
22nd April 2009, 22:22
|
Senior Member
|
|
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Tynedale
Age: 80
Posts: 3,698
|
|
Volvo badge.
I've just seen an 09-reg Volvo SUV (don't know the model, probably XC60 :- http://images.paultan.org/images/Gen...vo_XC60_10.jpg )
Prominent on the grille was the Volvo circle-and-arrow which I have always associated with Volvo Trucks rather than the cars.
See:- http://www.northamericantruckpartsne...volvo_logo.jpg
How so?
Volvo Cars is owned by Ford and Volvo Trucks own White and Mack, so how do they use a common logo?
Maybe this explains:-
Quote:
the ancient chemical symbol for iron, a circle with an arrow pointing diagonally upwards to the right, was adopted as a logotype.
This is one of the oldest and most common ideograms in Western culture and originally stood for the planet Mars in the Roman Empire. Because it also symbolised the Roman god of warfare, Mars, and the masculine gender (as every bird-watcher can tell), an early relationship was established between the Mars symbol and the metal from which most weapons were made at the time, iron.
As such, the ideogram has long been the symbol of the iron industry, not least in Sweden. The iron badge on the car was supposed to take up this symbolism and create associations with the honoured traditions of the Swedish iron industry: steel and strength with properties such as safety, quality and durability. The new car also got its name VOLVO written in its own typeface, Egyptian.
Today, the iron logo also stands for a brand that radiates modern and exciting design and has a strong emotive connection with the customers.
The logotype was complemented with a diagonal band running across the radiator, already on the first car in April 1927. The band was originally a technical necessity to keep the chrome badge in place but it gradually developed as more of a decorative symbol. It is still found across the grille of every Volvo vehicle. Now, however, you will also find the iron symbol in a slightly modernized form in the centre of the steering wheel and the wheel hubs, and in all communications material such as advertisements, brochures, stationery, Internet sites, merchandise and so on.
In 1999, the Volvo Car Corporation was sold by its owner AB Volvo to Ford Motor Company. One reservation was stipulated, however: that the brand name should be used also in the future by both Volvo Cars and the rest of the companies in the Volvo Group.
The brand name was consequently put into a holding company, Volvo Trademark Holding AB, which is co-owned fifty-fifty by Volvo and Ford, and whose management decides on how the name can be used and in what contexts. Currently, the holding company's management group consists of Leif Johansson, President & CEO of AB Volvo and Bill Ford Jr, Chairman & CEO of Ford Motor Company.
|
Isn't it good when you can answer your own questions?
|