Why do we have....

[Bee Hamlin]

Design of PCS Logo

That is the official stamp or logo of the club.

Sounds like most people who posted so far like it and are happy with it.

I don't know who created it ? George Hamlin maybe ?

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I asked the originator (you're correct) and he said the various design elements were chosen to:

1. Represent the funeral side. Not with any specific identifiable body or chassis, but generically.

2. Salute the heritage of the professional vehicle.

3. Represent the rescue side through use of the cross, knowing of the Red Crescent and the Magen David but recognizing that you can't have everything.

4. Avoid having a red cross (which would make a certain organization rise up in righteous indignation at violating their trademark) but still hint at the idea with a white cross surrounded by red (hoping that they don't still make White Cross shoes).

5. Sort of represent the livery side with the spokes.

6. Link to the whole idea of a vehicle by having the wheel surround.

Incidentally, the outside ring, which frequently comes out sort of gold, was intended to be more of a yellow, like warning lights.

Bee Hamlin

 

[Tom D. Barlett]

The Current PCS Logo Is An Effective Representation

My thought is that the current logo of the Professional Car Society is highly representative of the origin of both the ambulance and that of emergency care. The horse drawn carriage captures the ancient times when the first record of ambulances being used for emergency transport was recorded as early as 900 A.D. and then later that of the ambulance volantes. The crimson background cross is an abstract attribution back to Europe's Knights of St John and the American Red Cross during our civil war as battlefield emergency care evolved. After the war, America’s hospitals entered the ambulance transport arena and the horse drawn ambulance was again refined. As formal funeral homes became of age in the latter 19th century, the wagon continued to evolve into the professional car that carry forth its handcrafting evolution into the 20th century.

Then, as motorized “horseless carriage” ambulances came of age at the turn of the century, these were soon followed by conventional motorized ambulances. When World War I broke out and the Spanish Flu Epidemic, many of our countries ambulances were still horse-drawn. Yes, in their own right, these evolving handcrafted wagons were truly professional cars. Since the late 1800’s, there has been a myriad of professional car manufactures that have contributed greatly to the history and evolution of the emergency care and transportation of the sick and injured. As we look back at the original horse-drawn professional cars, it would be challenging at best to positively identify the manufacturer in vintage photos and drawings. Yet this task has become increasingly easier as both manufactures and the vehicles themselves have evolved with features and designs that were unique to a given maker. But the best symbols are those that, in an instant of first glance, historically signify an organization's intellectual origin and purpose. In summary, I believe the current PCS logo is a highly representative symbol of the rich historical evolution of the professional car, Professional Car Society and that of its members who are truly historians in this arena.