Photo: LeaseFetcher
Part of the Jaguar Land Rover group, the present-day Jaguar was born into the world in 1922 as the Swallow Sidecar Company. Its cars are currently identified by two logos, the leaping jaguar at the rear and the roaring jaguar up front, but there was a time when another badge might have spelled trouble for the brand.
Initially created by two motorcycle lovers, William Lyons and William Walmsley, the company was transformed into S.S. Cars Limited about a decade later. That went fine for a while, and the company’s logo, with the SS lettering trapped inside the stylized body of an eagle with tails and wings but no head, didn’t offend anyone. Then Nazi Germany came along, and SS became a symbol for something else entirely.
After the Second World War ended, in 1945, the company’s higher-ups met and decided a change of name was in order. Jaguar was chosen because no one else used it before, for perpetrating neither good nor evil things.
As said, two symbols are now representing the cars in the eyes of the world. The first was a leaping jaguar that was supposed to represent things like elegance and performance, and was initially fitted on the hoods, as if leaping away from it.
Because safety regulations now forbid carmakers from fitting sharp pointy things on the body of their cars, the roaring jaguar came into the spotlight, and got front and center on the grille of the vehicles, while the leaping version was moved to the back, and stuck to the trunk, facing left.
As most of you already know, the roaring jaguar is a mean-looking thing, with the face of the animal captured in one of its most menacing stances inside of a circle.
Because nobody asked, but trying to put a smile on our faces by imagining how logos would have grown had they followed the same stages as living beings, the guys over at LeaseFetcher decided to turn the mean British felid into a cutesy baby.
Cutesy, but not quite working for what the British carmaker had in mind.
After the Second World War ended, in 1945, the company’s higher-ups met and decided a change of name was in order. Jaguar was chosen because no one else used it before, for perpetrating neither good nor evil things.
As said, two symbols are now representing the cars in the eyes of the world. The first was a leaping jaguar that was supposed to represent things like elegance and performance, and was initially fitted on the hoods, as if leaping away from it.
Because safety regulations now forbid carmakers from fitting sharp pointy things on the body of their cars, the roaring jaguar came into the spotlight, and got front and center on the grille of the vehicles, while the leaping version was moved to the back, and stuck to the trunk, facing left.
As most of you already know, the roaring jaguar is a mean-looking thing, with the face of the animal captured in one of its most menacing stances inside of a circle.
Because nobody asked, but trying to put a smile on our faces by imagining how logos would have grown had they followed the same stages as living beings, the guys over at LeaseFetcher decided to turn the mean British felid into a cutesy baby.
Cutesy, but not quite working for what the British carmaker had in mind.
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