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 he factory founder André Citroën (1878-1935) was of Dutch descendance, a son of a well-to-do Parisian jeweler. He went through the technical school without displaying any exceptional talent. His first business was a gear wheel factory which manufactured gears with chevron shaped dual teeth pattern. Later on this activity inspired the Citroën insignia with a certain likeness to military markings identifying a corporal.
As the war was drawing to its finish André began planning future operations at his factory. His experience gained in America dealt with automobiles, so it was natural that the business of his choice involved car manufacturing. And possibly it was Henry Ford who inspired him to begin the mass production of an inexpensive people's car although some prototypes were built of a luxury model equipped with a 3,8-liter sleeve-valve engine.
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The later models had the chevrons increased in size to cover the whole radiator grille making the Citroën cars easily identifiable although externally they didn't distinguish themselves from the other cars of the era. Some models had the chevrons behind the grille while others sported them on the front side. The full width grille insignia remained on the Citroën 2CV until 1965.
Citroën came up with various ideas to publicize the company name. The company paid for traffic signs and signals that were lacking on the public roads and highways of France in the 1920's.
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In 1911 André‚ Citroën travelled to the US to study mass production methods at Ford. He spent two years there and during the First World War he benefited from this experience when supplying grenades to the French army. To accomplish this he built a new factory on the Seine, on Quai de Javel which in 1958 was renamed to Quai André Citroën.
n 1917 André Citroën had needed a car designer and subsequently hired Jules Salomon who had manufactured a small car named Le ZŠbre since 1908 with some success. Citroën's model A was introduced in 1919 at Champs-Elysées and its radiator grille was adorned by an oval emblem featuring two chevrons.
The emblem lost the oval and the surrounding hectagon in the course of time. The tips of the chevrons became more pointed but still the insignia identifies a Citroën at one quick glance.