1956 1960 1970 1980

Like every company that rises and grows, the FOMAS Group, throu-ghout its history, has undergone some evolutions concerning the re-presentations of its own brand. Brand is understood to be the means of ap-propriation or the sense of belonging, and we can say that the brand is born together with ownership.

The history

In the Grammar of Seeing, Essays upon perception and gestalt by Gaetano Kanizsa, there is a chapter that focuses on how objects are made invisible. The author quotes several scholars, one of them is W. Metzger who, in his Gesetze des Sehens, in 1975, dedicates two chapter to the analysis of some principles according to which animals camouflage, showing how in all cases there are vision laws that encourage a segmentation of observer’s visual field so that, instead of the sought objects,

other objects appear. So the camouflage of known shapes takes place, a camouflage that does not depend on the fact that the shapes are presented in an unusual context nor on the simple addition of lines.The known shapes are masked when the addition of other lines creates the conditions for coercive constitution of new units on the basis of non-empirical factors, like closure, symmetry and good continuation.

Curiosity

FOMAS was born in 1956, from an idea of Professor Gastone Guzzoni. FOMAS an acronym of “FORGIATURA MODERNA ACCIAI SPECIALI”, roughly Forging & Manufacturing of Special Steel.Almost immediately, starting from the 1960s, the origins of the current logotype could be found in some advertising prints.

Placed above the FOMAS writing, for the first time the two Ts, or rather the two anvils, appeared (stylized in shape and placed side by side), inserted among three black arrows…

Over the years, we can notice some design interventions on the lettering and, in particular, on the volumes and the colour of the logotype.

The final result is a new font, mainly used in positive (red and black on white) leading to the complete camouflage of the anvils.

In the middle of 2000, when the name officially switched to Fomas Group, came the last evolution: the addition of Group in the lower half of the brand.

1980 1990 2000 2009

Five white squares on a black background or four arrows on a white background?

Adverts 1960 till today

FOMAS old press reviews

This curiosity explains, partially, the reason underlying the in-stinctive appropriation of the arrow as a distinctive symbol re-presenting the Group. A symbol, the arrow, that in 2006, with the realization of the chessboard (gift for the 50th company anniversary, in which the pawns are copies in miniature of FOMAS pieces, realized according to aesthetic and functional criterion with respect to the game) reinforces itself even more through the role of the Horse.With this design gift, the company Management charts a new course, confronting itself with the art of chess game.For FOMAS, the characteristics that have distinguished the company since its conception are the same distinctive ele-ments of a good chess-player: courage, vision, resolution as well as reflection, risk ability and will-power.

In a context, the one of chess but also the one of a big com-pany, made of strategies, courage and team play.And in light of an expansion of the FOMAS Group and its new organization that leads us to have two main divisions, we have reconsidered the pawns of this chessboard, extending them to represent the whole Group.

The horse, as previously stated, represents the Corporate Di-vision, the bishop stands for Open Die Forgings (historical FOMAS and Bay Forge) and the tower symbolizes the Rings Division (in which the alliance of ASFO, ODV*, Hot Roll, La Foulerie and newborn FOMAS Dalian represents an incom-parable power in the production of rings for manifold sectors and applications) – (* Subsidiary company of ASFO S.p.a.)

The chessboard

The chess-board is the world; the pieces are the phenomena of the universe; the rules of the game are what we call the Laws of Nature. The player on the other side is hidden from us. We know that his play is always fair, just and patient. But also we know, to our cost, that he never overlooks a mista-ke, or makes the smallest allowance for ignorance. Thomas Huxley

FOMAS GROUP Via Martiri della Liberazione, 17 - 23875 Osnago (LC) - Italy Tel. +39 039 99811 - Fax +39 039 587415 - info@fomasgroup.com - www.fomasgroup.com

ASFO S.p.a.

Chiuppano (VI) (Italy)

ODV - Officine di Villamarzana S.p.a.

Villamarzana (RO) (Italy)

FOMAS S.p.a.

Osnago (LC) (Italy)

Hot Roll S.r.l.

Busano (TO) (Italy)

Bay-Forge Ltd.

Chennai (India)

FOMAS Precision Forging (Dalian) Co., Ltd.

(China)

La Foulerie SAS

Carignan (France)

FOMAS Group in the world