volvo – Giles Hoover

July 31, 2025July 31, 2025

Beautifully Briefed, 25.7: Hot (and Cold)

Take a break from the summer heat with a Mac delight, two interesting typefaces, a discussion of Bentley’s new concept — and updated flying “B,” with a quick mention of the other double-R — and, of course, some great photography. Better still, we close out with a guaranteed smile.

’Cause we need more smiles these days.

July’s Spine Post

July’s University Press Coverage has already been posted. My personal favorite of the bunch:

Yale University Press. Cover design by Jonathan Pelham; art direction by Rachael Lonsdale; image is an adaptation of Jacques-Louis David’s Napoleon Crossing the Alps.

Darn near perfect. Hat tip to Jonathan Pelham.

Frame of Preference

While we’re on the subject of darn near perfect, Marcin Wichary — he of the now-sold-out Shift Happens fame, not to mention The Hardest Working Font in Manhattan — has gifted the world with another absolute gem:

If you’re a Mac geek, whether a software history buff, or a just grizzled veteran, set aside a few minutes to take this trip down memory lane. There are 150 tasks to complete (!), five extra Easter eggs, great Mac hardware and software, and some of the best web programming extant. Enjoy!

ATC Identity Program Upgraded

The Appalachian Trail Conservancy celebrates its hundredth anniversary this year, and took advantage of the occasion to update its logo and identity system for the next hundred years.

Previous logo (left) and new (right).

The logo is a combination of a mountain peak, the AT symbol, a trail shovel, leaves (“growth and diversity”), and a holding shape (“protected ecosystem”); while overcomplicated in explanation, in practice it’s warm and friendly at first glance yet has depth for folks who know the Trail.

The blur and grain, highlighted against the beautiful scenery the AT is known for.

The new logo against one of grain/blur backgrounds.

The supporting system works well, too, but I’ll leave that to Amy Borg, whose extensive post on the work is excellent. (Via BrandNew.)

Indeed. Donate, too, if you can.

Special Bonus #1: A new Goodreads logo:

July’s Font Finds

Karel, by Typonym

“Inspired by glyphs on a mid-century Prague plaque, Karel synthesises historical discovery with contemporary invention. Developed for brand messaging and retail identity, it includes alternate figures to vary the level of stylisation,” CreativeBoom writes.

Details on some of the glyph choices.

Different versions are available, allowing you to match style with project.

“A constructivist condensed sans, [that,] in every case stands apart from the multitude of neo-grotesque alternatives,” Typonym writes. (Great company name, by the way.)

Penguin Inclusive Sans, with Olivia King

We’ve covered Inclusive Sans before, but to recap, it’s awesome, it’s free, it’s open-source, and as of February, it’s available at Google Fonts for anyone to use. So, guess who has adapted it into something new? (Okay, header spoiler, but still.) No one less than a publishing heavyweight: “A bespoke typeface for Penguin Books, uniting brand heritage, accessibility, and contemporary design to create a versatile typeface for its global publishing house,” creative director Olivia King writes.

Some historical images, worth including just for the penguin reading in the chair — feet up, natch.

“For 90 years, Penguin has been committed to making books for everyone. Its iconic sixpenny paperbacks revolutionised access to stories and knowledge, making reading more inclusive and affordable. Staying true to this spirit of inclusion, Penguin commissioned a custom version of Inclusive Sans — an accessible typeface — to serve as its primary brand font across its global publishing house.”
— Olivia King, Creative Director

Another item included “just ’cause” — mostly for the science fiction illustration.

“We transitioned Inclusive Sans from a Grotesque to a Humanist foundation, adding playful flicks and flourishes to create a sense of movement and approachability[;] whether used in a refined, understated way or in strong, confident applications, the typeface offers flexibility and distinctiveness.” Marketing speak, sure, but speaking to the applications rather than past them.

Penguin’s footprints as arrows: says something positive, I think.

The entire page is great: well put-together, well illustrated, and approachable. And wander around the site while you’re there — more than “O.K.,” it’s example after example of work the rest of us aspire to. (Via BrandNew.)

July’s Graphic Design Two-Fer

The World Illustration Awards 2025 Shortlist

From the book covers category, Ripples on the Lake by Becca Thorne.

“The Association of Illustrators has unveiled those in the running for this year’s World Illustration Awards, featuring 200 standout projects from over 4,700 entries worldwide. From editorial brilliance to site-specific design, it’s a showcase of illustration at its most imaginative,” CreativeBoom writes. It’s books and editorial to animation and product design — a cornucopia of illustrative goodness. Check it out.

Designer as Influencer

More than slightly NSFW — while actually about work. Read wherever you’re comfortable.

“As social platforms reward visibility, creatives are increasingly expected to make their practice public. Designers are no longer just making work; they are the work. But what started as promotion now risks swallowing design itself,” It’s Nice That writes.

