by James Kraus
the annals of badging: cursive lettering, gold-plating,
diagonal orientation, and unique placement flowing
over the curved transition from rear deck
to rear quarter panel
Free-flowing cursive script is not often seen on automobiles today. It still survives at Alfa Romeo, Ford, Lamborghini, Maserati and Porsche. Outside this quintet it is rare indeed. In days past, cursive was common throughout the industry.
Such longhand script was often utilized to enable casting a complete badge out of a single piece of metal. The alternative was to either run block letters together, or connect individual block characters with a bar across the top (à la Ferrari,) a bar at the bottom (typified by BMW and Mercedes-Benz) or through the centre in the style of Alfa Romeo.
Pre-war cars used cursive scripting almost exclusively, although badging itself was generally minimal or nonexistent. In the 1900’s manufacturer nameplates were usually affixed only to the front of the radiator, and model designations were not displayed. In the thirties, even this practice declined, with most vehicles displaying the manufacturer’s name only via a stylized logo atop the radiator shell. After the war, marque and model badging began proliferating and begat its own art form.
Creative graphic artists and typographers often produced amazingly flamboyant and intricate designs as well as simple and elegant jewel-like examples. Often you can look at a vintage script and by its design cues, correctly guess the decade of inception. In the 1950’s and 1960’s, the cursive script form reached its peak.
Use of color also came into vogue; in addition to the normal bright silver, gold scripts began to adorn Cadillacs, Porsches, Alfa Romeos, Lancias, and others. Porsche began using gold with the introduction of the Speedster, after which they used it on a variety of other 356’s. In the 911 era, gold badging was used to embellish the top-range E and S models until late 1971.
I have selected a number of cursive badges, arranged by county of origin for your delectation. A few are quite rare and seldom seen.
Since this piece began with a photo of the Porsche 904, I will continue on with more examples from Germany:
nameplate was discontinued in 1948 by the Ford
Motor Company. Believing it was discarded,
Porsche later used it on 356 models for export
the U.S. Almost simultaneously, Ford
reintroduced the name at the Paris Auto Show
in October 1955 with the debut of the new Continental
Mark II. Porsche then replaced the “Continental”
badge with a “European” script for a few months,
after which it was discontinued and 356 once again
became the sole worldwide moniker for
non-Speedster and non-Carrera road models.
Although discontinued by Porsche in 1956, Lotus
renewed the theme in the late 1960’s with the
Europa. Tom Wavrin photo.
and cursive. Robert Strovers photo.
East to Czechoslovakia:
Now across the pond to America:
Flamboyance meshing perfectly with the outlandishness
of designer Virgil Exner’s “Forward Look” of 1957.
Extremely large in scale, the ‘I’ stands approximately
15 cm (6 inches) tall. Note how the capital ‘I’
carries on to dot the small ‘i.’ Just looking at this
makes me want to pour a glass of single-barrel
Bourbon, light up a Royal Robusto and listen to
some Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. Dave Linsay photo.
lettering and aqua paintwork: a virtual snapshot
of period design currents. Note how the dot of
the ‘i’ is intersected and suspended by the crossbar
of the ‘t.’ Ian Fleming kept a supercharged R2 Avanti
at his home in Kent; it was the last car he purchased
prior to his death in 1964. Paula Wirth photo.
one is not cursive in the strictest sense due to
the characters being individually drawn. Nevertheless
it has a healthy dose of cursive flair, especially in
the highly stylized ‘S.’ Greg Jerdingen photo.
Next; back over to the Continent for a trip to Italy:
True automotive jewelry.
Now over to France via the Autostrada dei Fiori:
By ferry over to the United Kingdom:
Finally, a trip to Japan:
Nearly all manufactures utilized some form of cursive scripting during the 1950’s and 1960’s with few exceptions. Mercedes-Benz never used cursive during this period. BMW indulged only on automatic gearbox cars, which carried a longhand Automatic script. In a similar vein, Volkswagen sent clutchless Beetles to North America for eighteen months beginning in the spring of 1968 with a badge reading “Automatic Stick Shift” rather than the customary block-letter “VW Automatic.” With the exemption of the Karmann Ghia, that was VW’s only foray into the art form. Saab were also cursive-averse.
Some of the photos above are courtesy of Chromeography which hosts superb photographs of badges and logos in both block and cursive styles from automobiles, motorcycles, scooters, bicycles and appliances. I heartily recommend a visit.
Auto Universum 
Exceptional. Thank you for sharing.
My favorites:
+ MkI Cortina GT – Crisp “cursive,” GT block feels precursor to Audi R/RS models. Delightful.
+ Karmann Ghia – Gestalt. Strong, angular block letters anchor a centrally-placed, delicate namesake. Wonderful.
Reblogged this on The Porsche Independent Repair and commented:
What a nice way to express a style is giving cars a signature.
Thunderbird
Corvette
Maserati
All had sexy scripts.
That 904 GTS badging is gorgeous! Obviously Porsche was thinking in terms of asymmetric, diagonal placement for badging in the early 1960’s as this was also the style used on the earliest 911’s through 1966. They should have stayed with it!
WELL executed TOPIC ~ and YES the PORSCHE 904 Script is EXCELLENT!
Devotamente, giadeFLIGHTNING
Well, I gotta say that looks a lot better than what I use to do, or did, I had a new car back in 1986 and I was a huge fan of the band U2, this was before they got really famous like they are today, anyhow I sanded down the hood of the car and with silver and black I spray painted a massive U2 on the hood. I did a different U2 symbol on the trunk, basically the letters with very stylized wings. That car got a lot of attention, it confused many too, why did I ruin such a car. Well of course I was thinking I added value to it. LOL. A lot of people still had not heard of the band, at least not where I was living anyhow, but I was really proud of the car, and did I ruin it? Nope it was still drivable, it was not an investment as such. Anyhow nice blog and good history of script writing on cars.