Volvo Signs of The Times
By Grey - London
For Volvo UK Brand Volvo
Highly Commended in category Design & Branding
In subcategory Environments - Installation-Experience-Exhibition
Project Description
Volvo have been celebrating families for almost a century. Today, the concept of ‘family’ is more inclusive than it’s ever been. 65% of current UK families are non-traditional, yet, the iconography we interact with every day hasn’t evolved - until now.
The Volvo Family Icons project sought to challenge the world’s deeply-ingrained assumptions about how ‘typical families’ should be represented in the 21st century, to support the launch of Volvo’s new family station wagon – the V60 which we called ‘The new family model’. For 1 month, we targeted families in a high-traffic environment. Westfield London is Britain’s largest shopping centre with 5,500 parking spaces and 50M+ annual visitors. As a highly family-focused brand with progressive values, Volvo is interested in welcoming the widest spectrum of different types of families into its cars. Our budget was £100,000.
The Volvo Family Icons project sought to challenge the world’s deeply-ingrained assumptions about how ‘typical families’ should be represented in the 21st century, to support the launch of Volvo’s new family station wagon – the V60 which we called ‘The new family model’. For 1 month, we targeted families in a high-traffic environment. Westfield London is Britain’s largest shopping centre with 5,500 parking spaces and 50M+ annual visitors. As a highly family-focused brand with progressive values, Volvo is interested in welcoming the widest spectrum of different types of families into its cars. Our budget was £100,000.
Agency Solution
Partnering with one of the world’s biggest owners of retail developments, Westfield, Volvo unveiled a new set of symbols for Family Parking spaces and reinvented an outdated signage vernacular. Challenging society’s often unconscious, exclusionary attitudes and championing the diverse families of today.
Volvo has always been a very family-focused brand and the launch of the new V60 provided an opportunity to reinforce that. But Volvo is also an altruistic brand, whose purpose can best be described as ‘the car for people who care about other people’. So, Volvo wanted a way to demonstrate how it understood the needs of modern families, by focusing on their diverse nature in the 21st Century.
Family Parking Icons have remained unchanged for over 40 years. Their very familiarity allowed us to reinterpret them, playing off people’s deeply ingrained expectations and then challenging them.
Volvo has always been a very family-focused brand and the launch of the new V60 provided an opportunity to reinforce that. But Volvo is also an altruistic brand, whose purpose can best be described as ‘the car for people who care about other people’. So, Volvo wanted a way to demonstrate how it understood the needs of modern families, by focusing on their diverse nature in the 21st Century.
Family Parking Icons have remained unchanged for over 40 years. Their very familiarity allowed us to reinterpret them, playing off people’s deeply ingrained expectations and then challenging them.