Yet another reason to avoid social media … says the old guy who reads web pages published by actual individuals (and sticks to blogging). Still, very much worth a read.

Special Bonus Two-Fer. #2: From PetaPixel, DuckDuckGo, my search engine of choice, can now filter out AI images from search results. (It’s a simple toggle.) Nice.

#3: Not so nice is WeTransfer’s predicted face-plant, also via PetaPixel.

Bentley EXP15 Concept: Buckle Up

Let’s just get this out of the way: the brutalist automobile is officially a trend.

Yes, you’ve seen that shape before — and that time, I asked y’all to hang on see what happens. This time, I’m less confident it will turn out well:

The EXP15, top, with the Jaguar Type 00, bottom.

The Jaguar is both more compelling and fresh — it’s somehow more, yet with less detail. Interestingly, Jag is trying to reposition itself in the Bentley space (including comparative pricing), preferring to move upmarket rather than compete with the likes of BMW or Mercedes.

It’d be quite the coup for Jaguar to leap in (sorry) and take charge.

Update, 31 July (hours after posting, in fact): Jaguar Land Rover’s CEO has unexpectedly announced that it’s time to step aside. It’s apparently not about expectations, but….

Enough about Jaguar. Some more photographs/renders of the Bentley:

Arguably the best angle, somewhat hiding the EXP15’s SUV-esque size.

The interior is better than the exterior, with some Bentley traditions intact. (Yes, the concept is a three-seater: the passenger seat was eliminated in favor of the pampered purebred.)

The dash is all screens, yes, but not necessarily obviously so — something likely to age better than the iPad-on-dash approach.

Lastly, from the rear:

Wait. I’ve seen that look somewhere else.

Oh, yeah, the Volvo ES90. (Itself riding at SUV height.)

I apologize for not being more positive on this one; I’ve been down on the Volkswagen Group in general for a while, and it makes me sad that, with their flagship brand, nothing in their new concept suggests they’re trying to reverse the trend.

Coverage: “This is What the Future of Bentley Will Look Like,” from Motor1; “The Bentley EXP 15 brings the bling and delves into tomorrow’s luxury automotive experience,” from Wallpaper*; and “Bentley Is Showing Jaguar How To Take A Luxury Brand Into The Future With The New EXP 15 (IPSO Fatso),” from The Autopian. (Apologies also for the three differing headline capitalization styles — blame the sources.)

Also worth reading: The Autopian questions whether the new “Autobrutalist movement” — where I got the term — can be stopped; and Motor1 has not one but two items asking readers to give Jaguar a chance. (Probably unrelated.)

But wait: there’s another reason I’m down on Bentley right now.

The New Bentley Logo: Style over Substance

The five versions of the “winged B” logo, in order: 2025, 2002, 1996, 1931, and 1919.

BMW called light “the new chrome.” Bentley absolutely gagged on it. At least the infamous Flying B is still there — hood ornaments are few-and-far-between these days.

When you’re Bentley, you shouldn’t be chasing trends, you should be leading them. Style over substance is nothing less than a mistake.

Also, because everyone else has one:

The flat version.

This new version was done in-house, the wrong choice on every level; this isn’t a time to save money. Another sad moment: the storied history of a brand like Bentley, running on the equivalent of a flat tire. (Perhaps even the rim. Trailing sparks.)

Dezeen was mostly positive, BrandNew mostly negative. (“[E]verything here feels cheap and overwrought.” Subscription, alas.) The Autopian goes for balance. You can tell where I land.

Special Bonus #4: Range Rover’s new logo, best described as “not trying very hard” or even perhaps “goofy as hell.”

Posted without comment.

Special Bonus #5: In case you’ve never seen it, Paul Rand’s 1966 proposal for a redesign of the now-iconic Ford logo:

The Autopian has a nice piece on this.

July’s Photography Faves

Astronomy Photographer of the Year Shortlist

“Awe-inspiring scenes of the Milky Way, dancing aurorae, and serene galaxies all feature on the shortlist for this year’s ZWO Astronomy Photographer of the Year,” PetaPixel writes. Indeed:

“Blood Moon Rising Behind the City Skyscrapers,” Shanghai. Photograph by Tianyao Yang.

The competition is run by Royal Observatory Greenwich, supported by ZWO and in association with BBC Sky at Night Magazine.

“The Last Mineral Supermoon of 2024,” Delhi. Photograph by Karthik Easvur.

See the other 28 on the shortlist here. The winners will be announced in September, so stay tuned.

Abstract Fireworks

Every year, photographers across the world flock to fireworks displays, something that’s never interested me — until now:

PetaPixel takes a moment to self-congratulate here, and I think they’ve earned it — although it’s good to note that the original post cites This is Colossal. (And that PetaPixel did a poor job with the cite in that original story, using only Colossal’s photography tag rather than an easily-found, specific link. Shame on them.)

