Bedford Logo: Meaning and Every Version Since 1931

The Bedford logo is the name BEDFORD in red italic capitals with a small blue General Motors square at its right edge. Bedford was a British commercial vehicle brand, a lorry and van maker built by Vauxhall Motors in Luton and owned by General Motors.

Bedford Logo

The Bedford emblem in its late form is a wordmark. BEDFORD is written in bold, slanted red capitals, and a blue square with the white letters GM sits beside it to show the General Motors ownership. The Bedford badge on the vehicles themselves was often a metal griffin instead, and block BEDFORD lettering was also fitted across the grille of trucks and vans. This Bedford truck logo works as a simple red and blue mark. The page offers the Bedford logo PNG with a transparent background.

What the Bedford logo means

The Bedford logo meaning goes back to Vauxhall: the griffin on the earlier Bedford symbol comes from Vauxhall’s crest. It is derived from the heraldic crest of Falkes de Breauté, who was granted the Manor of Luton by King John. Through marriage he acquired property in London known as Fulk’s Hall, which became the district of Vauxhall, the original home of Vauxhall Motors. The griffin returned to Luton in 1903 when Vauxhall moved there.

Bedford Logo History

In the Bedford logo evolution, a griffin crest gives way to a plain wordmark. The old Bedford logo, an early form from around the brand’s start in 1931, is a black and white roundel. A griffin stands on a bar above the name BEDFORD, with “Made in England” below it. Unlike the Vauxhall version, the griffin holds no flag.

Later versions of the badge show the griffin holding a flag with the letter B, for Bedford, in place of the V used by Vauxhall. It is a square, dark badge with the griffin in silver, seen on trucks such as the 1964 Bedford TK.

The new Bedford logo is the red wordmark with the GM square. It carries the name without the griffin and is the form shown on the brand’s late vehicles.

Bedford History

Until 1925 General Motors assembled trucks in Britain from parts made at its Canadian works, and sold them as “British Chevrolet”. In November 1925 GM bought Vauxhall Motors, and production moved to Luton, Vauxhall’s headquarters, where it began in 1929. Bedford Vehicles was established in April 1931 to build commercial vehicles.

The company became a leading international lorry brand, with substantial export sales of light, medium and heavy lorries throughout the world. In 1987 GM divested the core heavy truck business as AWD Trucks. The Bedford name stayed on light commercial vehicles and car-derived vans based on Vauxhall, Opel, Isuzu and Suzuki designs, and the brand was retired in May 1990. The van plant at Luton closed in March 2025.