Porsche Logo and Crest: Meaning and History

Porsche logo meaning: what each element stands for

The Porsche logo meaning is local heraldry. The Porsche emblem puts the black horse of Stuttgart’s city arms inside the antlers and red-and-black stripes of the old Württemberg state arms, with the PORSCHE name on top. Every part of the Porsche symbol points to the company’s home region.

Strictly speaking, Porsche calls this emblem the crest, and inside the company only the PORSCHE lettering counts as “the logo.” So the logo of Porsche works on two levels: a wordmark that names the maker and a crest that says where it comes from. Most people use “logo” for both, and so does this page.

Element	Where it comes from	What it stands for	Detail
Black rearing horse	Stuttgart city arms	The city’s name, which goes back to a stud farm; Porsche adds power, agility and elegance	Sits on a small gold shield in the middle
STUTTGART	Porsche’s home city	Where the company was founded and is still based	Placed above the horse; printed in black since 2023
Antlers	Arms of the Free People’s State of Württemberg (1922)	The traditional charge of those arms	6 antlers, 3 in each gold quarter (upper left and lower right)
Red and black stripes	The same state arms	The region’s colors	Upper-right and lower-left quarters
Gold field	Both sets of arms	The background of the horse shield and the antler quarters	Brushed-metal finish since 2023
PORSCHE	The company and family name	The maker	Arched across the top: embossed in 1952, gold from 1954, black from 1994

Some logo sites attach extra meanings, such as antlers for natural resources or stripes for the unity of engineering and technology. No Porsche or heraldic source supports them.

Porsche logo colors: gold, red and black

The crest uses three colors, each taken from the arms it borrows. The shades have shifted over the decades, mostly in the red and in the lettering:

• Gold: the field of the horse shield and of the two antler quarters. The 2023 crest uses a more subtle gold with a brushed-metal look.
• Red: with black, the colors of the state arms. It was orange-toned on the first crests and on those fitted until the 1974 model year, then became a translucent red. In 2023 the red fields gained a three-dimensional honeycomb texture.
• Black: the horse, the antlers and the stripes, plus the PORSCHE lettering since 1994 and the city name since 2023.

Claims of blue lettering or a “violet” red on 1970s crests don’t match the original parts.

What animal is on the Porsche logo?

The Porsche logo animal is a black rearing horse, the “Stuttgarter Rössle” from the city’s coat of arms. It stands on its hind legs on a small gold shield in the middle of the crest, directly under the name of the city.

The horse is there because of that name. Stuttgart grew out of “Stuotgarten,” a ducal stud farm founded around 950, and the city has shown a horse on its seal since the Middle Ages. Porsche adds its own reading: the Porsche horse stands for the power, agility and elegance of its cars.

Is it a horse or a deer? It is a horse. The six black antlers in the outer quarters are deer antlers, but no deer appears on the crest. Pictures of a “1922 logo with two deer” actually show the Württemberg state arms of 1922, whose shield is held by two golden stags. Porsche had no crest before 1952.

Why the Porsche logo says Stuttgart: the heraldry behind the crest

1. Since the Middle Ages
2. 1922–1952
3. 1948–1952
4. 1952–1954
5. 1954–1963
6. 1973–1994
7. 1994–2008
8. 2008–2023
9. 2023–Present
10. 2023–Present

The word Stuttgart on the Porsche logo names the company’s home city. Porsche was founded there in 1931 and still has its headquarters in the Zuffenhausen district, and the crest sets the city’s own arms as a small shield inside the larger arms of Württemberg.

Source, not a Porsche logo: the city arms, in their official form since 1938.

In heraldry that central shield is called an inescutcheon. The outer shield, with its antler and striped quarters, is the coat of arms the Free People’s State of Württemberg adopted in 1922, when the city was its capital. After the war, Württemberg-Hohenzollern kept using those arms unchanged. Some sites trace the quarters to the old kingdom, but the royal arms were a different design.

Source, not a Porsche logo: the 1922 state arms, whose stags and crown the crest leaves out.

In 1952, the year the crest first went on a car, the three postwar states of the southwest merged into Baden-Württemberg. So the Porsche crest preserves arms no longer in official use. Nor is it a true coat of arms: real arms never spell out the bearer’s name or home town, and this one shows both.

Porsche is a German brand, although the first 356s were built in Gmünd, Austria, before production moved to Zuffenhausen in 1950.

Who designed the Porsche logo?