Anyway, photographer Bryan Szucs took the defocusing idea and absolutely ran with it:

Great stuff. See more on ~~his website~~ SmugMug.

Special Bonus #6: Apple filed a fascinating image sensor technology patent last month, which describes a stacked image sensor with vast dynamic range and very low noise. PetaPixel has the story.

Unbuilt Frank Lloyd Wright

Okay, officially these are renders, not photographs. Still:

“Hooked on the Past emerged from the intersection of two personal passions: the history of architecture and the fascinating world of computer-generated imagery,” Romero tells This is Colossal.

Gordon Strong Automobile Objective. Image by David Romero.

Wright was ahead of his time in that he pushed material science to make a concept, shape, or cantilever work (often demonstrated in the maintenance and repair bills); his unbuilt projects demonstrate what could have been, and there’s nowhere better to imagine those than in generated imagery.

Hunftingdon Hardford. Image by David Romero.

See more at this great Colossal post.

High-Octane Dogs

“Ultimately, it’s not the equipment that creates the magic. It’s the connection with the dog, the timing, the light, and the intention behind every shot. The gear just helps bring that vision to life,” photographer Caludio Piccoli tells PetaPixel.

I could easily repost every photograph from the story; they’re all great. Just go read it instead.

City Cats of Istanbul

To close out this month, well, the title says it all:

Somehow, they completely fit the location:

The author (supposedly the one in the mirror):

See more at This is Colossal or CreativeBoom — and then go enjoy August with a smile on your face:

September 30, 2024October 18, 2024

Beautifully Briefed 24.9: Falling Up

A long and diverse list this time, with a few thoughtful things and a ton of photography. Set aside a few minutes to get lost in links — and enjoy!

Books and Values

This article from the New Yorker is highlighted a little behind schedule — it’s from August (although, in my defense, I get my NYers second-hand) — but worth the read for the phrase “practitioners of bibliotherapy” alone.

Illustration by Pierre Buttin. © New Yorker.

Before we get into the meat of it, though, a primer on the growth of available titles in the United States:

1939: 10,640 (est.)
1970: 36,000
2020: 1,000,000 (est., including ebooks)

The New Yorker article lists this last figure as three million, but various internet sources dispute this; either way, it’s a huge number that no store could ever hope to stock. But … on to the important stuff.

The central question:

Amazon offers something like thirty million different print titles. The company has deals with purveyors of used and remaindered books, who are linked to on the site. It owns AbeBooks, the leading site for rare and out-of-print books. And there are many other places online where you can buy books, including barnesandnoble.com. So why does the world need bookstores?
— Louis Menand, New Yorker, August 29, 2024 issue

The New Yorker is kind enough to let you read a few articles a month without crashing into a paywall, so go find out the answer, appropriately enough, in their book review of Evan Friss’ The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore.

Meanwhile, Nick Heer of the always-excellent Pixel Envy cites another New Yorker article on pricing for non-physical books — “The Surprisingly Big Business of eBooks” — and comes up with a few spending figures of note regarding the New York Public Library and Barack Obama’s title, A Promised Land:

$29,450, for 310 perpetual audiobook licenses at ninety-five dollars each;
$22,512, for 639 one- and two-year licenses for the e-book; and,
$5,300, for 226 copies of the hardcover edition.

If you want to know why publishers so aggressively fought the Internet Archive on its model of lending out scanned copies of physical books, this is the reason. Publishers have created a model which fundamentally upsets a library’s ability to function. There is no scarcity in bytes, so publishers have created a way to charge more for something limitless, weightless, with nearly no storage costs.
— Nick Heer, Pixel Envy

You know what you can’t do with an ebook license? Put it on a shelf for re-reading in ten years’ time. Or resell it. In other words: control what happens to it. “[I]t is hard not to see publishers as the real villains in this mess. They are consolidating power and charging even legitimate libraries unreasonable amounts of money for electronic copies of books which the publishers and their intermediaries ultimately still control,” Heer writes.

Exactly.

Special Bonus #1: Nick Heer gets something else right, too, by noting the sharply divergent goals of social media platforms and his own wishes — indeed, those of what we would idealize as “normal people.” “Guided by Vices” is excellent. Check it out.

Book Design: Kafka

Few subjects could more appropriately follow the above, so it is with a certain sense of joy that I highlight these fantastic new covers Frank Kafka’s works, brought to us by the incredibly talented Peter Mendelsund¹ via an interview with Steven Heller at PRINT:

The whole article, and especially, the whole series of title designs, are exactly why I treasure book design. Read on.

Special Bonus #2: From Rolling Stone, an image reposted without comment (and absolutely not related to Kafka):

Illustration by Victor Juhasz. © Rolling Stone.

