De Tomaso Logo - Blue Color

technically its the same blue as that found on the flag of Argentina.

I checked the color of a couple of different nose badges in photo shop & got:

R = 114 G = 173 B = 217

and

R = 86 G = 123 B = 168

It looks like "printers blue" to me. Way back when (before computers) printers (printing companies using litho, not PC ones) had some standard colors and they were much cheaper than custom colors. So a lot of companies just used that in there logos. Printers blue was one of the most common.

If it's exactly the same as the Argies flag then it's Pantone 290 or 297 - ish. Or 20-E-51 to BS4800.

Phil

Considering the fact that my car has at least four slightly different versions of the DeTomaso logo on it (original) and each is slightly different colour, I wouldn't be surprised if the official colour was "light blue - or whatever was close".

If anyone knows an actual spec (not from a colour photo, as we all know how much we can trust photos...), I'd certainly like to know what it is.

OK, I researched the web a bit. Argentineans refer to the color of the blue stripes as "celeste". To them it represents the color of the sky. there was still no conclusive answer to the exact hue, but here's some samples:

quote:
"The colours of Argentina's flag are subject to discussion, and there is no official position on colour usage. The Spanish word celeste (cerulean blue) is used to describe the colour of the blue stripes. Cerulean blue's is defined by Pantone as N21-01, which equals "155, 196, 226" in RGB notation."

quote:
"Celeste" is spanish for "of the sky" (as in “sky-ish”).
António Martins, 25 Sep 1998

Argentines call the main colour of their national flag celeste (that is colour of the day sky at the normal angles of sight). Followers of the Partido Justicialista prefer cyan (a mix of blue and green, ), those of the previous Unión Cívica Radical government preferred whitish blue (). Anything in between is also acceptable, but saturated blue () definitely not.
Gerardo W. Fischer, 22 Jun 1996

Blue and sky blue were used indistinctly until the Decree no.10302 of April 24th 1944 which defined it as «blue as clear as the sky» [great!]
Santiago Dotor, 15 Jun 1999, translating from this website

The shade is Pantone 290, even though many use 297 instead since 290 results too ligh sometimes. It's a matter of finding out the situations when it is used. (This is not an official specification: It was fixed by me, Whitney Smith and Peter Orenski, comparing several flags of silk, canvas, polyester, etc. that I had gathered, along with the illustrations that come with the official argentine bulletins.)
Gus Tracchia, 04 Feb 2000, translated by António Martins

“Approximate“ (i.e. not official) shades (both Pantone und CMYK) given in the Album 2000 [pay00]: Pantone CMYK
Blue 2975c 40-0-0-0
Yellow 116c 0-10-95-0
Santiago Dotor, 26 Feb 2001

A reccomendation of this Academy (1997.04.09), to answer an query from the Chancelry, about the color identification in the Pantone scale, specifies that: «according to it will be chosen from the sampler "Pantone Color Formula GUIDE" the colors Pantone 298 C or Pantone 2995 C which are approximates of the blue shade that corresponds to our flag. Naturally, depending on the quality, texture and kind of surface (dull or bright) there will be visual variations in color perception, but those given above seem to be quite approximative to the requested identification.»
Néstor Poitevin (Argentine History Academy), 20 Aug 1999, translated by António Martins

These Pantones reccomended by the History Academy seem too dark to me, and they dont fit the (later) official law about the colors: Cielab L’ 64.35 a 7.02 b 29.17 C 30.01 H’ 256.47.
António Martins, 11 Oct 1999 and 15 Nov 1999"


Pantone 290 or 297 seems to be a good call Phil.

Below is Argetina's flag.

By the way....

everyone is aware the symbol on the DeTomaso badge has nothing to do with the Egyptian goddess Isis, right?

It is a stylized letter "T", the symbol used on the DeTomaso Estate in Argentina to brand their cattle. Set over the colors of the Argentinean flag. Simple as that. Even though Alejandro left Argentina for Italy, it seems his heart was still with his family and their estate in Argentina.

quote:

Originally posted by george pence:
everyone is aware the symbol on the DeTomaso badge has nothing to do with the Egyptian goddess Isis, right?

Thank you George for saying that. It drives me crazy when people call it that. Even worse, before your ownership, PI openly called it that as well.

quote:

everyone is aware the symbol on the DeTomaso badge has nothing to do with the Egyptian goddess Isis, right?

Why do people refer to it as the "DeTomaso Isis?" Inquiring minds want to know.

Do you remember the magazine article back in the '80s that featured a model with a panther on a leash, on the beach, posed with a GT5 (or was it a GT5-S?).

The author of that story mentioned it being the symbol of Isis. that's the first reference I have found referring to the symbol as that of Isis. I think the author made it up, to add color to his story.

You'll find the magazine article in the Brookland Books Ultimate Portfolio, Gold Portfolio etc.

Ferrari has its Cavalino, Lamborghini its Toro (bull), Ford its blue oval, Chevy its bow tie. Nobody knew what to call the DeTomaso logo until then, so I think folks grabbed onto it & the story just stuck. I think it added color to the DeTomaso hobby, and was promoted by folks even though they new it wasn't true. This is all an assumption on my part. Perhaps the long time owners have more light to shed.

The explanation of the symbol being the branding symbol from the DeTomaso estate comes straight from the DeTomaso family.

cowboy from hell

quote:

The explanation of the symbol being the branding symbol from the DeTomaso estate comes straight from the DeTomaso family.

Just curious, how do you know this?

quote:

The explanation of the symbol being the branding symbol from the DeTomaso estate comes straight from the DeTomaso family.

Just curious, how do you know this?

It's right there on the De Tomaso website , look under History and sub category 'Brand'
http://www.detomaso.it/gb/storia/storia.html

BTW; Thanks to all for the effort put in to provide the blue color code.

Julian

Many publications said that the symbol was the Isis as an homage to Alejandro's wife Isabella. It never made much sense to me, but that was the thinking for many years. Jan P. Norbuy wrote in "De Tomaso Pantera" (Osprey AutoHistory) that "De Tomaso designed his Egyptian derived symbol very early on. It's an "I", not a "T", for Isabel (his wife) not Tomaso, for the goddess Isis".
A few years ago it came out that the symbol was indeed the DeTomaso family brand that was branded to the cattle on the family estate in Argentina.

So back to the original post and why I wanted the blue color PMS... I would have liked one of those De Tomaso dealer signs but $300 + shipping from Germany has prohibited me buying one.

After some searching I have a sign maker here in the US lined up to make some 'reproduction' signs, these will be as close to original as possible, 18"x24" made of 18 GA steel and soft embossed (stamped/raised) 'T'. There is a minimum order to make this viable, so I'm putting out some feelers to see how many people might be interested in purchasing a 'reproduction' sign?

I don't have a final cost at the moment but expect about $75 + shipping. I think that is pretty reasonable compared to the cheap vinyl banners selling at $50-$60 on Ebay. For shipping bear in mind 18 GA steel at 18"x24" is pretty heavy at around 6.2lbs, although if I can get this going I may be able to have them ready and bring to anyone attending the POCA Vegas event in April.

Julian

quote:

I'm putting out some feelers to see how many people might be interested in purchasing a 'reproduction' sign?

I would be interested. Can you post a picture of what it's a reproduction of so I can get a better idea?

Thanks,
Garth

Below is a photo of the original DT dealer sign;