An emblem for a car is like a family name for a person. It gives it individuality and recognizability among different makes and models. This, in turn, has led to the emergence of countless logos, emblems, and signs that facilitate identification and distinguish the products of car manufacturers from each other. One such type of marking is the trident, a versatile and particularly attractive sign that has contributed to its use in a wide variety of cultures and civilizations. This element has historically been a formidable sharp weapon that becomes particularly dangerous in the hands of trained fighters. It was one of the elements of the equipment of Roman gladiators. Its properties and reliability became the characteristics that people assessed as the most important for ensuring safety, endowing their gods with such weapons. In Greek (Roman) mythology, the trident belongs to the god of water, seas, and oceans, Neptune (Poseidon). It symbolizes strength and vigor, having a deep, hidden meaning in any mythology. At the same time, it endows its wielder with many abilities and multiplies its strength, making it more effective than a single-pointed blade. Especially effectively, it was used in the attributes of automotive products of the world car industry as a symbol that increases the prestige and importance of its brand. At the same time, the trident is a reflection of courage and masculinity, a manifestation of the truly masculine traits traditionally inherent in motorists.
Today, this symbol can be found on the cars of the world’s leading manufacturers. Logos are presented in various variants, representing images of the trident, both close to the original and stylized versions. The latter most often demonstrate rare interpretations or graphic treatments that most fully meet the essence of the brand. Given the peculiarities and significance of such a symbol, which imposes a serious responsibility on its owner, the number of brands using the trident is not so great. However, those who have taken on this responsibility fully meet the qualitative characteristics of this symbol.
Maserati
The Italian car brand Maserati, founded in 1914 by Alfieri Maserati in Bologna, was one of the first automakers to use the trident symbol in its attributes. The company is currently headquartered in Modena. The emblem was designed by the founder’s brother, Mario, at the suggestion of a family friend, Marquis Diego de Sterlich. He relied not only on the mythological characteristics of the emblem and its power but also on the features of real weapons. A big role in the choice of the emblem played a fountain – the symbol of the native city, in the center of which is the figure of Neptune with a trident in his hands. Today, this logo has gained worldwide fame and has become a symbol of Italian beauty and elegance in the automotive industry.
Tesla
Among the modern representatives of the global automotive industry, the logo in the form of a stylized trident is used by the American company Tesla, an American manufacturer of electric cars founded in 2003. Its creators are Martin Eberhard, Mark Tarpenning, and Ilona Musk. The company’s office is located in Palo Alto, Santa Clara, California, USA. The trident image used has left and right edges that are too short, causing difficulty in visualizing the graphic element as a trident. The symbol has a unique property – the possibility of its visual perception and as a stylized image of the letter T – the first letter of the brand name. In addition, its graphic design resembles a schematic representation of the electric motor sector.
W Motors
A relatively young Arab-Lebanese automobile company, W Motors was founded in 2012 in Dubai, UAE. Its founder, Ralph Debbas, sought to realize his ideas of high-performance luxury sports cars. The brand became the first developer of such a class of cars in the country. To display the special properties and characteristics of its products, the brand chose an original and attractive emblem, which is a representation of the trident symbol in an imaginative graphic design. Technically, the graphic was an abstract representation of the symbol. Its right and left edges are pointed, and the central one is rounded. Such execution was conceived to form a unique visualization of the brand, its attractiveness, and ease of remembering.
Brilliance Auto Group
The original execution of the trident symbol was demonstrated by the largest Chinese company, Brilliance Auto Group, founded in 1992 in China: Shenyang, Liaoning Province. Being a united holding company for the production of minibusses, passenger sedans, and special vehicles of various types, the brand occupies a leading position in this type of industry in the country. It expressed its ambitions and product features by using a stylized image of a trident combined with the lyre sign as a logo. This interpretation of the classical symbolism ensured the formation of a new view of the semantic meaning of the logo.
