The Škoda winged arrow was registered at the patent office in Pilsen on 15 December 1923, in a five-feather and a three-feather version. It rode on locomotives before it ever reached a car.
- Country
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Czech Republic - Active
- Since 1895
- Founded by
- Václav Laurin, Václav Klement
- Website
- Official website ↗
A complaint letter nobody would read
Škoda exists because of a rejected letter. In the 1890s a bookseller named Václav Klement wrote to a German bicycle maker to complain about a faulty bike. The reply, according to Škoda’s own heritage pages, was that the complaint would be dealt with only if it were written in a language the company understood. Klement had written in Czech. He didn’t translate it. Instead, in 1895, he and the mechanic Václav Laurin set up a workshop in Mladá Boleslav to make and repair bicycles of their own. They called the bikes Slavia.
Motorcycles followed, and in 1905 came the Voiturette A, the first automobile built in Mladá Boleslav. Its one-litre two-cylinder engine made seven horsepower and pushed the little car to 40 km/h. With cars in the catalogue, the firm was renamed after its founders: Laurin & Klement.
The Škoda name arrived in 1925. After financial trouble and a fire at the factory, Laurin & Klement merged with Škoda Works, a large machine engineering and armaments company from Pilsen that was moving into car production. The cars from Mladá Boleslav have carried the Škoda name ever since.
Linden leaves and laurel wreaths
The very first mark was a label on the handlebars of a Slavia bicycle. It showed a wheel decorated with linden leaves, a tree Škoda describes as a symbol of the Slavic nations, with the names Laurin and Klement and the town of Mladá Boleslav beneath the brand name.
When the company became Laurin & Klement in 1905, the badge changed to the founders’ initials inside a laurel wreath, the classic emblem of success, drawn in the Art Nouveau style of the day. A typographic version with the full name was used from 1913 to 1929, and Škoda says that lettering still turns up on some of its high-end models today.
The merger brought a third badge: an oval with a blue background and Škoda lettering, used from 1925 to 1934. For a few years it sat side by side with the Laurin & Klement wordmark. Then it was overtaken by something that had been waiting in Pilsen all along.
What the winged arrow means
The winged arrow was registered as a trademark at the patent office in Pilsen on 15 December 1923. Two versions were filed that day, one with five feathers and one with three. The three-feather drawing won out. It first appeared on locomotives built in Pilsen and reached the cars from Mladá Boleslav in 1925, once the merger was done.
Škoda is careful about who drew it. The company says a competition was announced by its technical director, Vladislav Sýkora, and that the idea is attributed to Tomáš Maglič, the commercial director at the time, who reportedly took his inspiration from a wall relief of a Native American man wearing a feathered headdress. Two sculptors may have helped, but Škoda calls that unverified, so we’ll leave it there.
The meaning, as Škoda explains it, is built from four parts. The large circle stands for global reach and the quality of the company’s production. The wing stands for technological advancement, the breadth of what the company makes and its worldwide distribution. The forward-pointing arrow stands for progressive manufacturing and efficiency. And the small circle that looks like an eye stands for precision, engineering expertise and foresight.
Škoda lettering was added beneath the arrow in 1937. For decades the colours were mostly silver and blue, with red and inverted variants in the 1950s and 1960s. By Škoda’s own count, the emblem has gone through only five noticeable modifications in a hundred years.
Blue to green: the Volkswagen years
The biggest shift came with a change of owner. On 16 April 1991 Škoda became the fourth brand of the Volkswagen Group, which took a 31 percent stake at first and became the sole shareholder on 30 May 2000. In 1993 the badge turned from blue to green, and the arrow was set inside a wide circle carrying the words ŠKODA AUTO. It was first seen on the Felicia. From 1994 the brand’s main colours were black and green.
In 1999 the green ring became black. In 2011 the name was dropped from the badge and the thick ring gave way to a thin chrome band, which made the arrow itself the star. The Škoda lettering sat above the emblem until 2016, when it moved underneath. Through all of this, green stayed the brand’s official colour, even when it vanished from the badge on the cars.
