TED MADISON’S ARTICLE on the Porsche crest got me thinking about the PCA UCR crest, its own history and significance. With assistance from John Adam, club historian and past-president, I have attempted to chronicle the history of our club badge.
The club was founded in July 1976. The 1976 logo was a maple-leaf line drawing. In 1980, the Porsche crest was added and in 1981 the PCA crest was incorporated. In 1982, both the maple leaf and Porsche crest were dropped.
In 1984 UCR held a design contest for a new club crest. Half a dozen members submitted designs and the judges were nominated by the Porsche division of Volkswagen Canada. The winning design was submitted by Angie and Mark Herring and include the Porsche crest, the Porsche horses and Ontario’s trillium. That crest debuted in April 1986.
In February 1995, a new logo was designed by Karl Thompson, creative director, and adopted by UCR. The February 1995 Provinz issue provided the following design explanation: “The clean, elliptical shape reflects the simplicity of the original Porsche — the 356 — and its subsequent iterations, right up to today’s 993 (look closely and you’ll see numerous oval shapes in all these cars). Porsche promotional material from the 1950s made use of circular and elliptical motifs frequently, as was discovered while perusing some reference material at Autophile Books (on Bayview). Trackies will also notice a tip of the hat to an integral part of UCR activities, the Driver Education program. The logotype “UCR” mirrors that of Provinz, giving the logo and magazine a cohesive visual style.”
Our current badge first appeared in October 2002. No credit given. It incorporates the shape of the Porsche badge, a maple leaf and both “Porsche Club of America” and “Upper Canada Region.” Yellow, red and black appear to come from the Porsche badge.
It has served the club well for 16 years but maybe it is time for a refresh. Following discussion, the UCR board of directors decided to launch a new logo contest. The contest announcement appears in the magazine and guidelines to follow are on the club website.
A winner will be chosen although it may or may not replace the current crest, to be based on the judges’ final decision. </>
