Saab’s Griffin Caught Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Established publicly in 1949 with the launch of its first model, the Saab 92, Saab Automobile AB is a Swedish car manufacturer with a strong history of safe, sturdy, well-performing cars — unfortunately the same can’t be said for the stability and continuity of those cars’ parent company. Read on for the soap opera-ish story.
The Saab automotive brand was originally established by Saab AB — Saab standing for “Svenska Aeroplan AB”, “Swedish Aeroplane Limited” in English — an aerospace and defense company still active today (and using the Saab name and famous crowned griffin logo). Later the Saab car brand was merged with Scania, a truck manufacturer still active today (also using the griffin logo but at least not the Saab name anymore, just Scania). After that, GM purchased a 50% interest in the company, later buying the whole thing (luckily, GM did not use the griffin logo!). Far from the end, GM sold the Saab brand to Dutch manufacturer Spyker Cars in 2010 and Saab soon after filed for bankruptcy. The story ends, for now, with the purchase of “the main assets of Saab Automobile AB, Saab Automobile Powertrain AB and Saab Automobile Tools AB” and a licensing agreement “with Saab AB regarding the rights to use the Saab brand name for its future vehicles” by NEVS (National Electric Vehicle Sweden), an international consortium formed by Swedish and Chinese stakeholders. Here is the press release on that.
In summary: NEVS can now make Saab cars using the storied Saab factory and testing facility but it can not, legally, use the griffin logo, currently in use by Saab AB (the aerospace company) and Scania (the truck company) who did not grant the rights to it. Sucks for NEVS because the Saab griffin is one of the more recognizable automotive icons. However, it doesn’t suck so much because Saab has been using the wordmark by itself for quite some time, so it’s not that hard of a transition. The new cars will simply not have the griffin logo. But trucks and planes in other parts of the world will. So it will be kind of confusing for a while.
Yesterday, NEVS announced the “new” identity designed in collaboration with Stockholm Design Lab.
NEVS is now extending and further developing the Saab brand in passenger cars with a new visual identity. It is founded on the Scandinavian heritage, where the four distinctive seasons, long distances and extreme road conditions have shaped the Saab passenger cars. […] The four seasons and their respective characteristic road conditions will be visible both using images and together with the brand.
— Press Release
Logo as window in this specific case to show images of the four seasons.
Circle version to be used on applications like bonnet and wheel hub covers.
You might think, “This whole big post just for that?”. Yeah, well, branding isn’t always the most exciting thing and this is a very interesting case not because of the resulting identity but for its complicated ownership history and the equity of the Saab identity and how restrictive these issues can be when it comes to identity-building. The brand-spanking-new logo isn’t that new — it doesn’t even look like they tweaked the wordmark at all to accommodate all that four-season imagery — and the logo-as-window approach is as tired today as it was five years ago. But this is the best transition: basically playing down the change of ownership while tiptoeing around the trademark restrictions placed on NEVS and letting costumers know that they are still getting the same Saab they’ve always had. Except not.
Thanks to Johan De Geer for the tip.
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Hard To Ignore Glass Floor In High-End Mexican Penthouse
Constructing a positive, comfortable home with intriguing details that keeps inhabitants content and guests mesmerized is a real challenge. The result must be flattering and compose a certain atmosphere. Guadalajara-based studio Hernandez Silva Arquitectos managed to do that with the PPDG Penthouse, a residential space located on the 15th floor of a 70′s Mexican colonial building in Guadalajara. Striking modern design seen throughout culminates with a unique powder room looking down an unused 15 story lift shaft through a revealing glass floor.
Invaded by natural light coming from frameless glass windows, the loft was divided into day and night spaces, with the possibility of customizing the sleeping space into one or two bedrooms with the help of easily movable screens. The day area is comprised of an open plan dining, living and kitchen zone opening to a terrace overlooking the nearby park. Two glossy walls separate the spaces and construct a brighter interior by reflecting the light. The white wall hides the staircase and elevator, while the red one complements the kitchen and adds a contemporary charm to the overall design. Versatile and prepared to offer relaxing and entertaining moments, the PPDG Penthouse surrounds owners with an up-to-date, unique interior design.
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Vennesla Library and Culture House by Helen & Hard
Helen & Hard have designed the Vennesla Library and Culture House in Vennesla, Norway.
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Vennesla Library and Culture House by Helen & Hard
The new library in Vennesla comprises a library, a café, meeting places and administrative areas, and links an existing community house and learning centre together.
Supporting the idea of an inviting public space, all main public functions have been gathered into one generous space allowing the structure combined with furniture and multiple spatial interfaces to be visible in the interior and from the exterior. An integrated passage brings the city life into and through the building. Furthermore, the brief called for the new building to be open and easily accessible from the main city square, knitting together the existing urban fabric. This was achieved using a large glass facade and urban loggia providing a protected outdoor seating area.
In this project, we developed a rib concept to create useable hybrid structures that combine a timber construction with all technical devices and the interior.
The whole library consists of 27 ribs made of prefabricated glue-laminated timber elements and CNC-cut plywood boards. These ribs inform the geometry of the roof, as well as the undulating orientation of the generous open space, with personal study zones nestled along the perimeter.
Each rib consists of a glue laminated timber beam and column, acoustic absorbents which contain the air conditioning ducts, bent glass panes that serve as lighting covers and signs, and integrated reading niches and shelves.
