At the 2011 Techtextil trade fair in Frankfurt, Germany, Saint-Gobain Technical Fabrics revealed its new identity: ADFORS. As a new institutional brand, ADFORS reinforces the Saint-Gobain Group’s strategy which is based on promoting strong brands in the construction and habitat sectors. ADFORS is endorsed by Saint-Gobain, with a visual identity that clearly expresses that ADFORS is part of the Saint-Gobain Group.
ADFORS is an international leader in technical reinforcement fabrics and glass fibres, with over 50 years expertise, currently positioned more specifically in reinforcements for construction.
Under its new brand name, ADFORS brings together the activities previously performed by Saint-Gobain Technical Fabrics: Vetrotex, an international player in glass fibre manufacture, ADFORS Industrial Fabrics, a business which produces technical fabrics that are further processed by our clients and ADFORS Construction Products, which offers a wide range of finished reinforcement products for habitat and infrastructure.
In pursuing its strategy of setting the group’s offerings apart by offering innovative, high-end products, while maintaining its position in end-user construction markets, Saint-Gobain Technical Fabrics needed a brand that would express its need for readability and commercial effectiveness through an identity that reflected its ambitions.
The name ADFORS, short and evocative will help the company become well-known internationally, while consolidating and simplifying communications with all of our markets, clients and prospective clients.
The dynamic and positive new brand, ADFORS, unites both teams and partners in an affirmation of their commitment to the brand, by further enhancing its reputation and building its success around the world, while respecting its values: strength, innovation, local presence, safety, responsibility and durability.
As the successor to Saint-Gobain Technical Fabrics, the ADFORS name is intended to affirm the brand on the basis of a strong visual identity which is supported by the Saint-Gobain Group. This involves conveying an image of consistent, positive and constructive communication in every market in the world.
All communication actions, whether institutional or marketing, internal or external, will now be structured using an established system and an easily identifiable graphic charter. Any message must clearly contribute to presenting the ADFORS brand as the essential company to go to for habitat reinforcements.
By creating ADFORS, the Saint-Gobain Group is continuing its development plans in order to propose comprehensive, focused, independent and consistent solutions for the ever-changing habitat materials market.
In the habitat market, where the very large number of diverse players make brands the number-one vehicle for reputation and image, the goal of the Saint-Gobain endorsement is to preserve the image value of each of the group’s brands, while allowing the whole group to benefit from them.
In this way, Saint-Gobain places itself as the group to look to in habitat materials. Under this banner, the brands will be able to develop and thrive in their respective markets.
The etymology of the ADFORS name and the design of the logo were carefully considered in order to evoke the brand’s objectives and values in a simple, immediate, and versatile manner.
The two roots that comprise the word ADFORS are meaningful and intelligible in every country in which the brand’s products are distributed: ‘Add’ and ‘Fors’ (for strength). ADFORS can thus be literally translated as ‘adding strength to construction.’
The logo is red to evoke the notion of heat and strength, a perfect match for the sound of the high-impact word ‘Fors.’
Of course, the mesh pattern included in the logo recalls technical fabrics, while also symbolising ADFORS’s technological know-how and expertise.
This mesh visual curves around the letter ‘A’ to convey the notions of protection, reinforcement and comfort, with its mathematical construction evoking scientific rigour and mastery.
The all-cap print lettering reinforces the aspects of strength and professionalism associated with the brand. The font, which is a blend of straight and curved lines, evokes ADFORS’ institutional values of harmony, quality and modernity.
Lastly, the underlined Saint-Gobain signature gives the entire logo a solid, stable base, like the stability the group offers to each of the companies in it.
SAINT-GOBAIN ADFORS is part of the Saint-Gobain Group, the worldwide number one in production and distribution of construction materials. ADFORS offers reinforcement products and solutions, mainly based on glass fibre, for a range of construction and infrastructure applications.