Anthony Fontanelle is a 35-year-old automotive buff who grew up in the Windy City. He does freelance work for an automotive magazine when he is not busy customizing cars in his shop.
The long-time badge of the world-renowned German auto maker is set to be replaced this coming July 2008. A report from John Revill of Automotive News Europe accounted that General Motors' Opel brand will reveal a new adaptation of its logo when it introduces the Insignia upper-medium car with the latest redesigned auto parts sooner this year. In addition to this, the new version of the lightning bolt symbol, which has been attached to Opel cars since 1963, will be showcased at the London auto show in July 2008.
The managing executives from GM further explained how they wished for to move Opel and move the brand upmarket by highlighting design and engineering supremacy based on traditional German manufacturing qualities. The changing of the Opel’s badge is part of improving the image of the brand.
"The Insignia embodies the confident, exciting direction we are taking at Opel," says Alain Visser, GM Europe's chief marketing officer."And this direction is immediately clear from the polished, even higher class brand emblem. We will naturally use the new emblem from now on in all future models."
The newest logo assimilates the brand’s name into an expanded boundary that surrounds the trademark lightning bolt. The latest badge to be obtained has a more molded design with sphere-shaped surfaces that provides the symbol three-dimensional deepness.
"Capturing that combination of beautifully-sculpted shapes together with German precision is very much consistent with the overall design language and philosophy of our vehicles," says Mark Adams, GM Europe's head of design, who led the team that re-designed the logo.
"The Opel Blitz evolved from a zeppelin – a symbol of progress at that time – which had been the radiator emblem of Opel vehicles since the beginning of the 1930s," said Heinz H. Zettl, manager of Opel Heritage & Institutional Communications.
A circle was added in 1937 to represent a wheel to symbolize mobility along with a representation of the endless innovation Opel has to offer all through the years.
“This evolution was also influenced by the brand name of Opel's light commercial vehicles, which from 1930 to 1975 bore the name "Blitz,” Zettl added. It also featured a lightning bolt as a distinctive symbol"
The company's sister brand Vauxhall will showcase a new version of its Griffin badge as well, along with a set of brand new models that will feature enormous set of innovative auto parts at the London show.
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