This’ll (hopefully) be the first of several posts to look at car logos. I thought I’d do a series of little examinations of the marks you see on cars every day, so I’m avoiding the super-exotics and stuff you can only buy in other countries.

I thought I’d start on a negative — one of my least favorite logos — Chevrolet.

A little background: Chevrolet is a sub-brand of GM (most car companies have merged, split and had drunken relations with other car companies at some point; we’ll look at GM in another post).

Simply put, the Chevrolet logo is ugly. The shape is fine (although the asymmetry bugs me a little and the integrated bevel is anything but subtle), and the logotype is fine. What kills me is the color. For some reason, Chevrolet uses gold as its standard color, which lends a garish, costume-jewelry feel to the front and back of every car it adorns.

Chevrolet designs some interesting looking cars too — I’ve seen plenty of dramatic, swooping forms and rich, beautiful colors. And then I get to the hateful gold bits on each end and I cringe. Most auto companies offer the “gold trim package” on cars as an option, and I usually see folks like my insecure aunt spring for it in hopes of appearing more on par with her well-to-do neighbors. But to make that the standard?

Chevrolet has done some decent sub-brands: witness the lovely Impala:

… the über-manly Corvette (which is actually its own marque in some other countries):

… and some ugly, like the ill-fated Geo:

If I were king of Chevrolet, I’d look at the current auto industry clusterfuck as an opportunity to play a little fast and loose with identity, and explore some color variations (including plain ol’ silver), and maybe evolve the form a little.

Any thoughts?