Recreating vintage Champion Battery logo

Original Champion Battery logo as seen on 1989 racing car.
Original Champion Battery logo as seen on 1989 racing car.

I thought the Champion Battery decal was fairly iconic on the 1988 & 1989 racing cars. It was a prominent 2-color printed decal. In my research a company called GNB produced the batteries and marketing. GNB does not exist today.

While looking at photos, I came to notice there were two drawn battery styles used on decals. What I call the “sloppy style” was seen on the sides of racing cars in 1988 & 1989. The “neat style” was used on the front air damns in 1989 and hood of the 1991 TransAm Scorcher car.

I split the difference and turned the sloppy style into a more precise illustration.

During the early 1990s, GNB changed their corporate logo… so I redrew the vintage GNB identification with the handy pen tool.

Did I try to locate original art? You bet, but came up empty. Next best option was to recreate the battery; after breaking the design into basic lines and rectangles. Which was my way of attacking the recreation.

The typeface used for “The Performance Battery” tag was a basic box stock font. Just had to go find it in the catalog. (Which was a common theme during these projects.)

My version of the battery logo.
My version of the battery logo.

[2018]