Porsche’s Newsroom looked back at the Porsche Crest and how it might have looked if it got changed from its current design:
It is an intricate work of art and unifies so much of what distinguishes Porsche. It’s also clear proof that projects undertaken with conviction and which come straight from the heart can make an impact, even in the absence of formal training. Porsche now had, with its crest, a logo that would make an impression – not only on the cars themselves, but on letterheads and in advertisements and publications. But it would also attract controversy.
First, to understand what a detailed logo with many colours signified, we need to wind the clock back. In the 1950s, colour printing was still very expensive, and also rather complicated. Not every printer had suitable machines, for example, nor was it easy to create printing plates, or to set registration marks with precision so that all the print forms were positioned exactly on top of each other. Creating a clear, sharp graphic or image without the print screen slipping was therefore tricky. Moreover, the Porsche crest didn’t look nearly as elegant as a stark black-and-white version. Porsche sales managers and the dealer organisation also saw another problem, which was addressed by writing to Porsche and its head of advertising, Hermann Lapper, in 1961: “The different colours and many details as a whole do not amount to a compact, coherent visual effect in road traffic.”
They wanted it to look different and enlisted the help of Hanns Lohrer to come up with some new logos (above) which were in stark contrast to the existing crest. He had already created some iconic posters and adverts for Porsche and while his ideas were interesting, they obviously didn’t make the cut. But it’s cool to see what might have been.