Automotive Type, Part Twelve

For my twelfth edition of my series on automotive type, I’m giving some love to “old reliable,” the American pickup truck. There are some great variations in truck badges from the 1930s through the 1960s. They range from the scripts of the 1930s Willys and Chevrolet to the bold chunkiness of the 1956 GMC and 1960 Ford. Speaking of that Ford badge, how about the gear/lightning bolt combo? So cool! I’m also a huge fan of the 1957 Chevrolet Cameo script. It’s a great balance between a bold, solid block font and a ’50s script. The perfect type treatment for a special edition truck with mid-century style and a custom bed.

If you’re interested in digging deeper into badge type design, check out writer and type expert Steven Coles’ excellent Tumblr page, Chromeography.

Interested in a print of one of my badge photos? Visit my store and place an order.

Top row, left to right: 1930s Willys, 1939 Chevrolet, 1946 Hudson. Second row, left to right: 1950s Ford, 1956 GMC, 1957 Chevrolet. Third row, left to right: 1950s Ford, 1960 Ford, 1961 Chevrolet. Bottom row, left to right: 1964 Studebaker, 1965 Chevrolet, 1966 Ford.

Automotive Type, Part Eleven

I’m returning to the theme of crests in my eleventh edition of my series on automotive type. Here I selected crests that are a more “mid-century modern” take on the idea of a crest or coat of arms. The elements are still intact, but there’s a simplicity to some, like the 1959 Rambler and the 1969 Ford Torino. With others, the styling is much more free-form and they have very different sculptural elements. Connecting back to last week’s blog post, note the inclusion of the “V” in the Corvette, Rambler, and 1959 Buick crests.

If you’re interested in digging deeper into badge type design, check out writer and type expert Steven Coles’ excellent Tumblr page, Chromeography.

Interested in a print of one of my badge photos? Visit my store and place an order.

Top row, left to right: 1953 Chevrolet, 1960 Corvette. Middle row, left to right: 1959 Rambler, 1959 Buick. Bottom row, left to right: 1963 Buick, 1969 Ford Torino, 1970 Dodge Challenger.

Automotive Type, Part Four

For my fourth post in my series featuring automotive badges and lettering, I’m continuing with my favorite period—the post-war “Jet Age” from the late ’40s to the early ’60s. This time, it’s all about script badges. I could probably post this a dozen times and not repeat a single badge. I’ve edited my collection down to twelve that I think show the diversity of the period, and that I just personally love. I’d love to see any of these expanded into a complete font. I hope there’s at least one type designer out there reading this that agrees.

If you’re interested in digging deeper into badge type design, check out writer and type expert Steven Coles’ excellent Tumblr page, Chromeography.

Interested in a print of one of my badge photos? Visit my store and place an order.

Top row, left to right: 1947 Chevrolet, 1954 Plymouth,1955 Studebaker. Second row, left to right: 1955 Packard, 1955 Pontiac, 1956 Buick (Motorama show car.) Third row, left to right: 1957 Buick, 1959 Oldsmobile, 1960 Ford. Bottom row, left to right: 1960 Plymouth, 1962 Dodge, 1963 Chrysler.

Automotive Type, Part Three

For my third post in my series featuring automotive badges and lettering, I’m highlighting my favorite period—the post-war “Jet Age” from the late ’40s to the early ’60s. I’ve included a few examples of hood ornaments that aren’t type related, but they have such a jet-age influence that I just had to include them. One of the other great things about this era are the names that the Detroit marketing teams came up with, like Futuramic, Airflyte, Fireflite, and my favorite, Merc-O-Matic. The bonus being the orbit-shaped “O”. 

If you’re interested in digging deeper into badge type design, check out writer and type expert Steven Coles’ excellent Tumblr page, Chromeography.

Interested in a print of one of my badge photos? Visit my store and place an order.

Top row, left to right: 1949 Oldsmobile, 1950 Mercury, 1951 Nash. Second row, left to right: 1950 Oldsmobile, 1951 Hudson, 1953 Cadillac. Third row, left to right: 1955 Chevrolet Nomad, 1955 Pontiac, 1954 Mercury. Bottom row, left to right: 1956 Plymouth Fury, 1959 DeSoto, 1961 Oldsmobile.

Automotive Type, Part Two

For my second post in the series featuring automotive badges and lettering, I’m highlighting the industrial and streamlined look of the 1930s and 1940s. If you look at these examples as a whole, you can see the influences of both the mass production established in the ’20s and the corporate consolidation of the ’30s. The overall look of the badges had changed from representing craftsman’s signatures to standardized logos that emphasized the swift mechanical nature of the automobiles. Even the script lettering took on a more “machine made” look and an emphasis on power and speed. The messaging behind the use of script lettering continued to change in subsequent decades, but more on that in future posts.  

If you’re interested in digging deeper into badge type design, check out writer and type expert Steven Coles’ excellent Tumblr page, Chromeography.

Interested in a print of one of my badge photos? Visit my store and place an order.

Top row, left to right: 1934 Chrysler Airflow, 1934 Hudson Terraplane, 1936 Buick. Middle row, left to right: 1937 Studebaker, 1941 Buick, 1941Plymouth. Bottom row, left to right: 1941 Pontiac, 1947 Ford, 1948 Buick.

Automotive Type, Part One

This post is the first in a series that will look at type and graphics used in automotive badging. I’ll be brief with my words and keep these posts visual. The focus of this first post is on early automotive script badges.

If you’re interested in digging deeper into badge type design, check out writer and type expert Steven Coles’ excellent Tumblr page, Chromeography.

Interested in a print of one of my badge photos? Visit my store and place an order.

Top row, left to right: 1908 Stearns, 1909 Cartecar Model H, 1909 White Steamer (first Presidential car). Second row, left to right: 1909 Ford, 1910 Knox, 1910 Cadillac. Third row, left to right: 1912 Oldsmobile Autocrat, 1913 Pope-Hartford, 1914 Locomobile. Bottom row, left to right: 1919 Pierce Arrow, 1921 Packard, 1930 DeSoto.