Chevrolet really accepted the 1980’s, with this Bow-Tie graphic. This first appeared in conjunction with 1985’s “Heartbeat of America” ad campaign.

In case you didn’t know, it is a well-known story of how the Chevrolet Bow-Tie become the long-standing logo for the American car company. In case you didn’t know, it is long accepted that the design was actually inspired by hotel wallpaper. But, that being said, there have also been a few conflicting recounts to that belief.

William C. Durant introduced the first Chevrolet Bow-Tie Badge in 1913. It was applied to a trio of new 1914 Chevrolet models. Before that, a simple script was used.

According to The Chevrolet Story of 1961, an official company publication issued in celebration of Chevrolet’s 50th anniversary: “It originated in Durant’s imagination when, as a world traveler in 1908, he saw the pattern marching off into infinity as a design on wallpaper in a French hotel. He tore off a piece of the wallpaper and kept it to show friends, with the thought that it would make a good nameplate for a car.”

Another widely accepted recount is brought upon in 1929, when William C. Durant’s daughter, Margery, published a book entitled, My Father. In the book, she tells about how her dad used to draw nameplate designs on pieces of paper at the dinner table: “I think it was between the soup and the fried chicken one night that he sketched out the design that is used on the Chevrolet car to this day.”

In a 1986 issue of Chevrolet Pro Management Magazine, an article based on a 13-year-old interview with Catherine, Durant’s widow, recalls how she and her husband were on vacation in1912, visiting Hot Springs, Virginia. While he was reading a newspaper in their hotel room, Mr. Durant spotted a design that caught his attention, “I think this would be a very good emblem for the Chevrolet.”

Regardless of its actual origins, the Bow-Tie emblem has come to emerge as the iconic Chevrolet logo, first appearing in the October 2, 1913 edition of The Washington Post. Over the next 100 or so years, there have been many variations regarding the coloring and design of the Chevrolet Bow-Tie, but essentially, the shape has remained basically unchanged.

Red-outline Chevrolet Motorsports Bow-Tie logo, as seen during 2000-2001.

Before the Bow-Tie, the Chevrolet division of General Motors was branded with a simple script logo of the words “Chevrolet”, that were written in stylized cursive. Soon, a baby-blue Bow-Tie logo surrounded the “Chevrolet” that would be written in all caps in 1913.

Over the next several decades, Chevrolet’s Bow-Tie has continually evolved, with several iterations. Recently, the design direction favors presenting just the Bow-Tie by itself. In 2004, Chevrolet introduced the gold Bow-Tie, and in 2013, that gold Bow-Ties received a small upgrade with a larger, beveled “chrome” surround that still serves the brand.