Locomobile Logo: Meaning, History and Evolution

The Locomobile logo is the name written in a heavy, slanted black script with a large looped capital L. Locomobile was an American car maker founded in 1899 that built steam cars first and then luxury petrol cars in Bridgeport, Connecticut, until 1929.

Locomobile Logo

The Locomobile wordmark runs as one flowing line. The letters are joined, the capital L opens with a big loop, and the strokes swell and thin like brush lettering. It is drawn in a single colour, black, on a plain white background, and there is no border or picture beside it. This Locomobile symbol works as the brand’s whole emblem: the name itself is the mark.

On the cars the same lettering appears as a metal Locomobile badge fixed to the front of the radiator grille. This Locomobile car logo has a companion: a second Locomobile emblem, a rounded frame holding an L monogram wrapped in leaves, also turns up as a brand mark. Locomobile built only luxury cars from 1903, and this page offers the Locomobile logo PNG with a transparent background.

What the Locomobile logo means

Locomobile logo meaning is simple: it is the brand name, and the name was coined from “locomotive” and “automobile”.

Locomobile Logo History

Locomobile logo history starts with the script wordmark, shown here in its 1905 form for the Locomobile Company of America of Bridgeport, Connecticut. This is the old Locomobile logo, and the lettering matches the one used as the main logo on this page.

The second version is the leaf-framed L monogram. It is a different design from the script: a squarish rounded frame with the capital L at its centre and leafy stems on both sides.

Locomobile History

The Locomobile Company of America was founded in 1899. John B. Walker, editor and publisher of Cosmopolitan, bought the plans for a steam-powered vehicle from Francis and Freelan Stanley. He soon sold half of his interest to the paving contractor Amzi L. Barber, who moved the business to Bridgeport, Connecticut, in 1900 after a first two years in Watertown, Massachusetts. The Stanley twins were general managers, and they founded the Stanley Motor Carriage Company in 1902, which became Locomobile’s sharpest rival.

The steam Locomobiles were small, affordable runabouts, and more than 4,000 were built between 1899 and 1902. During the Boer War a Locomobile became the first automobile used in war, as a generator and searchlight tractor. In 1902 the firm began experimenting with petrol engines, starting with a four-cylinder model designed by Andrew L. Riker, and in 1903 it dropped steam and switched entirely to luxury petrol cars.

Durant Motors took over Locomobile in 1922, and the company went out of business in 1929. Every car from the original company was sold under the Locomobile name.