Brand at a glance
Harley-Davidson’s Bar & Shield is a compact badge built around the company name. Its long association with the motorcycle maker makes it one of the most recognizable emblems in automotive branding.
Harley-Davidson introduced a streamlined version of the Bar & Shield in 2023. The company’s museum separately documents the emblem’s early trademark history and its 1976 style.
Source: Harley-Davidson logo artwork, Wikimedia Commons (simple logo mark)
Harley-Davidson’s museum says the company applied to register the Bar & Shield in 1910 and claims continuous use from that year. It also identifies 1976 as the date of a major style used for decades. These are useful milestones, but the wording distinguishes trademark history from the exact first drawing.
The current simplified Bar & Shield was introduced in 2023. The displayed artwork is the company’s shield mark—not a motorcycle or dealership photograph. Compare this automotive badge with the more restrained wordmarks of Porsche and Jaguar.
Harley-Davidson’s Bar & Shield story documents early use and the 1976 milestone. Current mark artwork: Wikimedia Commons, a simple geometric/text logo.
Honda
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Hyundai
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Jaguar
British luxury car brand whose visual identity spans a serif wordmark and a modern geometric redesign.
