How three letters came to define a company and Europe’s largest motorcycle manufacturer.
By Leo Keller and Adam Wheeler
2023 represented the 70th anniversary of ‘Kronreif & Trunkenpolz Mattighofen’ and the registration of ‘KTM’ as a company. The genesis of the firm came about almost twenty years earlier. In 1934 Hans Trunkenpolz opened a fitter’s shop located in the guest house ‘Zum Schwarzen Adler’ in the small Upper Austrian town of Mattighofen, that principally dealt with the maintenance of motorcycles and cars. Within two years, Trunkenpolz was certified as a machinist and for motor vehicle servicing. Pre-WWII his set-up became one of the biggest repair workshops throughout the region although for legal reasons the company was known as ‘Moser & Co.’ from 1948 to 1953.
Post-war and into the 1950s the number of repair orders declined. Trunkenpolz was forced to operate in industrial spare part production and was constantly looking for new fields of activity. At that time, a commitment to motorcycle fabrication seemed to be promising as mobility was considerably limited, and cost-effective means of transportation was highly sought after.
When Trunkenpolz started to put his plan into action, he was still searching for a striking brand name but, disappointingly, there is no official explanation for the KTM moniker. The family and official company history state that ‘Kronreif & Trunkenpolz Mattighofen’ derived from ‘Kraftfahrzeuge Trunkenpolz Mattighofen’ to acknowledge when Ernst Kronreif joined as an associate in the mid-1950s. Another supposition is that ‘KTM’ comes from the initials of Kussin, Trunkenpolz and Moser: Ernst Kussin was a racer and sales director of Austrian motorcycle manufacturer HMW that Trunkenpolz would see at motorsport events, and who was involved in the development and production of the R100 model. Kussin introduced Trunkenpolz to head of the engine manufacturer Rotax, at that time the only engine manufacturer apart from Puch in Austria, hence the addition of the name ‘Moser’.
KTM’s corporate design manual states that the current KTM logo is a ‘unified and instantly recognizable image’ for ‘one brand, one look all over the world.’ The document also explains that it is recognizable thanks to a ‘simple, flat format. It is powerful, dynamic, and technically balanced, which negates the need for any additional effects or filters.’
The KTM logotype is principally black. It can only be used in orange and white versions for special instances like monochrome settings, KTM PowerWear applications, graphics related to racing, and model designations.
“The simplicity, the consistency and the boldness are definitely an advantage,” MotoGP™ Senior Brand Manager Nuria Garcia says “and has come to represent the brand values over a long period of time now, more than twenty years.”
“For the next step I think the logo can be evaluated and studied for better digital implementation but the best thing about it is the regularity and the way it has become linked with values of adventure and performance, in particular. With the presence of orange and the use of the color, KTM now ‘own’ orange in the industry. It was a clever decision and a good strategy. Now when you see any bike or part in orange you think of KTM. No other brand can use it.”