Norton Motors Ltd founded in 1898, now Norton Motorcycles is one of the oldest motorcycle brands in the world with a rich history in design, speed records, and a wonderful array of ads covering more than a century. The companies first attempt at a logo and branding occurred in 1907 with a rustic looking Art Nouveau rendering of the ‘Norton’ name. In 1913 the Norton logo and brand moved away from the Art Nouveau styling towards a more handcrafted flowing scripted version which has progressed through at least 7 iterations since. The style has not changed much other than more defined negative spaces and the two ‘O’ counters in the name have taken on the shapes of screw driver bit impressions.

In the early days Norton began as a motor parts company but they saw a hole in the market and quickly transitioned to motorcycle manufacturing. The 1920’s saw trends in advertisements with more colour and a lot less type copy. The 1930’s did not see much if any change in advertising thanks to the great depression. One of the ads which I researched and decided to create is it that of the Norton Model #50 produced in 1932. The posters background colour is a cream tone to mock-up the right type and shade of paper which would save ink back in that time. The colour palette is limited to red brown and black as well as the image is rendered overall with a mask to allow the look of sticky inks or imperfect transfer. The second poster is a slightly more modern play due to the darker and heavier ink usage it would demand.

The typefaces used are Rockwell for an aged conservative serif look in the footers supporting company name plates and league gothic for the title and body copy as well. The Norton logo was recreated in illustrator. Using old sign font examples, the two typefaces mentioned above were closely matched to the company’s fonts as well as that of the era. The unapproachable is a saying that Norton used for a long time as a catch phrase to say that their competitors could not equal their innovation on paper or the race track. Lastly the union jack is deconstructed to give it a rustic aged look as well as taking the bright blue away in the first more historically correct poster. Colours of the time were very flat and bland looking.