The gradually shifting shapes of the ribs are generated through adapting to the two adjacent buildings and also through spatial quality and functional demands for the different compartments of the library. Each end façade has been shaped according to the specific requirements of the site. At the main entrance, the rib forms the loggia which spans the width of the entire square. Against south/west the building traces the natural site lines, and the building folds down towards the street according to the interior plan and height requirements. On this side, the façade is fitted with fixed vertical sunshading, This shading also gathers the building into one volume, witch clearly appears between the two neighbouing buildings.
A main intention has also been to reduce the energy need for all three buildings through the infill concept and the use of high standard energy saving solutions in all new parts. The library is a “low-energy” building, defined as class “A” in the Norwegian energy-use definition system. We aimed to maximize the use of wood in the building. In total, over 450m3 of gluelam wood have been used for the construction alone. All ribs, inner and outer walls, elevator shaft, slabs, and partially roof, are made in gluelam wood. All gluelam is exposed on one or both sides.
A symbiosis of structure, technical infrastructure, furniture and interior in one architectonic element creates a strong spatial identity that meets the client’s original intent to mark the city’s cultural centre.
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Visit the Helen & Hard website – here.
Photography by Emile Ashley
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Forrester: Apple makes strides into enterprises, users iWork hard for the money
Forrester has announced the results of its latest survey, which encompassed 10,000 enterprise computer users, across 17 countries. It looked at the degree of Apple product adoption in businesses and support for them within IT services. There’s plenty to chew on, but here’s the big one; over a fifth of those surveyed uses an Apple product for work. This, however, includes workers using their personal devices for work tasks, with 11 percent using their iPhone, 9 percent their iPad and 8 percent working on their Macs. Half of the enterprises included in Forrester’s survey plan to increase the number of Macs used by 52 percent, while nearly half of the firms are already issuing Apple PCs to employees, gaining even more traction within IT departments in the US and Western Europe. Unsurprisingly, given its premium pricing, those using Apple gear are more likely to be higher paid, while also (paradoxically) younger and in a senior rank. More specifically, 43 percent of those making over $150,000 a year use an iPhone, iPad or Mac. No cause or effect here, ladies and gents, but we’ll be putting in our expense claim for a new set of business iPads very soon.
Forrester: Apple makes strides into enterprises, users iWork hard for the money originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 28 Jan 2012 09:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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WD’s 9.5mm Scorpio Blue 1TB laptop hard drive gets benchmarked
These days, it’s hard to shake the urge to pop a solid state drive into your next laptop, but even if you’re down with dropping the requisite coin, the restrictive capacity choices may make it darn near impossible for pack rats to bite. For those fitting squarely into that category, there’s Western Digital’s newest laptop drive: the 9.5mm 1TB Scorpio Blue. It’s one of the first in this form factor (read: the one that slips into most everything smaller than a Clevo) to hit the 1TB milestone, and at just $99, it’s a veritable bargain. The benchmarking gurus over at Hot Hardwarethrew it through the usual gauntlet of tests, pitting it against a 500GB Scorpio Black and a 640GB Seagate Momentus. As you’d likely expect, the 1TB spinner bested the competition in SiSoftware, ATTO and CrystalDiskMark tests, though not by a tremendous margin. Still, taking performance up a notch while also boasting a full terabyte of space makes it somewhat of a no-brainer for capacity freaks, and you can hit the source for a barrage of charts proving as much.
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Apple patent application takes the hard keys out of the keyboard, promises a flat surface solution
Apple’s giving us a patent application peek into its post-PC future, and it looks like hard keys will be so 2008. The recently revelead filing shows off a virtual, flat keyboard concept for Cupertino’s line of non-iOS products that flirts with metal, plastic and glass form factors. Using a combination of piezoelectrics, haptic feedback and acoustic pulse recognition, these prospective designs will be able to detect your finger-pounding surface input. If you’re the fast-typing kind, you’re probably wondering how your digits will recognize the keys sight unseen. Well, there’s a few workarounds for that. In its metal and plastic iterations, Jobs and co. plan to stamp or micro-perforate the layout into place, while their glass counterpart would receive a graphical overlay. The application also promises an LED-lit display for hard to see conditions and the inclusion of capactive sensors to enable multi-touch functions, so you avoid e.e. cummings-style emails. Of course, applications aren’t necessarily indicative of a surefire product, but those interested in tickling their imagination can give the source link a look.
Apple patent application takes the hard keys out of the keyboard, promises a flat surface solution originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Jul 2011 22:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Toshiba’s newest hard drive is designed for 24/7 rugged use
Continue reading Toshiba’s newest hard drive is designed for 24/7 rugged use
Toshiba’s newest hard drive is designed for 24/7 rugged use originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Nov 2010 22:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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A Home So Beautiful is Hard to Come By : Hunters Hill Residence in Australia
This beautiful and diverse home was designed by Stanic Harding Architects and is located in Hunters Hill, Australia. The project is actually a restoration and remodeling of a decaying 1950′s house situated in a privileged landscape, not far from the harbor. According to the architects, “the challenge was to create a light and airy home on this steep south facing site while maintaining connections to the garden, water and city views“. Here is how they tackled with the clients’ request: “A series of three distinct pavilions were formed linked by two open courtyards allowing the house to gradually step down the site. The courtyards let sunlight enter the house via the extensive glazing on the northern facades. The transparency and deep modulation of these facades offers protection from summer sunlight while permitting winter light to reach deeply into the house. The courtyards provide access to level gardens and external living spaces so important on such a sloping site.” Hiring a professional landscape architect studio (Jane Irwin ) ensured that this home’s exterior matched the incredible interior design. Photos by Paul Gosney.
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