A vehicle branding element, whether it be a company logo, badge, or slogan, is essential for marketing. The name “Ram” was intended to pay homage to the Ram air hood, which had first become popular around 1933. Dodge-brand trucks quickly became popular throughout the twentieth century, and in the 1980s, the company founded Dodge Ram, or just Ram, a name many will associate with premium pickup trucks.
Whether you’re looking up the story behind major brand logos to come up with your own or are just curious, check out this guide by Jeff Belzer’s Dodge Ram in Lakeville, Minnesota. You’ll find a history of the Ram logo, including the brand’s formation.
Ram: Powerful and Traditional
Ram makes vehicles you can trust to charge ahead and get the job done. However, what you might not know is that the concept goes back to the earliest days of the founding of Dodge as a brand. True to the name, the Ram logo was inspired by a charging ram, or a bighorn male sheep, which is often seen as imposing, unstoppable, or dominant. For instance, Ares, the Greek god of war, was also frequently represented with a symbol of a ram.
Ram Logo History and Meaning
Ram’s modern logo is that of a ram sheep with large, curved horns held in a metal band shaped like a shield emblem, but who came up with it? Avard Tennyson Fairbanks, a renowned American sculptor, created what is called the “harbinger of Ram” logo in 1920. He was asked to participate in creating a pickup truck hood ornament. So important was the author’s creative process in designing the logo that the exact specifications for its conception were never disclosed. However, we do know that the ornament’s initial development stage took several days.
It’s known that Fairbanks used a William Hornaday animal book as a guide to carve sculptures of a variety of animals, including a tiger and a jaguar. He didn’t have a ram sculpture in mind when he first started. However, while Fairbanks worked on the ornament, he came up with fresh ideas that presented the animal as a perfect fit.
The Dodge engineers eventually approved of the choice of the ram as the “King of the Trail.” However, like many long-lived things, it wasn’t accepted immediately. Walter Chrysler was allegedly unsure about it. In reply, the sculptor asked what word came to mind when coming across a wild ram in the mountains. “Dodge!” he exclaimed. And so, Chrysler, even in becoming Fiat-Chrysler and eventually owning Dodge, has kept the Ram name and logo and made only minimal changes to it.
Evolution of the Ram Logo
Powerfully built Ram trucks create the impression of a large beast coming through. Take an adventure through time as we summarize the main events in automotive history related to the Ram logo, including its design and future iterations.
1900 to 1969
Founded in 1900 by the two Dodge brothers, the company produced its first vehicle in 1914. The company used the Dodge symbol, which looks similar to the Star of David, centered in a monochrome circle logo with a black-and-white map background. The brothers weren’t Jewish, and the star represented the Greek letter delta, one delta for each brother. The “DB” inscription is white, accented in black, and positioned in the heart of the emblem. Around the dark circular frame, the uppercase sans-serif primary typography was put in white.
The logo would be used on Dodge vehicles until 1969, including its trucks. In the 1930s, Dodge vehicles often featured charging bighorn rams as hood decorations. However, the bighorn sheep’s head inside a shield-shaped emblem didn’t appear as a logo until Dodge Ram was founded in 1981.
1969 to 1993
In 1969, a new Dodge Truck logo appeared that broke the original into three distinct segments. Until now, different Dodge trucks were sold under the regular brand logo, but this one included a pentagon with a star in the center at the upper portion of the rectangle. Each of its rays rests in a different corner.
On the same black background, the company name, “Dodge Trucks,” is written at the bottom, without serifs and in stenciled, bold, and upward-stretched letters. There’s a white rectangle in between the black ones, which contains the brand name “Dodge.”
1993 to 2009
By 1993, the first generation of Dodge Ram trucks had finished production, and it was time for a change. The symbols for Dodge Trucks leading up to 1993 were square in design, wider than the preceding ones, and included an inscription made up of both capital and lowercase letters. Then, Dodge formally announced the Ram brand, also called Dodge Ram, based on the Ram air hood designs and sporting a new red logo spelled in all caps. In place of the Dodge D-Series, we got the Ram and Power Ram.
2009 to Present
For 2009, Dodge Ram designers revamped the graphic portion while keeping the text style. Today, Ram trucks have a three-dimensional chrome head with a gradient from light gray to lead. A three-dimensional effect is produced by subtly combining shadows and highlights. The logo underwent several modifications along the way, but for the most part, Ram’s iconic charging sheep logo has remained untouched in the new style.
Ram Logo Fonts and Colors
In case you were wondering what the current Ram logo’s fonts and colors were, we’ve got you covered. The Optiflare font, which features squat, wide letters without serifs, was chosen for the contemporary logo. The characters’ lines are flat, clean, and bold. While 1993 editions had a red color scheme, the iconic colors today are black, white, and silver.
Get a New or Pre-Owned Ram at Jeff Belzer
From this history, you’re able to see a little piece of the big picture regarding Dodge and Ram : these all-American brands are led by people who care about every tiny detail of car production, whether for full-size trucks or sports coupes. Our team at Jeff Belzer’s Dodge Ram Lakeville is committed to helping you locate the ideal Dodge or Ram vehicle for your needs from our inventory. Together, we’ll look for the best financing options and ensure that you find a deal that fits your needs.
Blue Ram by Truck Hardware is licensed with CC BY 2.0
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