Today, Toyota Motor Corporation is the world's second largest automotive manufacturer and Japan's largest company.
Toyota, one of the largest automotive companies in the world, has been producing many models since its establishment in 1939. The Japanese company produced more than 9 million cars in 2019 and reached a turnover of more than 3 billion dollars.
Who founded Toyota?
Kiichiro Toyoda is a Japanese businessman and founder of the Toyota company. He is the son of Sakichi Toyoda. He founded the Toyota company in 1937.
Despite its long-term success in the automotive industry, Toyota initially did not produce vehicles. At least, the company Toyota was affiliated with was not an automotive company. The company known as Toyoda Automatic Loom Works produced weaving machines and fabric. In the early 1930s, the Japanese government encouraged the company to turn to the automotive industry due to the war with China, because the country needed vehicles. Kiichiro Toyoda, the son of the founder of the company, went to Europe in this process and tried to understand the automotive industry better. In 1934, Toyoda produced its first engine, the Type A. In 1935, the first Toyota brand car, Model AA, was produced.
Soon the automotive department of the Toyoda weaving company became the company in its own right and became today's Toyota. The use of the name Toyota instead of Toyoda is based on the Japanese alphabet. The main reason why the letter T is used instead of the letter D is that the letter T consists of 8 lines in the Japanese alphabet. 8 is considered a lucky number in Japanese culture.
During World War II, Toyota focused entirely on producing trucks and pickup trucks for the Japanese military. The Allied Forces realized Toyota's contribution to the Japanese army and bombed the Toyota factory. But this attack did not cause Toyota's bankruptcy. Because at that time the war was over.
After the war, Toyota continued to face various challenges. While the Japanese economy was going through difficult times, Toyota continued its activities on the verge of bankruptcy for several years. Despite this, the company survived and continued to grow, albeit slowly. In the late 1960s Toyota exported its one millionth vehicle.
Today, Toyota is one of the largest companies in the global automobile industry. The company, which produces durable and economical vehicles, is also the second highest-earning company in Japan. Another automotive giant Mitsubishi is in the first place.
Toyota's first logo was obtained as a result of a nationwide competition. Again in this period, it was suggested to use the name Toyota instead of Toyoda. The result of the competition was respected, the name of the company was changed and a diamond-shaped logo was adopted.
Celebrating the 50th anniversary of its establishment in 1989, the company switched to the logo we know today. The logo, which includes three oval shapes, was created with the efforts of many designers in 5 years, according to the company's statement. Care was taken to ensure that the new logo was accepted in all international markets.
It succeeded in making everyone love it by putting on the market models such as Corolla in 1966, Hilux in 1968, Celica with 2000GT in 1970, Camry in 1982, RAV4 in 1994, the pioneer of compact SUVs, Prius in 1997, the small model Yaris in 1999 and Auris in 2007.
The Toyota logo may seem simple and plain at first glance, but it contains a few interesting and special design elements. To better understand the meaning behind the Toyota logo, let's take a look at the company's own statement.
“A large oval shape, two different ovals that cut perpendicularly represent the heart of the customer and the company. The two overlapping ovals indicate the mutual relationship and trust between the customer and the company. The intersection of the wide oval and the other oval in the form of a T shape symbolizes Toyota's T and the steering wheel. The widest oval represents the world embracing Toyota. The fact that each oval has a different thickness of the outer wall is a reference to the brushstroke in Japanese culture.”
In addition, Toyota states that it attaches great importance to the fact that the logo is immediately recognizable and that a vehicle is immediately recognized as a Toyota. This is exactly why you can see the Toyota logo in the same way when you look in the rear view mirror of a vehicle.
Even today, the Toyota logo has a complex logo when looking at the logos of companies in the automotive industry. We can even say that Toyota sets an example at this point, as there are very few companies that give such importance to logo design.