The American luxury marque LOGO has changed with the times

Author: Mike McNessor
Reprinted with permission Hemmings Motor News, Inc.

The Cadillac emblem--commonly known as the wreath and crest--has been redesigned more than 30 times over the past 100 years to reflect changes in the company's culture and design direction.

At the beginning of the 21st century, Cadillac adopted a new emblem, representing the first major change since 1963. The wreath and crest was made sharper and sleeker with crisp angles, presumably in an attempt to keep pace with the company's bold "Art and Science" design philosophy.

The familiar color scheme remained, however. Cadillac says that the black against gold denotes wisdom and riches; red indicates prowess and boldness in action; silver stands for purity, charity, virtue and plenty; and blue represents knightly valor. Meanwhile, the background of the wreath and crest is platinum--the most valuable metal.

The new wreath also had a more chiseled look, and the couronne, or coronet, has been eliminated.

The redesigned symbol of excellence, as it's known, was inspired by the work of European artist Piet Mondrian, one of the most prominent geometric painters of the 20th century.

The Cadillac crest was inspired from the coat of arms of French adventurer Antoine de la Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, who founded the city of Detroit in 1701 and is said to have been an ancestor of Cadillac's founder, Henry Leland. Cadillac the automaker first used the coat of arms on Cadillac cars in 1905 and registered it as a trademark the following year.

The original coat of arms was divided into two parts, a coat and shield. The couronne symbolized the six ancient courts of France. The pearls, which have varied in number on both the family and automotive crests, signified that the family descended from the royal counts of Toulouse. The shield denoted the courageous origins of a noble family, and was taken from the shape of shields used by the past warriors. It is composed of four quarters.
The first and fourth quarterings display the arms of the Mothe family. The birds, called merlettes, are adaptations of the martin, but without legs or beaks. Today, both the couronne and the merlettes are absent in the Cadillac crest.

Here's some information about a few of the past Cadillac wreath and crest emblems:

Cadillac attorney Newell S. Wright filed for the trademark application on August 18, 1905, and the registered trademark--number 54,931--was granted on August 7, 1906.


1906: Although the Cadillac arms were not registered as a trademark until 1906, they were in use as early as September 1902. The original emblem, which featured a seven-piked coronet garlanded with a laurel wreath, was closely based on the registered design, with merlettes slanting down to the left and a wreath composed of tulip-shape flowerets arching up to a seven-point crown.


1908: Gradually, the emblem's design changed to a more graphic visual pattern. The slogan was added upon Cadillac's receipt of the Dewar Trophy in 1908, in recognition for achievements in the standardization of parts.





1920: From 1916 to 1918, Cadillac used a badge that incorporated the tulip-bulb wreath from the original trademark with nine points on the crown. The crown reverted to seven points and joined the crest in 1920. This crest remained through 1925.





1933: To better match the more streamlined styling of the new Cadillacs, designers used the same elements for the V-8, V-12 and V-16 and gave them wings. The new design remained unchanged on all radiators through the 1935 models, though in 1934, the crest became detachable.



1947: With the post-war Cadillacs came new emblem designs, which evolved to the basic "V" and crest design. The 1947 emblem is one of the first post-war badges to incorporate the "V" with the crest, although it had been used in the past in V-8 emblems.





1957: With the 1956 models, the Cadillac badge began a trend to a long, low and wide shape, probably to emphasize the pattern of advertising in this period. The Cadillac crest continued this trend through 1959 until the crown at the top almost vanished. The crest was at its broadest in 1960.



1963-2000: The famous wreath and crest emblem was used on Cadillac products--with minimal changes--for 36 years.







2000-2014: The famous wreath and crest emblem was modernized to a more chiseled design.