Colossally New

This is Colossal, one of the very few sites elevated to “check daily” status and a frequent contributor to posts here on Foreword, has a new look:

The new look of This is Colossal, September 2024.

The last site, more than seven years old and designed by the great Armin Vit — he of Brand New fame — needed a refresh, mostly for technical reasons.

Check it out. (And, separately, read the details.)

Update, 4 Oct: More details from Firebelly. Great to see the progression of ideas.

Update, 18 Oct: Part 3, “Crafting Colossal’s Whimsical Web.”

SM[all] Majesté

I had to lead with an image there — even as concept cars go, wow. “DS’ tribute to the bewitching Citroën SM is the cure for concept car burnout,” The Autopian says, and I completely agree.

The lights bleeding into the skirted rear wheels is, perhaps, perfection:

Okay, it’s not even a Citroen, and the 1970’s are hot right now, but still, it’s an out-of-the-park home run from the staggering — perhaps even stumbling — juggernaut that is Stallantis. Read about it at Motor1 or Wallpaper*, or see one of these two YouTube videos from DS or YouCar.

Special Bonus #3: Another design icon, the Volvo 240 series, celebrates its 50th birthday this year. (I learned how to drive on a 145, the immediate predecessor, and was surrounded by 240s in my teens. I remember them fondly.)

A 1974 Volvo 245 in the perfect shade of blue. Fabulous.

Photography Turns 200

According to an article in French photography publication Réponses Photo, quoted on PetaPixel, photography turned 200 on September 16. While that’s surely a conclusion rather than documented fact, it’s worth remembering and considering the journey photography has taken over the past two hundred years.

Indeed, one need only glance at the “phone” we all carry around to realize how democratized photography has become; those of us who carry bigger, more professional gear have become the exception — and our reasons for doing do more varied. (More on that soon.)

Meanwhile, let’s celebrate with some of the latest and greatest photography from September, 2024.

Tahiti Waves

Via Kottke and This is Colossal, a great series of ocean photographs from Tim McKenna:

Heaving Waves (Tahiti). Photograph by Tim McKenna.

2024 Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Via This is Colossal, something quite, uh, jaw-dropping:

“The 2024 Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition broke its 60-year record with a whopping 59,228 entries from 117 countries and territories,” and is connected with the Natural History Museum in London. (See also the 2024 Bird Photographer of the Year, via the BBC.)

2024 Astronomy Photographer of the Year

“The Royal Observatory Greenwich, in partnership with BBC Sky at Night Magazine, announced the beautiful winners of its 16th annual Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition. The images show some of the most incredible cosmic objects and events in the Universe,” PetaPixel writes. (Also noted via This is Colossal, just ’cause.)

“Shadow Peaks of Sinus Iridum.” Photograph by Gábor Balázs.

See all the winners at Royal Museums Greenwich.

Not included in that — taken too late to be entered, I understand — is this stunning photograph:

“Saturn’s Ingress.” Photograph by Andrew McCarthy.

2024 Natural Landscape Photography Awards

Last but not least, some fantastic photography in this newish contest, now in its fourth year, set up to “promote the best landscape and nature photography by digital and film photographers who value realism and authenticity in their work.”

Some of my favorites:

“Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta, Canada.” Photograph by Andrew Mielzynski.

Nightscape, 3rd place. Photograph by Takeshi Kameyama.

Via PetaPixel.

Special Bonus #4: Phil Edwards brings us a history of one the most iconic photographs ever:

1
“Get inside the mind of Peter Mendelsund, the pianist who went from Tchaikovsky to Tolstoy and became one of the best book cover designers working today, with editor Zac Petit’s interview in PRINT’s 75th Anniversary Issue,” with the link at the source article.

September 29, 2021June 14, 2023

On Volvo’s New Logo

The “Iron Mark” has been given a makeover, and the result is … interesting. First, as a reminder, here’s the logo as it appeared ~~previously~~ — no, the one previous to that:

My mother’s 2010 Volvo S80

The blue has been associated with Volvo’s logo for a long while now, and it’s slowly been disappearing from the lineup (in favor of black in the same location). However, they’ve decided — they being both Volvo Cars and Volvo Group, two distinct entities (the latter including Volvo Trucks, the Volvo construction folks, Volvo Penta [marine], etc.) — to change to this new, more austere logo and word mark simultaneously. Aaaaaand:

Words fail me. Thankfully, there’s been plenty of coverage. See Brand New (subscription), CarScoops, and The Drive. What’s interesting — and largely gone under the radar — is that the logo debuted on a concept car back in June.

It’s part of a trend, too:

See the previous coverage on Foreword. Can’t go, however, without a hat tip to Kristen Shaw at The Drive, who dug out this 1937 version — which, I’d argue, beats ’em all. Kudos.