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