The 2022 wordmark and the accent on the S
On 30 August 2022 Škoda unveiled what it later called the most radical change to its identity in thirty years. The Škoda name itself became the main mark, written in new rounded, symmetrical letters. The accent over the S, which Škoda admits had long confused customers outside the Czech Republic, was folded into the shape of the letter. The winged arrow survived, simplified and flattened into a two-dimensional drawing that the company says reads better on a phone screen. Two new greens arrived with it, emerald and electric, chosen to keep the link to the past and to hint at electric cars.
The work was done in-house by a small marketing team around Petra Mackeová and Martin Pavlík. It took more than a year. They began with 165 proposals, cut them to three and tested those with more than 2,200 people in six countries. The new look went onto communication materials first and onto new models from 2024, with the name written out across the front of the car.
From the Voiturette to the Octavia
The arrow has sat on rear-engined saloons, Bertone-styled hatchbacks and electric city cars. A few of the cars that mattered most:
Landmark Škodas, decade by decade
- 1905: Laurin & Klement Voiturette A. The first automobile to come out of Mladá Boleslav, with a one-litre two-cylinder engine and a top speed of 40 km/h.
- 1934: Škoda Superb. The name was chosen in 1934 for the new flagship; production of the six-cylinder Š 640 began in 1935, with a built-in radio among its features.
- 1959: Škoda Octavia. The name is Latin for eighth, because it was the eighth model with a backbone frame and the eighth post-war model.
- 1964: Škoda 1000 MB. A rear-engined, rear-wheel-drive saloon with an aluminium pressure-cast engine block. Almost 443,000 were built.
- 1987: Škoda Favorit. Designed in-house with a front engine and front-wheel drive, styled by Bertone in Italy, and in production from August 1987.
- 1996: Škoda Octavia. The first model developed entirely within the Volkswagen Group, launched in September 1996 and the first Škoda body developed with CAD.
- 2019: Škoda Citigo e iV. The first mass-produced, fully electric Škoda.
Inside the Volkswagen Group, Škoda shares its platforms with sister brands such as Seat and Audi. Back home, the other great Czech badge is Tatra. For more on how marks like the winged arrow are put together, see how car logos are designed.
Frequently asked questions
What does the Škoda logo mean?
According to Škoda, the large circle stands for global reach and quality, the wing for technological advancement and worldwide distribution, the arrow for progressive manufacturing and efficiency, and the small eye-like circle for precision, engineering expertise and foresight.
Is the Škoda logo a Native American headdress?
Škoda says the idea is attributed to its commercial director Tomáš Maglič, who reportedly drew inspiration from a wall relief of a Native American man in a feathered headdress. The company treats the finer details of the design’s origin as unverified.
When was the winged arrow first registered?
On 15 December 1923, at the patent office in Pilsen, in a five-feather and a three-feather version. It appeared on locomotives first and on cars from Mladá Boleslav from 1925.
What changed in the Škoda logo in 2022?
Unveiled on 30 August 2022, the new identity made the Škoda wordmark the main mark, with the accent built into the S, and flattened the winged arrow into a two-dimensional drawing. It reached new models from 2024.
Why is the Škoda logo green?
The badge went from blue to green in 1993, after Škoda joined the Volkswagen Group, and green has been the brand’s official colour since. The 2022 identity added two new shades, emerald green and electric green.
Linden leaves to winged arrow: the Mladá Boleslav ledger
- Founded
- 1895
- Founder
- Václav Laurin, Václav Klement
- Country
- Czech Republic
- Headquarters
- Mladá Boleslav, Czech Republic
- Parent company
- Volkswagen Group
- Current emblem
- A flat winged arrow in a ring, with the Škoda wordmark whose accent is built into the S, introduced in 2022
- Known for
- Practical Czech cars such as the Octavia and Fabia
- Website
- Official website ↗
