BMW Logo Meaning

For only the fifth time since its introduction in 1917, BMW is redesigning its logo, the famous roundel.

For a long time, the blue and white are often thought to be a spinning propeller, to honor BMW's aircraft-engine beginnings, but the truth is a little different. For BMW, the blue and white colors of the BMW logo symbolized the Bavarian flag colors and represented the company’s origin.

Flag of Bavaria (lozengy)There are officially two flags of Bavaria: the striped type, and the lozenge type, both of which are white and blue.

The company’s home state of Bavaria was also to be represented on the company logo. The quarters of the inner circle on the BMW logo display the state colors of the State of Bavaria – white and blue. But they are in the inverse order (at least as far as heraldic rules are concerned, where you read clockwise from the top left). The reason for this inverse order of blue and white in the BMW logo was the local trademark law at the time, which forbade the use of state coats of arms or other symbols of sovereignty on commercial logos.

Source (BMW): Learn what the BMW emblem really means