← Work · Construction equipment · Pederneiras, Brazil
Volvo CEPederneiras
More than a decade telling the people inside the plant the story it builds for the world outside.
- Client
- Volvo Construction Equipment · Pederneiras plant, Brazil
- Scope
- Internal communication, anniversary seals, event identities, corporate film and ads
- Partnership
- Ongoing since January 2013
- Highlight
- Film approved without a single note and sent to Volvo plants worldwide
01 — Where it started
A heavy-machinery plant in inland São Paulo, people working in shifts, and a question that comes back every year: how do you make each of them feel part of it?
Since January 2013, I have been answering that question with the internal communication team at Volvo Pederneiras. Plant anniversaries, the yearly supplier meeting, continuous-improvement programmes, tributes to the town. Every piece held to the standard of a global brand, made for the people who work there.
02 — Since 1975
A story that began long before me.
The Pederneiras plant opened in 1975, still as Clark, and was taken over by Volvo in the decades that followed. For its anniversaries I dug into the archive: photos of the construction site, the opening day and the first machines leaving the line. The past became raw material for the communication.
03 — 40 years · 2015
A number that loops back on itself.
For the plant’s 40th anniversary, the 4 and the 0 became a single continuous blue ribbon, like a road that never ends. It went on the anniversary mural, on the mugs given to employees and across the year’s communication.
04 — 50 years · 2025
Ten years on, the same blue with more weight.
For the 50th, a new seal: the 5 and the 0 interlaced in volume, in Portuguese and English, with solid-colour and monochrome versions. Alongside it, a quick brand guide so any department in the plant could use it correctly.
05 — Supplier Day
Six editions, six identities.
2014
2015
2016
Driving customer satisfaction & profitability
2017
High-performance partnership
2019
High-performance partnership
2020
Perform and transform
01 / 06
Once a year, Volvo brings the plant’s suppliers together in Pederneiras. For every edition I created a new identity, from the logo to the badge, the notebook and the placemat. None repeats the one before.
06 — Supplier Day · the kit
From kraft paper to the façade.
Badges, folders, pens, notebooks, placemats and event signage.
07 — Q+ Programme
Explaining a programme to the people on the line.
The Q+ Programme organises continuous improvement at the plant. I created the logo and the leaflet that explained it to every employee: how it works, who audits, how the teams are split and how scoring is done.
08 — For the town
Happy birthday, Pederneiras.
On the town’s 123rd birthday, the plant publicly thanked the place that welcomed it. The ad ran in three local newspapers in 2014: A Tribuna, A Praça and A Notícia.
09 — The film · 2016
From Pederneiras to Volvo plants around the world.
PederneirasBrazil
0 of 35 cities with Volvo Group plants
- Curitiba, Brazil
- Mexico City, Mexico
- Lexington, USA
- New River Valley, USA
- Hagerstown, USA
- Shippensburg, USA
- Middletown, USA
- Lehigh Valley, USA
- Plattsburgh, USA
- Saint-Eustache, Canada
- Saint-François-du-Lac, Canada
- Sainte-Claire, Canada
- Motherwell, United Kingdom
- Gent, Belgium
- Blainville-sur-Orne, France
- Bourg-en-Bresse, France
- Vénissieux, France
- Belley, France
- Konz, Germany
- Göteborg, Sweden
- Uddevalla, Sweden
- Borås, Sweden
- Vara, Sweden
- Skövde, Sweden
- Braås, Sweden
- Hallsberg, Sweden
- Köping, Sweden
- Eskilstuna, Sweden
- Arvika, Sweden
- Umeå, Sweden
- Durban, South Africa
- Bangalore, India
- Xangai, China
- Changwon, South Korea
- Brisbane, Australia
Zero notes at approval.
Pederneiras’ leadership went through an efficiency programme meant only for senior managers, and found its own way to take it to every employee. The efficiency gains caught the attention of headquarters in Sweden, which commissioned a film to teach the method to the other plants.
In 2016 I produced the film in English, with Pederneiras executives explaining how they rolled the method out. It was approved without a single note, shown at Volvo plants around the world and paid for directly by Volvo’s finance centre in Brussels.
The film is for Volvo internal use only and cannot be shown here. The map shows the production sites the Volvo Group lists today.
10 — Deliverables
- Plant 40th anniversary seal
- 50th anniversary seal & guide
- Anniversary mural
- Identity for six Supplier Day editions
- Badges, folders, notebooks & gifts
- Q+ Programme logo & leaflet
- Town anniversary ad
- Corporate film in English (2016)
- Ongoing internal communication
- Creative direction & design
- Gabriel Vitiver
- Client
- Volvo CE · internal communication, Pederneiras
- Period
- Since January 2013