Ford’s modern logo, or Centennial Blue Oval, is one of the most recognizable logos in the world. The company presented it celebrating the 100th anniversary in 2003. Ford logo is a Henry Ford signature inserted in an oval figure; it is designed in blue and white hues. It is simple, elegant, and provides maximum visual distinctiveness. The blue color is mixed with white and creates a gradient effect making the logo look volume. Ford logo has been one of the most famous and well-recognized logos in the world for ages. The aim of this paper is to analyze Ford’s logo using four parts of successful advertisement and to find out the possible reasons why it gained such a great popularity.
Ford Logo (2003-present). Wikipedia. Wikipedia, n.d. Web. Accessed 6 Mar 2016.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/Ford_Motor_Company_Logo.svg
Throughout the company’s history, Ford logo has undergone changes, but they had never been radical. The first Ford logo was created by C. Harold Will and appeared together with the first Ford automobile, model A, which was introduced in 1903. The design of the Blue Oval famous nowadays dates back to 1907, when Perry, Thornton, and Schreiber, three British entrepreneurs responsible for Ford’s British market penetration, “decided to highlight Ford cars’ reliability and economy” (“Ford Logo Meaning and History”). In 1912, it was redesigned and replaced with winged triangle logo aimed to symbolize speed, stability, and grace. In 1927, Centennial Blue Oval returned again, and since those days, the deep royal blue color has been the trademark of the Ford Company, “one of the most expensive trademarks” ever (“Ford Logo Meaning and History”).
The first part of creating a successful logo is the targeted audience. According to Grant-Davies, the audience is “those people, real or imagined, with whom rhetors negotiate through discourse to achieve the rhetorical objectives” (Grant-Davies 270). Said differently, the audience is the group of people whose attention creators of the logo try to catch. The audience of the Ford logo is their potential consumers, future owners of the Ford automobiles. The logo is the face of the company, and it should be simple, recognized, and easy to remember. For the consumers, who often see automobiles on TV, in magazines, and simply on the streets, the logo should be appealing and should let them know what company it belongs to. It is rather difficult to catch the manufacturer of one or another automobile slipping by, but it is possible to catch its logo, and, thus, the logo becomes a specific automobile advertisement. In the case of Ford, the logo is appealing, stylish, and, what is even more important, it contains the name of the manufacturer. Ford logo has an obvious advantage over most of other automobile logos making it unnecessary to search for the manufacturer knowing the logo. Ford logo is recognizable even for those people who are not familiar with automobile manufacturers and emblems they use for their products.
The next part of creating the successful logo is exigence. Grant-Davies defines exigence as “the matter and motivation of the discourse”; quoting Bitzer, she states that exigence is “the rhetor’s sense that a situation both calls for discourse and might be resolved by discourse” (Grant-Davies 266). So, exigence is the reason for creating the logo. Generally, the main role of logos lies in making the product widely recognizable for the audience. Logos work more effectively than just pointing of the manufacturer; they are much more appealing, and creative design sets them apart from each other. Designing the logo is the way to emphasize the company’s identity and support new products establishing the sense of reliability and comfort. Ford is the company that has existed for better than one hundred years. Products of the Ford Motor Company are examined by time, and inspire trust to the consumers. Being one of the first mass manufacturers of automobiles, Ford logo contains the signature of Henry Ford, the man whose name is printed in every history textbook. The design of Ford logo aims to draw attention of possible consumers saying about the great history of the company, its reliability and liability.
One more part of the successful logo includes the constraints. Grant-Davies states that the constraints are “factors in the situation’s context that may affect the achievement of the rhetorical objectives” (Grant-Davies 272). In other words, the constraints are different factors that limit the logo. It can be size, color, shape, etc. For the Ford logo, like for most of other successful logos, lots of constraints take place. The logo is the very first impression the audience gets about the company, and its design is very important. The first of the logo constraints is size. The logo should look good at all sizes regardless of being printed on the envelope or advertising panels. Hence, it should not contain too small details that could lead to the loss of the logo’s definition. The second constraint is balance. The logo should be appealing and pleasing to the masses. Its design should keep balance between shape, color, and size. The third constraint is color. It is worth remembering that the logo should look good not only in full color but also in black and white print. The colors should not be too bright and should be in tune with each other. The design of a successful logo also has such constraints as proper font, simplicity, easy recognition, and distinction from other logos. The Ford logo answers all of these constraints. It is simple but stylish, contains a signature of Henry Ford making the logo easily recognized and distinct from other automobile logos at the same time. The Ford logo is well balanced; the font is easy to read both in the small and large scales. Two main colors, blue and white, tone with each other both in full color and in black and white. Blue color associates with pacification and relaxation making the logo reliable and trustworthy. Blue gradient creates a volume effect; the logo reminds Ford’s signature on steel. The Ford logo is visually pleasing.
The last part of the successful logo is the rhetor. Grant-Davies defines rhetors as “those people, real or imagined, responsible for the discourse and its authorial voice” (Grant-Davies, 269). Put in other words, a rhetor is the person or the group of people responsible for creating the logo. The logo, as it was said above, is an advertisement of the brand, the very first impression the audience gets. According to Ramage, rhetorical aims are expressing, exploring, informing, analyzing, persuading, and reflecting (Ramage 9-10). . However, the very main goal of the rhetors is creation of simple, effective advertisement that answers purposes of the company. The major purpose of the Ford Motor Company is canvassing of new customers and maintenance of the company’s authority in the market of automobiles. The rhetors met the challenge designing the Ford logo, simple and stylish. It reminds about Ford’s great history of the first mass manufacturer of the automobiles in the world; it is well known and easily recognized.
After the analysis of the Ford logo it becomes clear how effective it is. It addresses the audience, is easily recognizable, and at the same time simple and stylish. All components of the logo are well balanced and create an impression of reliability and confidence. The logo is the rhetorical message, and its main purpose is to inform the audience about the company and its purposes while the audience should understand this message properly. Ford logo together with the motto “go further” says about the quality and rich history of the company. It has been one of the most successful logos throughout history. However, it had undergone several changes that bring up some questions. What were the reasons for further improvement of the logo? What was the reaction on those improvements from the audience? How did them affect the sales of the Ford automobiles? And how does the logos influence on the audience in whole? Answers on these questions require further investigations and deep studies of the Ford’s marketing history.
Works Cited
Ford Logo (2003-present). Wikipedia. Wikipedia, n.d. Web. Accessed 6 Mar 2016.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/Ford_Motor_Company_Logo.svg
“Ford Logo Meaning and History.” Carlogos.org. Car logos, 3 Mar 2016. Web. Accessed 6 Mar 2016.
Grant-Davies, K. Rhetorical Situations and Their Constituents. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., 1997. Print.
Ramage, John, John C. Bean, and June Johnson. The Allyn and Bacon Guide to Writing. New
Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc., 2014. Print.
