Automotive badge typographic trends are pretty fascinating, and I think reveal far more about a given time, place, and culture than most people realize. I have some quarter-finished starts of a big story about this that I’ve been extremely effective at not finishing, but that doesn’t mean I can’t point out some favorite examples as I think of them, right? So I’m going to do that, right now, as I sit in this airport, exhausted, waiting for my flight home, thinking about the typography used on the badging of 1972 to (I think) 1981 third-gen GMC C/K pickup trucks and GMC vans.
I like these badges and typography because, according to modern sensibilities around trucks, they seem almost an impossibility.
Modern truck typography is bold and blocky and has letterforms that feel like they’ve been punched out of granite with iron fists. We get a lot of stuff like this, from the 2024 GMC Sierra:
Wide, thick, serious letterforms, maybe with a high-techy tinge, but definitely no-nonsense kind of lettering. Back in the ’70s, GMC badged its Sierras like this:
All-nonsense back then, and I think it was fantastic.
The whole GM line of Sierra trucks used this sort of mildly zany serif typography:
…and it also leaked out to some Chevys, like the Suburban:
…and on vans, too, like the GMC VanDura: 
It was all over the place, and the more I look at these. badges, the more I’m delighted. The typography felt more like the titles to some ’70s sitcom than a work truck, with the jaunty wobbly baseline of the letters, all crammed in there together and climbing all over each other like they’re playfully wrestling or something.
The use of a serif font here is interesting too; normally, a somewhat staid serif font like this conveys seriousness and trust and official-dom, but the jaunty and seemingly haphazard way the letters are arranged and sized takes all this and flips it on its head, and makes the whole thing seem strangely fun and a little unhinged.
You look at these badges, and I think maybe you hear a bit of something like this:
Some letterforms get distorted a bit, like the elongated tail on the “a” or how the “r” pair crams together, and that just adds even more playfulness to the whole thing. The contrast of the serif letterforms with the bonkers arrangement and kerning makes for a more subversive feel; if these were blocky san-serifs, it would feel more childish, I think.
Can you imagine trying to pitch a look like this for a current-generation GMC Sierra today? Imagine being the badge designer and going into a meeting with the product planners for the Sierra and saying something like “For the bold new Sierra, the badging has one extremely important job to do: bring the kooky!”
They’d have you escorted out by security guards before the meeting was over.
Anyway, I miss this less-serious era of car badging, and I hope one day some automaker has the ‘nads to re-introduce the concept of zany into their badging again. I think the world needs it.
Remember they named the highest performance GTO after a Flip Wilson comedy sketch, the martini lunch game was strong.
It was Sammy Davis, Jr. who first popularized the “Here come the judge” catchphrase in multiple sketches on Laugh In in 1968. The GTO Judge debuted that same year. Flip Wilson also did a sketch featuring the catchphrase in 1970. They were both riffing off of a popular Pigmeat Markham song of the same name.
The More You Know….
Yeah. The song was covered by four different artists that same year and all were popular, especially in the Detroit and Chicago areas. Today, we’d call “Here Come the Judge” a meme.
Even the motorhome got in on this action – check the Eleganza badge right below the driver’s window.
https://community.fmca.com/uploads/monthly_2018_09/04-Harry_in_the_Parking_Lot.jpg.070d10699af51235807389704e265416.jpg
Oh wow, now I need to find that and put it on my 2015 Chevy work truck. Or my 2017 Hino Box truck.
That font on 1970s GM trucks and vans is the exact same one that has been in common use on the Gulf Coast for decades, as seen on the iconic Pensacola Beach sign:
https://images.fineartamerica.com/images/artworkimages/mediumlarge/1/pensacola-beach-sign-at-sunset-jim-sweida.jpg
I really miss that font.
I would love to see someone rebadge their Tesla with a Tesla badge done in this style. And imagine a Cybertruck with the model name also done!
So little is fun in the automotive world everything is monotone, greyscale, serious, sharp, blocky, huge, and angry, like everyone is prepping for the apocalypse. Make trucks fun and colorful again.
Kind of reminds me of the old Teem soda logo typography.
I always loved the ‘bouncy’ GM/Chevy truck font. By the time my dad bought his second Suburban in 1990, they had started using a more aligned, serious font (to go along with the very serious “fuel injection” badge that they stuck under the vehicle’s name).
I was also very fond of the “Built Flint Tough” stickers they were putting on the edge of the driver’s door at the time.
“Flint Tough” is mildly ironic as flint tends to be a choppy, crumbly type of stone. Or maybe they were suggesting something about Flint.
Looking back on it, I think it was trying to give the Flint plant and/or the workers a boost. I don’t remember if it had any union-related stuff on it.
Or maybe it was a play on “Built Ford Tough?” When did that slogan come into use?
“Ford Tough” began in 1979.
Interesting!
I just did a Google image search; apparently it was a union sticker: https://images.app.goo.gl/R9nstpbDHutVtMm86
Look for the union label …
The “Heavy Half” and “Casa Grande” were great names that used the fantastic typography too.
I was out on the Olympic Peninsula for work a couple months ago and parked next to an old Camper Special with this lettering on it. I’d noticed it before but in an age of aggressive ‘angry everything’ styling, it really stood out and I had to snap a quick photo. It even had the GVWR on it! Bring whimsy back
Photos:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DAYwDpUPkNN/?igsh=bnFhbzZxZGp0YzA4
These badges just illustrate approximately what the vehicles they’re attached to would look like in an accident. They started off as properly-spaced and kerned single line model names, then got crunched together.
