberg shield of the region, the Stuttgart city shield and, last but not least, the family name of the founders, Porsche. This logo symbolizes the roots of the company, as well as the dynamism, spirit, and quality of Porsche products.

The process of its logo has been getting updates in terms of colors, intensity, and shape of the horse of the Stuttgart city shield. Nevertheless, the essence of the logo has not changed since aka Ferry drew it on a napkin for the first time.

My warmest congratulations to the Porsche family for giving the world such amazing cars, as well as to all the current Porsche employees for the great job so far! Hope you liked the Porsche story and I´d be happy to hear from you. Don´t forget to leave any comment or suggestion you would like to share! Never stop dreaming! 😊

• Author Details

Juan Carlos Hoyos Saez Administrator

Passionate about Cars, Driving and Business. My objective is to inspire more and more car lovers. Racing, Kickboxing, traveling, and healthy life. Sub-project leader as a Material Cost/Project Controller, Daimler Trucks Asia (Tokyo, Japan).

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