Filed under: Ford
Ford reveals 2010 Mustang badge
by Drew Phillips on Aug 27th 2008 at 5:01PM 
Click above for high-res gallery of 2010 Ford Mustang badge
The countdown to the 2010 Ford Mustang debut has begun, and it looks like Ford can't wait to show us what the car looks like just as much as we can't wait to see it. Today it released an image of the new 2010 Mustang badge, hinting that its edgier design gives clues as to what the rest of the car will look like. Ford says its designers spent hours researching photographs of horses to give the new Mustang logo a more realistic feel, and we think it paid off. The new pony looks more defined and muscular, and it even got a cool new haircut! We've been anxiously waiting to see what direction Ford will take the retro design of the new Mustang, and if the logo is anything to go by then we shouldn't be worried. Let us know what you think about the new design with your comments and vote for which you like most in the poll below.
Gallery: 2010 Ford Mustang Badge
[Source: Ford]
Gallery: 2010 Ford Mustang GT - spy shots
Gallery: 2010 Ford Mustang GT - spy shots II
Gallery: 2010 Ford Mustang - spy shots III
Gallery: 2010 Ford Mustang GT - spy shots IV
Gallery: 2010 Ford Mustang - spy shots V
PRESS RELEASE:
DEARBORN, Mich., Aug. 27, 2008 – Curious about what the 2010 Ford Mustang looks like? Its new pony badge offers a clue. Like the upcoming restyled Mustang, the new pony is more defined, more muscular and sure to catch the eye of Mustang enthusiasts.
"It's just a faster-looking steed," said George Saridakis, Design manager for the 2010 Mustang.
A stronger, more dynamic pony badge with defined edges and crisper forms in a subtly toned tinted-chrome finish will charge across the grilles of the V-6 and GT versions of the 2010 Mustang. For the first time, a black-chrome version of the Mustang pony badge will accent the new GT grille.
"We wanted to give the Mustang pony a more realistic feel," said Douglas Gaffka, chief designer for the 2010 Mustang. "We lifted the head to make the pony more proud, tipped the neck into the wind to give it a feeling of greater speed and better balance.
"It's more chiseled and more defined and looks more like a wild horse," Gaffka added. "It's more realistic in terms of proportion to an actual Mustang."
Senior Designer Rick Howard spent hours researching images of horses and understanding their appearance in natural, wild settings. That effort, along with his personal riding experience, helped bring forward the design of the Mustang pony badge.
Like the Mustang itself, which was revealed at the 1964 New York World's Fair, the Mustang emblem has a proud heritage. The original Mustang logo was drawn by Phil Clark for the Mustang I. The Mustang logo then was refined for the Mustang II in 1974 by Charles Keresztes, a former member of Hungary's Olympic equestrian team. The pony continued on the front grille through 1978 when it was replaced by "FORD" in block letters through 1982. The iconic Ford Blue Oval graced the front of Mustangs through 1993. The pony emblem returned in 1994 with some refinements. The logo was updated again in 2005.
For Howard and the team, creating the new badge was a labor of love.
"We're very much concerned with detail and precision in our cars at Ford, and that includes the art we do," Howard said. "We want our Mustang pony badge to be as good as the rest of the car."
_opt_thumbnail.jpg)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
JD 5:05PM (8/27/2008)
Where's the "I can't see the difference except the color and the mane" button? I'd click that one.
Reply
azzo45 5:37PM (8/27/2008)
Wagonphile: Designers deal with details & this is an improvement. The costs of tooling up badging is extremely LOW & if Ford has new parts for their retro design... would be needed.
Also I'm sure Mustang fans would notice a fat lil' chrome pig replacing a graceful stallion. This galloping pony is their history & its nice to see Ford sweating the details on its identity.
If they are this nuts about the badging... lets hope the new Mustang exterior design is getting the same attention to detail.
Jacquester 1:15PM (8/28/2008)
The fat chrome piggy only comes on the Police Edition Mustangs
jason 12:26PM (8/30/2008)
look at the feet too stupid!
tom 11:37PM (8/31/2008)
the difference is the 2010 is probably gonna be made in china....
wagonphile 5:05PM (8/27/2008)
Who cares? This has to be the most ridiculous waste of time and money Ford has ever spent.
