Henry Ford wasn't the first president of the company that bears his name. And the famous script inside the Blue Oval? Ford credits it to C.H. Wills, an early draftsman with a background in typography.
- Country
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United States - Active
- Since 1903
- Founded by
- Henry Ford
- Website
- Official website ↗
Twelve investors and a farmer’s son
Here’s a surprise for a company with a founder’s name on every grille: Henry Ford wasn’t its first president. When Ford Motor Company was organised in Detroit in June 1903, John S. Gray took that title. Henry Ford was vice president.
There were twelve stockholders in all, according to The Henry Ford museum’s chronology. Two of them were John and Horace Dodge, the brothers who would later build cars under their own name at Dodge. The company didn’t wait long. On 23 July 1903 it sold its first car, a two-cylinder Model A assembled at the Mack Avenue Plant in Detroit.
The name needs no detective work. It was Henry Ford’s, and it has never changed.
The draftsman who drew the script
The first Ford badge was busy. Ford describes it as an ornate 1903 emblem, used on the Model C, that included the company’s hometown of Detroit. SlashGear calls its border Art Nouveau in style, and Jalopnik describes a circular crest wrapped in vines.
The lettering that outlived it came from inside the company. Ford credits C.H. Wills, an early employee, engineer and draftsman with a background in typography, with designing the original script. A stylised version known as the script with wings appeared on all Ford cars in 1906, and the Ford script was registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 1909. It stayed on Ford models from the 1904 Model C to the very last Model T in 1927.
Ever heard that the script is Henry Ford’s own signature? It’s a popular belief, but it isn’t how Ford tells the story. The company credits Wills, and SlashGear, after comparing the script with signature samples in The Henry Ford’s digital collection, says those samples likely disprove the idea.
How the oval won
According to Ford, the Ford name first went inside an oval in 1907. Both Jalopnik and SlashGear link that first oval to Ford’s British operation.
The oval had a rival. From 1909 to 1912 Ford’s magazine, the Ford Times, and its advertisements used a winged triangle with the words The Universal Car. This is the one Ford logo with an official meaning: the pyramid base signified strength and stability, and the wings signified speed and lightness. It didn’t last.
The breakthrough came with the second Model A. Henry Ford and his son Edsel introduced it on 2 December 1927, and it carried the script in oval form, set on a deep blue background on the radiator. Ford’s own account dates that moment to 1928. Either way, this is the car that took the oval onto the radiator.
The road from there wasn’t straight. Ford went back to the plain script in 1938. From the 1950s to the late 1960s its cars wore a red, white and blue coat of arms that Ford stylists based on an 18th century English coat of arms, and through the 1970s many wore the name in block letters. Meanwhile, in 1961, the oval began to identify the company itself, not only its products. It returned as an exterior badge on Ford vehicles in 1982, and a couple of years later the Taurus showed off a floating oval, suspended in a small air scoop on the front of the car.
Ford has never published a symbolic reading of the oval shape. What it has said is how much the badge matters. In 2006 the Blue Oval was pledged as collateral in a loan package. In 2012 Executive Chair Bill Ford put it simply: “When we pledged the Ford Blue Oval as part of the loan package, we were not just pledging an asset.”
A centennial shade of blue
Around the turn of the millennium, Ford briefly let the oval step aside as its corporate mark. The two giant blue ovals on its Dearborn headquarters came down and a Ford Motor Company script went up, a change Ford explained by its growth through brands such as Jaguar, Volvo, Mazda and Land Rover. The badges on the cars stayed the same.
For its centennial in 2003, Ford brought the oval back as the company’s emblem and returned it to the headquarters facade. The new dimensional Blue Oval was nearly identical to the old one, with crisper lines and stronger shadowing around the word Ford. Jalopnik describes its colour as a brighter centennial blue. In 2019 Ford moved to a flat blue inside the oval, although the dimensional version is still used in some places.
From Mack Avenue to Le Mans
The badge changed slowly. The cars underneath it changed the world rather faster.
Landmark Fords, decade by decade
- 1903: Model A. The first car Ford Motor Company sold, a two-cylinder model built at the Mack Avenue Plant in Detroit.
- 1908: Model T. First made available to the public on 1 October 1908. It wore the Ford script until production ended in May 1927.
- 1927: Model A. Production began on 1 November 1927, and it carried the Ford script inside an oval on a deep blue radiator background.
- 1932: Ford V8. The first Ford car with a V8 en-bloc engine was built on 9 March 1932.
- 1966: GT40 Mk II. Took the top three places at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, a win Henry Ford II had been chasing.
- 1967: GT40 Mk IV. Dan Gurney and AJ Foyt won Le Mans four laps ahead of Ferrari.
One Ford got so famous it earned its own badge and its own page: the Ford Mustang and its galloping horse. For the wider story of how emblems like the Blue Oval are drawn, see how car logos are designed, or browse more classic car logos.
Frequently asked questions
Who designed the Ford logo?
Ford credits C.H. Wills, an early employee, engineer and draftsman with a background in typography, with designing the original Ford script that still sits inside the oval.
Is the Ford script Henry Ford’s signature?
Not according to Ford, which credits the lettering to C.H. Wills. The signature idea is a popular belief, and SlashGear found that signature samples in The Henry Ford’s collection likely disprove it.
When did Ford first use the Blue Oval on a car?
On the Model A introduced in December 1927, which carried the script in an oval on a deep blue radiator background. Ford’s own history dates this to 1928. The Ford name had first appeared inside an oval in 1907.
What changed in the 2003 Centennial Blue Oval?
It was a modernised, dimensional version made for Ford’s 100th year, nearly identical to the previous oval but with crisper lines and stronger shadowing around the word Ford. Since 2019 Ford has also used a flat blue version.
Mack Avenue to the Blue Oval: the Dearborn docket
- Founded
- 1903
- Founder
- Henry Ford
- Country
- United States
- Headquarters
- Dearborn, Michigan, USA
- Current emblem
- The Ford script inside a blue oval; a dimensional Centennial Blue Oval from 2003, with a flat blue version in use since 2019
- Known for
- The Model T, the Mustang and the Blue Oval
- Website
- Official website ↗
