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jstmorris
Senior Member
Offline
Some time ago I became interested in the source and heraldry significance of the Austin Coat of Arms, or logo. I did considerable heraldry research on the Austin logo and came up with very little.
Through Dennis Robinson, Membership Secretary of the Austin Counties Car Club [ https://psimmonds.org.uk/index.htm ] and the clubās Archivist, Norman Milne, I learned that the origin of the Austin Coat of Arms āā¦ was designed jointly by Aubrey Edwards and John Shipman within the Longbridge Publicity Department in 1950. Aubrey went on to take charge of all Austin, BMC and subsequent literature, including most of the "Counties" material." [1] The Austin Coat of Arms, or logo, was āā¦ first evident within the steering wheel boss of the BS3 Hereford and the GS4 Somerset and used within much of the literature, advertising, merchandising and Dealer displays of the later `50s ā¦ ā [1]
The conclusion then is that as a Publicity Department exercise, it is basically a logo without any traditional historical significance or heraldic meaning.
I intend to have further contact with several of the individuals involved, especially Aubrey Edwards. According to John Reed [2, 3] , Aubrey Edwards was, in the early ā50ās, Art Editor of various in-house publications such as "Austin Magazine" and "Worldwide". He later became Publications Manager responsible for all Healey brochures from the 100/6 onwards. A sample of his work can be found at: https://www.easyw3.com/healey/pdf/plaquette3000.pdf
Once I get further substantial details about either the Austin logo or about Aubrey Edwards, I will do a follow-up to this note. Also, if any of you have any information about the logo and itās history, I would appreciate comments.
--Scott Morris
Simcoe, Ontario, Canada
'60 MkI BN7, '62 MkII BT7
[1] email from Dennis Robinson; 2007-06-18, Norman Milne note in Austin Counties Car Club May/June issue of magazine, based on comments by Aubrey Edwards, one of the designers .
[2] See: https://www.austinhealeyclub.co.uk/news_mid-wales03.html
[3] John Reed follows in the footsteps of Ron Beach, the official Austin photographer in the early ā50ās. John Reed has a 44 page book āIn England with Austinā [a] which contains many original publicity photographs of 'Counties' cars. Through extensive research, he has identified many of the original locations used for publicity photos that went into various brochures such as the Austin Healey 100.
[a] See https://psimmonds.org.uk/AustininEnglandBook.htm for John Reedās book
See https://www.easyw3.com/healey/pdf/104-1.pdf for the Austin Healey 100 brochure.
Through Dennis Robinson, Membership Secretary of the Austin Counties Car Club [ https://psimmonds.org.uk/index.htm ] and the clubās Archivist, Norman Milne, I learned that the origin of the Austin Coat of Arms āā¦ was designed jointly by Aubrey Edwards and John Shipman within the Longbridge Publicity Department in 1950. Aubrey went on to take charge of all Austin, BMC and subsequent literature, including most of the "Counties" material." [1] The Austin Coat of Arms, or logo, was āā¦ first evident within the steering wheel boss of the BS3 Hereford and the GS4 Somerset and used within much of the literature, advertising, merchandising and Dealer displays of the later `50s ā¦ ā [1]
The conclusion then is that as a Publicity Department exercise, it is basically a logo without any traditional historical significance or heraldic meaning.
I intend to have further contact with several of the individuals involved, especially Aubrey Edwards. According to John Reed [2, 3] , Aubrey Edwards was, in the early ā50ās, Art Editor of various in-house publications such as "Austin Magazine" and "Worldwide". He later became Publications Manager responsible for all Healey brochures from the 100/6 onwards. A sample of his work can be found at: https://www.easyw3.com/healey/pdf/plaquette3000.pdf
Once I get further substantial details about either the Austin logo or about Aubrey Edwards, I will do a follow-up to this note. Also, if any of you have any information about the logo and itās history, I would appreciate comments.
--Scott Morris
Simcoe, Ontario, Canada
'60 MkI BN7, '62 MkII BT7
[1] email from Dennis Robinson; 2007-06-18, Norman Milne note in Austin Counties Car Club May/June issue of magazine, based on comments by Aubrey Edwards, one of the designers .
[2] See: https://www.austinhealeyclub.co.uk/news_mid-wales03.html
[3] John Reed follows in the footsteps of Ron Beach, the official Austin photographer in the early ā50ās. John Reed has a 44 page book āIn England with Austinā [a] which contains many original publicity photographs of 'Counties' cars. Through extensive research, he has identified many of the original locations used for publicity photos that went into various brochures such as the Austin Healey 100.
[a] See https://psimmonds.org.uk/AustininEnglandBook.htm for John Reedās book
See https://www.easyw3.com/healey/pdf/104-1.pdf for the Austin Healey 100 brochure.