Reply
The Other Bob 5:08PM (8/27/2008)
Shut up.
wagonphile 5:28PM (8/27/2008)
Shut up? A virtually indistinguishable revision of the badge is honestly relevant to you?
I'm a fan of the Mustang, but I'm more interested in the engine, the suspension, the sheetmetal, the interior, anything but the badge. Stick a chrome icon of a pig in the grille and I could care less.
Again, waste of time and money. Obviously Ford underestimates the potential stolen sales by Camaro, a car that seriously needs a badge revision but overall is a nice looking musclecar.
That One Person 5:38PM (8/27/2008)
Wow, dude! Chill!
How much time and money do you think Ford spent on this? It's just a small freakin update.
azzo45 5:40PM (8/27/2008)
wagonphile: AB put my response above...
fuser197 5:51PM (8/27/2008)
A revised logo isn't going to affect the car directly, but I don't think it's as insignificant as you've dismissively put it.
To me the new logo is sharper, clearer, and bolder. The old logo wasn't bad by itself, but set right next o the new, it's amorphous, and positively blah. I think the 2010 logo definitely conveys what Ford wants to say better.
I'm sure we all like to think we're totally rational beings that make decisions based on hard facts and horsepower numbers, but at the end of the day, buying a car is an emotional experience.
Benfolio 5:52PM (8/27/2008)
Everyone pleads and cries for GM to change the color of the bowtie on the Camaro, but then people gotta whine when Ford changes the Mustang..... wow.
Andrew 6:30PM (8/27/2008)
Dude, relax, the cost of this redesign was probably minimal if anything at all - it was probably on the corner of one of the drafts a designer drew up when drawing the lines for the new 2010 Mustang. Someone liked it and they went with it.
Ford pulled a similar minimal redesign of the badge back in 1993 to go with the all new look of the Mach III Mustang - that badge ended up on the 1994 production Mustang.
Its just to drum up excitement, plus all badges get redesigned anyway with new models (even the simple F-150 badge!) - why is this such a big deal?
Polly Prissy Pants 7:09PM (8/27/2008)
"How much time and money do you think Ford spent on this?"
Like with any huge corporate bureaucracy, the answer is "about 10 times what it should." If you accurately counted the total man-hours, equipment and opportunity costs, I wouldn't be surprised if it was 6 figures or higher. At corporations like Ford, things like this don't just fall out of the sky.
azzo45 7:50PM (8/27/2008)
PrissyPants... six figures for tooling up a badge? Get real bud! If badging cost that much you'd still have 1960's Ford badging on these cars!!! :) :)
Seriously with injection molding, aluminum stamping, & other techniques the jewerly of the car (the badging) is not a drain on the budget of a new car.
meshies 9:15PM (8/27/2008)
greatness is in the details.... or something like that
digitalzombie 4:09AM (8/28/2008)
To Wagonphile:
Hey, hey! This new badge add fu*king 50 hp to the car ok? Seesh. It's not rocket science.
Seriously, you're missing a huge point to this. The point of this is the new mustang badge will complement the future additional special edition badges. It will help increase more special edition models and therefore in turn it will raises the value of these models. Didn't you see the Shelby Cobra that cost 100k+? Imagine it with the new mustang badge. It'll easily raise that value up to 200k+.
Ethan 5:20PM (8/30/2008)
Considering what it costs to develop a new car, even when there's an existing design to base it on, 6 figures isn't that much.
Duncan 5:07PM (8/27/2008)
Um...good job? I guess?
I'm not sure how a facelifted logo is supposed to tell me anything about the car it's being attached to.
Reply
Chris 5:15PM (8/27/2008)
Idk, it kindof tells me that they are paying attention to the tiny details to make the car that much better. I know the logo is mostly insignificant, but they could either be paying attention to tiny details or just spending lots of time on useless details. whatever. I like the new, darker one better nonetheless.