Secret
Welcome to this secret page!
What does Sleipnir mean? Why was the company named Fenrir?
Have you had these kinds of questions? Then read this page to find their answers.
On this page, we will secretly tell you all secrets of Fenrir Inc and Sleipnir :-) So enjoy! But... shhhhhhh....
Secret No.1
Secret of history and foundation of Fenrir Inc
Why did Yasuyuki Kashiwagi have to give up developing Sleipnir?
Yasuyuki Kashiwagi's (the developer of Sleipnir and founder of Fenrir Inc) PCs were stolen on November 16th , 2002 and he lost all his software source code for Sleipnir. So it was very difficult for him to recreate and develop Sleipnir from the beginning. He was very shocked after the accident but it became a big news in Japanese software industry. Then he started receiving a lot of warm and supporting messages from Sleipnir users. They encouraged him a lot and he decided to face the situation and recreate the software again.
Since then, he had been developing Sleipnir while he worked for a company but started thinking that he would like to be committed himself to creating software to come up to users' expectations. That is why Fenrir Inc was established.
He founded Fenrir Inc in 2005 when he was 24 years old. Since then, Yasuyuki Kashiwagi has been developing softwares with the mottos, "Share wonderful experience with many users through softwares" and "Develop softwares that can provide happiness to people around the world."
Secret No.2
Secret of the name, "Sleipnir"
What is Sleipnir? Where did this name come from?
Sleipnir is a horse with 8 legs originally from Norse myth. Sleipnir is said that the greatest of all horses and its name means smooth or gliding and is related to English word "slippery" You may think it is a good name for browser but actually, Yasuyuki Kashiwagi didn't know the meaning of Sleipnir at first.
When he was thinking what to name the browser, he put priority on sound. He wanted to name it something elegant, beautiful, soft and feminine. He was also looking for a word starting with "S" sound because he felt "S" sound gave sophisticated impression. Then he found the name "Sleipnir" and when he checked the meaning of Sleipnir, he found it was good for the browser. So he named it Sleipnir.
Secret No.3
Secret of the Sleipnir icon design
Why did Sleipnir icon have a helm mark?
That is because Yasuyuki Kashiwagi liked Netscape software. Do you remember Netscape logo? Yes, it was a helm.
He thought that it would be easy for many people to recognize an icon of web browser on desktop, if he used helm mark as the same as Netscape browser. Also a helm has 8 spokes and you can easily associate them with 8 legged Sleipnir. So a helm became Sleipnir icon.
Secret No.4
Secret of the Seipnir icon after version 3.0.0
Official version 3.0.0 has not released yet but Fenrir Inc will change Sleipnir icon to a horse motif. Why is that?
One of the reasons was that many browser has been created and motifs that show browsers have been diversified. When Sleipnir was created, many people can recognize Sleipnir as a browser because it has a helm mark and it was good for users and Fenrir Inc. But now, things have changed. So Fenrir Inc decided to change its icon when version 3.0.0 is released.
Fenrir Inc put priority on images that a motif had when creating an icon. We wanted a motif, something sophisticated and elegant. Speaking of elegance or sophistication, what kind of motifs do you come up with...?
Firstly, we played word association game; from the key words of Sleipnir, "computer" and "browser for advanced users," we came up with a few words, "digital," "precision," and "inorganic." Then we imaged "metal" from those words and we decided to use silver color for the icon based on those images.
After that, we started thinking again;
"What is something metallic, something silver and something we can image Sleipnir...?"
"Oh! What about a Chess Knight??"
Chess has a sophisticated image and the Knight is horse shaped. Also it can move to 8 different squares. So you can link it with 8 legged Sleipnir easily. Fenrir Inc created the new icon, silver metal Chess Knight, with a hope and enthusiasm that Fenrir Inc will continuously create the sophisticated browser for advanced users.
Secret No.5
Secret of the name of Fenrir
What is Fenrir? Where did this name come from?
You may not have heard the word, "Fenrir" before. What is "Fenrir?"
Fenrir came from Norse myth, the same as Sleipnir. Yasuyuki Kashiwagi, the founder of Fenrir Inc developed the browser first and named Sleipnir. So he thought it was a good idea to name his company something from Norse myth. When he decided the name, he put importance on sound of a name and image of a character. He was looking for a character which was strong and but its name still has beautiful sound. He also wanted a name that is not so common. After looking through Norse myth keeping those in his mind, he found "Fenrir" and thought good for the company name.
Fenrir is a big and powerful wolf and it is said that his maxilla reached to the sky when he opened his mouth. In the myth, there is the scene that Fenrir was stabbed in his mouth and his much saliva from his mouth became a river called "Van" which means "hope".
So he decided to name his company Fenrir with the said reasons and a hope that it grows and expands strongly.
Secret No.6
Secret of Fenrir Inc's logo and color
What is company logo? Why is black Fenrir Inc's color?
Have you seen our company logo? Fenrir logo is white wolf with black background. You can see his ear on the left and his nose on the right top and he is roaring.
Fenrir Inc uses lots of black color for Fenrir logo and our home pages etc. Why is Fenrir company color black?
What kind of image does black color have? Answers can vary depending on your countries, your culture or individuals. Each of you may have different images.
Yasuyuki Kashiwagi, the founder of Fenrir Inc decided the color emphasizing on premium or high-class images that black has. For example, when you image a limousine, what car color do you think of? Many of you may answer "black." What about classy suits and bags? Black? It is true that black has high-class image.
Also black is hard to be colored or mixed with other colors. So Yasuyuki Kashiwagi wanted the Fenrir Inc to pursue its own way not being influenced by other companies. So he decided black as Fenrir Inc's color.
So how did you like them, secrets of Fenrir Inc and Sleipnir? We hope you enjoyed reading!
If your friends don't know about them yet, please tell them our secrets... They may wonder what "Sleipnir" is. But please tell them secretly... shhhhh...