The creation of the FIAT logo 1968 – a landmark in the

The creation of the FIAT logo 1968 –
a landmark in the perception of a visual
industrial identity.
by Hans Conraths
The FIAT logo and the pure visual style developed out of it marked a new
type of industrial communications. It
was officially introduced by FIAT Automobili SpA, Turin in 1968, a year
when the term “corporate identity” as
philosophy or communications concept was unknown in the European
industrial world.
The modern and timeless FIAT logo
was the basic element of this style. It
was continuously used by the FIAT
group worldwide for forty years. To
eventually replace it needed a good
reason: the group‘s 100th anniversary
in 1999. To evoke that historical event,
the group decided to re-introduce the
old 1899 logo as official brand/logo.
The story of the FIAT Logo and those
who created, proposed and “sold” it
to FIAT is unusual and discloses sur-
prising insights on essential aspects
of the European post war industrial
and communicative development. In a
nutshell: the “fathers” of the style were
a German/French conceptual thinker,
a Swiss art director and an Italian nobleman with management and writing
skills.
The conceptual thinker was Jean Reiwald. Born in Berlin in 1925, he was
the son of Paul Reiwald, an eminent
international authority in social psychology and author of numerous books,
amongst them the bestsellers “The
psychology of the masses” or “The
society and its criminals”. His mother
was a well known painter. In the early
thirties, the family migrated to Geneva where Paul Reiwald became a professor at the University. Jean Reiwald,
very interested in mass psychology
and art, was particularly attracted by
cars and advertising. In 1955, he moved to Basle, started working as an
advertising consultant. However, his
professional dream was to do advertising for well designed Italian cars.
Tirelessly, he wrote letters to the FIAT
subsidiary in Geneva arguing that
“beautifully designed cars deserve
an equally authentic advertising style” he surely knew to provide. Eventually, he was invited for a presentation,
succeeded and – as of 1960 – was
appointed as the FIAT (Suisse) SA
advertising consultant. His successful
performances opened him the doors
to Fiat headquarters at Turin in 1962
where he gradually became the sole
advertising and communications advisor to FIAT Cars‘ Advertising Director,
Count Oddone Camerana. Camerana
and Reiwald supported by Reiwald‘s
Swiss Art Director Armin Vogt closely
cooperated since 1965 on the creation of a new FIAT Logo. It was officially
introduced in 1968.
As of 1965, the Jean Reiwald AG with
headquarters in Basle and offices
in Milan, Paris and Lörrach/Germany became one of the leading creative Swiss advertising agencies. It
served important companies such as
FIAT Suisse, Ferrero, Autovox, Lejaby,
Boursin in France and Motta, Hudson,
Marker skis in Germany. Its short, but
successful story came to a rather abrupt end in 1971 when Jean Reiwald
died of a malicious brain tumour.
In graphic terms, the sixties were dominated by the clear, neat and well
proportioned Swiss graphic style.
Swiss designers and art directors
were in high demand. Some of them
succeeded to leave some longer lasting graphic tracks. At Reiwald‘s, the
Fiat account in Italy was initially served
by Basle graphic artist Heinz Ringger
and as of 1965 by Armin Vogt.
Looking at European examples of car
advertising during the sixties, it appeared that manufacturers presented each new type of car with a new
sign, brand or label. The aspect of
institutional or corporate importance
in brand advertising had not yet been
realized. FIAT was no exception and
the brands for the FIAT 124 and FIAT
125 launched in 1966 evidenced this
clearly. However, both brands already show the effort to find an original
form combining the car maker’s name
and the individual car type.
With the objective to simplify communications on FIAT‘s complex, vast and
various activities and products, Jean
Reiwald and Armin Vogt started their
studies and eventually proposed one
single, unifying key element by which
the entire, heterogeneous FIAT production could be authentically visualized. It was an architectural element:
the rhombus.
And it was to be used like a module in
architecture. Thus, the Fiat trade mark
consisting of four standardized rhombuses could be deliberately applied to
the group’s diversified industrial production (land/rail, sea, air). It symbolized the standardized uniqueness of
the group’s production in each of its
products.
Along with the new logo came the
quest for a FIAT style bringing order
and identity to the group‘s communications. Its key elements were: the
use of a standard type face, a photographic style without the presence
of human beings – unless absolutely
essential and a style of writing being
simple, informative, direct and human.
That is: never pompous, pretentious,
ambiguous or authoritarian.
In 1968, this new style appeared for
the first time on the European print
media scene. FIAT documented it in a
coloured book gathering the most significant advertising means published
in 1968. They mirror the numerous
and various information activities of
the group and offer a clear, simple
and yet fascinating look of what “corporate identity” was before the marketing and management term came
into being in the early seventies.
Poster: Fiat car type range >
Advertisements: Fiat 124 Special, Fiat Dino
< Poster: Fiat 124 Special
Advertisements: Commercial vehicles‘ trade fair,
Commercial vehicles
Advertisements in print media, Photo‘s Beni Truttmann
Advertisements in print Media for children
Colouring book for children, illustrators Peter Emch, Urs Glaser, Peter Wetzel
Lettering for real estate objects Mirafiori in Turin
Lettering for real estate objects in Gemany
Greeting cards for different production areas
Giveawey: Fiat chocolate
Greeting cards for different production areas
Jean Reiwald
Hans Conraths
From 1968 -1971, Hans Conraths has been international coordinator for the Fiat account at Jean Reiwald AG,
Basle.
In 1975, he founded his own marketing communications
agency in Rome/Italy.
Armin Vogt
1938 Born in Wädenswil/Switzerland
1954-1958 Apprenticeship in a Zurich/Switzerland
graphics company, studies at Zurich graphics art school
1959-60 First employment with an advertising agency
1960-1961 Graphic artist at L’Action magazine and
Galeries Lafayette, Paris/France
1962-1963 Graphic artist at Novità magazine
(Vogue Italia), Milan/Italy
1963-1969 Art Director at Jean Reiwald Ltd.,
Advertising Agency, Basle/Switzerland
1970 Creates his own studio for Corporate Design in
Basle
1984 Co-Founder of Chamaeleon Editions
2001 Creation and direction of Armin Vogt
Galerie, Basle
2006 Co-Founder with Robert Schiess and
Director of «Print Basel» Fair for contemporary
graphic works of art
Specialist teacher at Basle School for Design
President Vice President and member of the Board of
SGD (Swiss Graphic Designers)
Member of sgv (Schweizer Grafiker Verband)
Member of SGDF (Swiss Graphic Design Foundation)
© Hans Conraths, Armin Vogt/ProLitteris