How the jousting Knights came about

A brief look at the Faber-Castell Logo

The Faber-Castell brand logo is known and recognized all over the world: two jousting knights in dark green. But where did this emblem come from? To discover the background, it is necessary to delve into the history of this famous pencil manufacturer that goes back nearly 250 years. Since 1898, the company has been owned by the Faber family and was originally known as A.W. Faber. Then Ottilie von Faber, the heir to the business, married Count Alexander zu Castell-Rüdenhausen, a member of one of the oldest lines of German nobility. But her grandfather Lothar von Faber had stipulated in his Will that the name Faber should remain in the company for all time. And so, with the authorization of the King of Bavaria, they changed their surname to Faber-Castell – a name that was also applied to the company and thus the brand.

An essential part of the company logo

In 1905, shortly after taking over as managing director, Count Alexander brought out a new range of top-quality pencils, which he called Castell. To distinguish them from his competitors, Count Alexander chose his regimental colour for the paint coating, which was green. Over the years, the Castell pencils became a classic. Count Alexander also commissioned a painting of two “knights of the pencil”, an advertising motif that decorated the boxes and cases for decades, in several different variants. Later it was considered rather old-fashioned and was dropped. But in the early 1990s, when the present Count was creating a new corporate image for the company, the knights were reinstated as a symbol of the Faber-Castell brand. In stylized form, they are now an essential part of the company logo.

A brief look at the Faber-Castell Logo