News Wire: Revised Tri-Shield Insignia Introduces New Face of Buick

New Buick Logo. © General Motors.
New Buick Logo. © General Motors.

(This article originally appeared on Buick.com)

Automotive logo builds on more than 55 years of history and a family legacy

LOS ANGELES – Buick’s tri-shield insignia, one of the most recognizable in the global auto industry, is receiving a makeover that advances the brand’s identity while retaining Buick’s instantly identifiable symbol.

Featuring wing-shaped elements and the return of three-color shields – red, silver and blue – the new insignia debuts on the 2017 LaCrosse. It is part of an all-new grille design inspired by the award-winning Avenir concept, which sets the new, chrome insignia against darkened waterfall grille bars.

All Buick models will adopt the new insignia by 2018.

“The new tri-shield insignia represents the next chapter in Buick’s storied design history and introduces a new face for the brand,” said Duncan Aldred, vice president of Global Buick. “It’s a progressive, contemporary design reflective of Buick’s newest vehicles and cognitive of the brand’s heritage.”

Introduced more than 55 years ago, the tri-shield design has its roots in company founder David Dunbar Buick’s ancestral heraldry. It has evolved over the decades, but honors the proportions and historical origins of the original.

When Buick was formed in 1903, the company didn’t incorporate a shield logo for about the first 35 years. Instead, the earliest models featured a bold Buick script on the grille. Later, a number of stylized emblems featuring Buick on the prominent radiator grille shrouds that characterized practically all motorcars of the time.

As legend has it, a designer researching the Buick family history at the Detroit Public Library in the 1930s found a description of the ancestral coat of arms in an approximately 80-year-old book of heraldry. Buick’s familial roots were in Scotland and while the book didn’t have an illustration of the crest, it described a red shield with a contrasting, checkered line bisecting it from the upper-left to the lower-right corners. The description also included a stag’s head in the upper right of the shield and a gold cross in the lower left.

The crest’s description was interpreted for a new, single-shield insignia that debuted on 1937 Buick models. It evolved over the next couple of decades, growing wider and, at times, taking on additional flourishes, but the shield crest adorned and identified Buick models through 1959 – although its prominence admittedly diminished during the 1950s.

Read the entire article on Buick.com.