1973+ for the Square bodies 🙂
I loved the typography on my parents early-80s Suburban, and I would love to see it make a comeback. However, since the recent auto designs have all leaned so hard into serious/angry designs, I feel like these 70s fonts would only work if they started making happy automotive designs again.
i dunno how i got this old without encountering the word “kerning”.
i had to look it up, and have asked my probation officer if that counts toward my required continuing education credits. thx JT.
“keming” 🙂
HA! and that’s ANOTHER new word I had to look up.
dammit, that CE credit has got to be approved.
r/keming is a subreddit dedicated to poor kerning. 🙂
Yeah, as a kid back then, these badges reminded me of the Brady Bunch title screen: i hated the show, so i hated these trucks (the Indian and Bangladeshi kids at my school had rechristened me “bobby brady’ for some imagined resemblance). The hatred was transitive: Laugh-In got the same, undeserved, disgust because of the title font. I think i was just an angry kid. (though the bee gees and the kool-aid man bringing the kool-aid smile both earned the hatred).
Thank you! I always thought it looked half assed. And hated it.
The Brady Bunch reference triggered my memory. If it wasn’t for Marsha, I never would have watched that pos show.
But my little sister loved that god damned show.
She was always rooting for Sam the Butcher to bone Alice the maid…
A lot of the 70’s sucked the big one in a major way.
Someone discovered https://chromeography.com/ I see.
Well, hopefully that link keeps Jason producing articles until the heat death of the universe.
“GRAAAM!” he screamed as he drove off into the night.
She stood there, unsure if it was his name or the name of his car. Oh well she would probably never see him again.
This ’83 takes the cake: https://chromeography.com/post/83094756514/1983-chevy-van-good-times-estate-by-ben-piff-of
What a great site! Thanks for posting it 🙂
I still mourn the loss of “Vandura” and “Club Wagon” as nameplates.
Apparently there is a decree that van names must be boring.
And I still don’t get why Ford dropped the Econoline name (E-Series…ugh), and felt the need to use the Transit name for vans sold in the US.
Honestly, I normally hate alphanumeric code vehicle names, but since I only think of the E- and F-series for Ford, I don’t hate it.
I kinda prefer E-whatever just because “Econoline” isn’t exactly a sexy name.
…although I will say I hate when a search for “E350” pulls up Mercedes stuff.
As for Transit…well, it’s about globalization, isn’t it? It’s available overseas so they want to keep name and brand recognition cross-border.
I do hate that trend that everyone partakes/partook in of naming the smaller van “[big van name] + [extra word]” which I think added too much ambiguity when talking about the full-size models, but that problem wasn’t unique to Ford. (See: Express City, Promaster City, NV200, etc.) Only one to get that right was ironically Mercedes with the “Metris” name.
Oooh…I’m going to sort of…disagree with you there.
It’s a work van, not exactly the sexiest vehicle out there. And Econoline had a lot of brand equity in the US. I’m not saying it didn’t make sense to sell the same van in Europe and US, just keep the Econoline name (and Club Wagon for the passenger versions) for the US. No different than Fusion/Mondeo.
Agree on the naming convention for small vans, that’s dumb.
I can agree to disagree on the name…I think even “Express” and “Sprinter” are catchier names, for example. But you made your point and I understand.
At the same time, I don’t think they could have “moved” the (E-series) name to the new vans. The new vans are “European style”, but more importantly, they kept the E-series alongside it, to the point that you can still get E-series chassis cabs. I think it’s fairly straightforward that the E-series gets you the juicy V8 everybody craves when you really have to haul or tow, but the Transit is a mildly more efficient V6 (or turbo V6) for lighter duty work.
The company I work for makes a lot of those emblems, they are in fact very fun in appearance and I always thought they were cool too, even though that isn’t my favorite GM truck the emblems were so cool!
Be careful what you wish for, JT! If you keep it up, someone is gonna get really zany and start slapping ducks on things, and that can’t possibly end well.
These trucks I STILL see in Qatar…they have quite the reputation among locals.
Um, it was the 70’s, the letters weren’t “wrestling”, it was an orgy.
I think Jason slipped out of the taillight bar during a round of near-fisticuffs over amber rear turn indicators, and he sneaked next door to the Badge and Crest to indulge his new obsession. We’re onto you Jason, but it’s OK. Just open up and be your authentic self.
I do wonder if and when happiness may come back to the world of cars. Trends are cyclical right? We’re not going to forever be stuck in tough guy needs angry-faced vehicle, are we?
I do hope so. I was remarking to a friend just this morning that everyone seems to be entirely wrapped up in the idea that life is serious business. We were talking about whisky at the time, but it can just as easilybe applied to the monochrome, monolithic world of current gen cars. Even the Fiat 500 looks serious these days.
Ironic that a lot of people get ultra-serious about libations.
“Gentlemen. You can’t fight in here. This is the war room!”
I hold out hope that one day we’ll get tired of crossovers and SUVs and automakers will give us other body styles again. Then if they offer those in actual colors besides black, white, grey, different grey, and maybe red if you’re lucky, we’ll really be back.
Its simple. Take that angry grill frown and turn it upside down.
When people look confused tell them its a Jeep thing.
Torch, you think someone suggesting kooky badged is enough to get someone escorted out of a meeting by security, and there you are, in a place COVERED in security (security theater, at least) writing about it!
You’re just ASKING for “special screening”.
IIRC, while GMC was doing this, the Japanese manufacturers were using cursive for some of their model names. The logos were pretty much the same as today, though.
Fun stuff! You are so right about the badges representing the era. More of this (badge analysis) please!