Porsche credits Franz Xaver Reimspieß (1900–1979), an Austrian engineer at the company, with drawing the crest in early 1952. The push came from Max Hoffman, Porsche’s importer in New York, and Reimspieß presented the draft with head of advertising Herrmann Lapper.

The crest came 21 years after the founding, as Porsche began selling the 356 in the US:

• March 1951: Ottomar Domnick, a doctor, art collector and early Porsche customer, runs a logo competition at German art academies with a 1,000 Deutsche Mark prize. No entry is accepted.
• End of 1951: on Ferry Porsche’s US visit, Hoffman argues the cars need a quality emblem that shows where they come from.
• December 27, 1951: Ferry notes an idea to decorate the steering-wheel rim with the Porsche name and the city arms.
• Early 1952: Reimspieß sketches a crest built from the company’s roots, and he and Lapper present the draft.

A popular American version has Ferry sketching the Porsche badge on a napkin over dinner with Hoffman. Ferry’s 1993 memoir, according to the French magazine L’Argus, credited body designer Erwin Komenda. Porsche’s archive names Reimspieß, and Porsche Classic concedes the crest has attracted some made-up stories.

Porsche logo history: every version since 1952

Porsche logos through the years follow a short list: first the lettering, then one crest refined six times. The Porsche logo history has official updates in 1954, 1963, 1973, 1994 and 2008, and the modernized 2023 crest is the seventh version. The outline and elements never changed: the Porsche logo evolution happened in the details and finish.

Version	In use	What changed	Cars that wore it
PORSCHE lettering	Late 1940s to today	The name alone, no crest	First 356s from Gmünd; Zuffenhausen-built 356s from 1950
Original crest	1952–1954	First crest; lettering embossed, not colored; red leans orange	356 (steering wheel)
1954 update	1954–1963	Orange-red enamel, broad gold lettering, raised STUTTGART	356 (Porsche Classic crest for 1954–65)
1963 update	1963–1973	Light refinements to details and proportions	Early 911 (Porsche Classic crest for 1965–74 911 F/G)
1973 update	1973–1994	Translucent red replaces orange-red; lettering stays gold	911 G, 924, 928, 944, 959, 964, 968 (1974–95 crest)
1994 update	1994–2008	Slim black lettering, recessed STUTTGART, more elegant horse	993, 986, 996 (1994–2005 crest)
2008 update	2008–2023	Last refinement before the redesign; knurled gold background	Porsches built until late 2023
Modernized crest	2023–today	Brushed metal, honeycomb red fields, refreshed horse, black STUTTGART	New Porsches from late 2023

The car column follows the crest ranges Porsche Classic sells today. Those are model-year bands for fitting parts, so they don’t line up exactly with the design years: the 1973 design went on cars from the 1974 model year.

1948–1952: the PORSCHE lettering comes first

The first logo Porsche put on its cars was lettering, not the crest. The PORSCHE name appeared from the late 1940s, starting with the 356 of 1948, and on the hoods of Zuffenhausen-built 356s from 1950. The “1922,” “1938” and “1948” versions shown on some sites were never Porsche’s: they are the state arms, the city arms and an invented shield.

1952–1954: the original Porsche crest

Reimspieß’s draft became the first Porsche crest and went on the steering wheel of the 356 at the end of 1952. On this version the PORSCHE lettering was only embossed into the metal, not colored in, and the red fields leaned toward orange. The layout was already the one Porsche uses today.

1954–1963: the first update, and the crest reaches the hood

The first update came in 1954, and that November the crest moved into the hood handle of the 356 Speedster. This is the classic enamel crest: orange-red fields, wide PORSCHE letters left in the base gold, the city name raised on a recessed band, and a muscular horse with a well-marked shoulder and a full tail.

1963–1973: the crest of the first 911

The 1963 update arrived just before the 911, which launched in 1964 after being renamed from 901. Porsche describes its revisions only as light refinements and proportional adjustments. One claim to ignore: the crest never became “triangular.” The Porsche badge on 911s of this era keeps the orange-red enamel and gold lettering.

1973–1994: translucent red

The 1973 update replaced the orange-red enamel with a translucent red, while the lettering stayed gold and the city name stayed raised. Porsche Classic’s version of this crest fits the 1974 to 1995 model years: the 911 G-series, 924, 928, 944, 959, 964 and 968.

