Rolls-Royce

The British car company Rolls-Royce started off in March 1906 with founders Henry Royce and Charles Stewart Rolls. In just a year the company had its first car model built – the Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost. Since 1908, the brand’s headquarters have been at Derby, England. In 1914, Rolls-Royce expanded their business field and began producing aircraft engines alongside the automobiles.   The demand for Rolls-Royce cars increased in such an amount that in 1921 the brand had a second manufacturing plant opened at Springfield, Massachusetts, United States. Nevertheless, the new facility was only active for 10 years, closing in 1931. That year, Rolls-Royce bought and took over its most direct rival, British carmaker Bentley. Ever since the purchase until 2002, most Rolls-Royces and Bentleys have been almost indistinguishable, being only differentiated by the cars’ front grille and other minor features.   In 1946, Rolls-Royce and Bentley cars had their production moved to a new factory in Crewe, Cheshire, England. Another new facility was opened in 1959 at Mulliner Park Ward, London, to produce alongside the one in Crew. In 1971, the Rolls-Royce (car and aero-engine) company was nationalized and, two years later, the company’s car business was detached to become Rolls-Royce Motors. In 1980, the British company Vickers purchased Rolls-Royce Motors and in 1998 Vickers decided to put it up for sale, eventually selling it to German carmaker BMW. Rolls-Royce is still owned by BMW today.

Rolls-Royce has a quite distinctive and easily recognizable graphic identity that consists on both the logo and “The Spirit of Ecstasy” statue seen on top of all Rolls-Royce cars’ radiator. The brand’s logo consists on two linked “R”s, clearly standing for Rolls-Royce.   The statue, also often referred to as “The Flying Lady”, was conceived and designed by Charles Sykes to give an exclusive and more elegant image to the Rolls-Royce cars. This ‘mascot’ had been ordered by Claude Johnson and it has been placed on all Rolls Royces since 1911.