Phil Clark drew about 9 different designs of the Pony emblem.

The very first Mustang emblem design by Phil Clark, 
before he came to GM and Ford. Did you ever notice the resemblance between the Mustang name writing and the one on the official brochure?

Check out this 15 min video about the Ford Styling Studio and the experimental cars Allegro, Cougar II, Aurora and Mustang I and Mustang II (works only with latest Quicktime player)

What Najjar said about Phil Clark already in 1984:

"Question:  So, Phil Clark did the original Mustang drawing?

A:      That's right. And I have one of the original little metal models of the ornament.  There was a Mustang I drawing that Phil Clark did for us at the time, and it ended up in our employee personnel office. I saw it a few years ago before I left. 

One guy was visiting Jay Dulls' office, and he was from World Headquarters, and he said, "Gee, I like that drawing." Jay said, "Well, you know, it's our policy to move it from office to office." 
So, he gave it to the guy at World Headquarters to put in his office. I tried to track it down. Seems like the guy at World Headquarters, whose name Jay can't remember, which I'm surprised at, has it in his home."

You can support Holly Clark in buying from her e-bay shop.
There are T-shirts available for a limited time. 
A numbered series of Phil Clark original designs is also available via Hollys ebay-Shop. 

Phil Clark 
The Designer of the Pony Emblem
There is no doubt left about this anymore!

The Ford Benson Research Center meanwhile (2006) confirmed:

"We assumed everybody knew that Phil Clark drew the Pony emblem"

If you have doubts in that, wonder why Ford had it registered just "recently" in 2004? Pretty obvious reasons made it necessary, after the research was done internally.

The only Mustang book that gave proper credit to Phil Clark regarding the Pony emblem design in the past , is the one from Gary L. Witzenburg and the staff of Automobile Quarterly.  The author of this book (published in 1979) is in contact with Holly Clark, Phil Clarks daughter to shed some more light on the influence and the basic idea that led to the Mustang I and Pony emblem design. Recently more and more Mustang historians are getting convinced that there was somebody behind all the things that were told and written and obviously they've also contacted the Benson Research Center more often, as we heard.

Published in 1979, this obsolete book is mostly in collectors hands as of today - like mine. Gary Witzenburg is currently working on a Chevrolet history book

Phil Clark working on a Pony logo design variation without the blue/red stripes at Ford in the design studio.
This picture is out of a video, that is still in the Ford archives and in our hands. It was used for PR purposes back then. We feel sorry, that it is gone from the BlueOvalNews website, where it was stored for public viewing.....




This is Phil Clarks handmade Pony emblem on the clay model of the Mustang I. The clay model was done in May 1962 before the actual Mustang I was built. 

Mustang I as a clay model was finished around 25th. of May, so this pic can be dated for mid-May. It is a zoom of the well-known picture with the 3 modeler handshaping the clay model into its design. This is a proof that soon after Phils designs - brought with him from art school via GM to Ford - the Pony emblem was done. 
David Ashs and Joe Oros "Cougar" concept car that was later turned into the first serial production Mustang was choosen on 15th. August 1962 and was still called Cougar then. David Ash mentions in the Benson Research center interview that he was sworn to secrecy soon after that date and had to change the Cougar emblems to Mustang emblems. It was 4 month after the Mustang idea was already shaped into carton. 


Another cardboard Pony logo designed and made by Phil Clark and put on the Mustang I styling studio version

Notice the still not final Pony-Logo from Phil Clark on the Mustang II Concept car from 1963 (Picture www.archive.org). Although Phil himself did not get credit for the Mustang II car, his mates tell us that Phil Clark was always doing Mustangs until he changed into the L-M studio. His early Mustang coupe designs eventually lead to the first efforts of Ford to design the GT40, until the job was moved to Ford UK. Phil went over to Ford UK as well and met Roy Lunn again there.


"Soon after that cardboard version and when the tribar came into the game originally  the Pony emblem was designed to be a two piece emblem with the tribar part having 2 holes in it and the Pony itself being mounted with 2 screws going through the stripes.
I was told it was considered to be too expensive for production, so they had Phil redesign it. He made 9 designs for it" Holly

.... and obviously let Wayno Kangas make the wooden carving for the final negative mold.

Phil Clark proposed 9 designs for the hardware emblem at Ford, one was turned by Wayno Kangas into the production emblem carved in wood,  that influenced any Mustang related publication or automotive part, even the Pony Package of the 2006 today. 

David Ash said he had to apply them to his Cougar concept car in a secret mission. 

Why did Ford make such a secret out of it? Easy to say, the Mustang idea had passed with Phil Clark through GM X-studios, when he was working there and after his leave, they obviously picked up the name and maybe more and created a concept car for Bill Mitchell. 

When the word about the Mustang I from Ford was spread around in mid 1962, the conversation about this fact between Ford and GM design chiefs is well documented. GM dropped using the name since Ford had already started their PR engine  and probably end of August 1962 latest the name MUSTANG was given a GO.

The rest of the Mustang name heritage is just PR in our view and myth have been set up around it later. Although certainly one man, that just got hired cannot push the name through a whole company, the credit for his obsession of a Mustang car and the success of a brand name that changed your life and ours is certainly deserved by Phil Thomas Clark and his daugther Holly, who brought these facts to our attention through the past 21 years. She has had a long fight in presenting these facts, so make her feel happy finally in that you support her efforts. "Finding my Father" is such a sad story, but true Americana. 

 
Wayno worked for 22 years for Ford as a modeller and then in the Styling studio.

Picture courtesy Arjan Nugteren/Ford Vereld around 1965