1994–2008: black lettering

In 1994 the PORSCHE lettering turned black for the first time, in slimmer letters. The city name was now recessed rather than raised, the red stayed translucent, and the horse took a more elegant pose. This is the Porsche symbol of the 993, 986 and 996 generations, sold by Porsche Classic for the 1994–2005 model years.

2008–2023: the last Porsche car logo before the redesign

The 2008 update was the last one before the current crest, and we found no Porsche source that details what it changed. Its gold fields kept a knurled texture, which the 2023 redesign smoothed out. Some logo sites add a separate 2014 version, but Porsche’s list of updates doesn’t include one.

2023–present: the new Porsche logo

The current Porsche crest took Style Porsche, led by Michael Mauer, three years to develop, working with color and trim specialist Joachim Paetzel and Porsche marketing. Porsche announced it on June 1, 2023, for “75 years of Porsche sports cars,” an anniversary of the 1948 356 rather than of the company. Cars began wearing it from the end of 2023.

The changes are subtle: brushed precious metal, a three-dimensional honeycomb in the red fields, a refreshed horse, a more subtle gold and the city name in black. Mauer called it a “cleaner, more state-of-the-art execution.” Claims of a higher-leaping horse or reshaped antlers don’t come from Porsche.

Where the Porsche logo appears on the car

The Porsche car symbol is the same crest on every model, but its place on the car has grown over time. It started on the steering wheel at the end of 1952, reached the hood handle in 1954 and the hubcaps in 1959, and by Porsche’s own dating sat on the hood itself from about 1965.

• End of 1952: the steering wheel of the 356, as Ferry Porsche had planned in his December 1951 note.
• November 1954: built into the hood handle of the 356 Speedster.
• 1959: the hubcaps.
• About 1965: a standalone badge on the front hood, in the early 911 era. This is a different placement from the 1954 hood handle, which is why sources seem to disagree on the date.
• 911 GT3: a painted Porsche car logo instead of the enamel crest, to save weight.
• End of 2023: the modernized crest on new cars.

The PORSCHE wordmark and font

The PORSCHE wordmark is the part Porsche itself calls the logo: the name in wide, extended capital letters without serifs. It was on the cars before the crest existed, and since the 2023 brand update it has become the lead element, with the crest used more selectively.

Porsche’s marketing chief Robert Ader said in 2023 that the lettering had been carefully modernized so it stays legible and scales well. On the crest, the same name went from embossed (1952) to gold (1954) to black (1994). We found no Porsche source that names the typeface, so treat any “official Porsche font” download with caution.

Porsche vs Ferrari logo: is it the same horse?

No. The Porsche and Ferrari logos both show a black rearing horse on a yellow or gold field, but the two horses have separate origins. Porsche’s comes from the Stuttgart city arms, and Ferrari’s comes from the emblem that Italian World War I ace Francesco Baracca carried on his aircraft.

In the usual account, Countess Paolina Baracca suggested the horse to Enzo Ferrari after a race in 1923, the first yellow-shield badge appeared in 1932, and the yellow is Modena’s color. On a car badge, the Ferrari horse came 20 years before Porsche’s, but the Stuttgart horse is centuries older than both.

A popular story links the Porsche and Ferrari logo horses: it says Baracca copied his from a downed German pilot from Stuttgart, which would make them relatives. No documentary evidence supports it.

The Porsche horse vs the Ferrari horse:

	Porsche	Ferrari
Origin of the horse	Stuttgart city arms	Francesco Baracca’s WWI emblem
First on a badge	1952	1932
Horse	Black, rearing, on a small inner shield	Black, rearing
Yellow or gold field	Gold of the city and state arms	Yellow, said to be Modena’s color
Other elements	City name, PORSCHE, six antlers, red-and-black stripes	None of these (see the Ferrari logo)
Country	Germany	Italy

Other marques use the animal too: see car brands with horses.

Porsche logo PNG, transparent and black-and-white versions

The Download button above gives you a Porsche logo PNG: the Porsche logo on a transparent background. Unlike a JPG, a PNG leaves everything around the Porsche logo transparent, so a Porsche PNG sits on any color without a white box around the crest. That suits slides, mockups and fan projects.

Most logo files come in three versions:

• Full-color crest: gold, red and black, the version on the cars.
• The Porsche logo in black and white: a one-color crest for engraving, embossing, stamps and single-color print.
• Lettering only: the PORSCHE wordmark, which Porsche treats as its logo proper.

For more emblems built on a shield, browse car brands with shields.