Study Task 01

Collaborative Branding - Day One

The study task set today provided instructions to collaboratively rebrand a given company using only type to effectively and successfully communicate the market, target audience and sector in a contemporary context. As a starting point, we as a group were required to decide on one of Massimo Vignelli's six basic typefaces - those which he believes are the only typefaces required by designers to produce successful works. These typefaces are Garamond, Bodoni, Century Expanded, Futura, Times Roman, and Helvetica. Before we decided on this, we first needed to research our given company in order to make informed, relevant and considered design choices that would more successfully communicate the brand.

Our given rebrand-subject was "Global." Established in 1997, Global Auto Care started as a vehicle maintenance centre. We found that the company quickly gained a reputation for it’s high quality and reliable service, resulting in opportunity for the business to expand and thus become a company providing a vast range of vehicle related services. These services included:

• UK wide vehicle movement
• Vehicle storage
• Daily rental
• De-fleet
• Maintenance Centre

Noted on their website - www.global-autocare.co.uk - Global feature the slogan “Your one stop fleet solution” as part of their brand identity. The group decided this was relevant to the company due to the range of available services to their clients in one place: This place being their new “impressive” facility “Global One.” 

We discovered the company primarily provides it’s range of services to “some of the UK’s largest PLC’s,” but also to other companies with smaller fleet sizes ranging from 1 vehicle to several thousand. Global provides mostly for businesses / organisations with larger fleets.

Further research allowed us to establish the company's target market. Our findings and discussion led us to the conclusion that Global's specialism in “premium” manufacturers, including Volkswagen, BMW, Audi, Mercedes, jaguar and Land Rover, in conjunction with the “high quality and reliable” services they provide at “competitive prices” meant the target for the company would be working middle to upper class persons. This is supported by the fact the competitive rates of service will be accessible to those in financially stable circumstances, whilst the specialism in “premium,” more expensive manufacturers suggests a target of the affluent and persons in possession of high disposable income. 

Leeds United FC Sponsorship.

Each of the given rebrand-subjects, of course including Global, are a LUFC sponsor. The group identified Global are also the official motor vehicle partner of the club for the 2015/16 season. The company are offering free M.o.T tests to season ticket holders and club members of the football club. We discussed as a group how the affiliation will gain new custom for Global through the incentive of the free M.o.T’s, whilst LUFC will also attract new club members and season ticket holders. This partnership works favourably for both in question, and the mutual support for Leeds based companies / clubs is what makes the partnership successful.

Having carried out our initial research, talk soon turned to how each of us in the group felt about the existing visual identity and what our thoughts were in moving forward with the rebrand. We unanimously concluded that Global's current branding was irrelevant, unconsidered and unsuccessful in its communication of the market, target audience and sector context. Below are our considerations and supporting thoughts on why the company's communicating visual language needs to be completely changed:

• Global Auto Care is a national UK company. They have been based only in the UK (Leeds) since their establishment in 1997. This fact alone makes the company’s name irrelevant, misleading, and questionable. Their services are not “global,” but exclusive to the UK, with them quoted as having “some of the UK’s largest PLC’s” as their customers. 

• The identity’s type features a capital “G” followed by lowercase letters. This is not a relevant design decision, nor is it suitable for purpose in that it does not enhance or enforce the feeling of scale, as “global” implies.

• The globe featured within the visual makes the logo hard to understand visually. It takes time to process due to its complexity, and is border-line illegible.

• The logo as is depicts pink type - inappropriate in for the use of “global” as it is a feminine colour, irrelevant in the communication of what some may consider a male dominated business sector/interest. The colour does not provoke visual connection to cars. 

• The word “global” alone (as featured on their website) does not prompt thought about cars, it has so semantic connection to the companies services or business sector.

• The visual identity of the company, including its web presence, is in cohesive, forgettable and un-clear.

• The identity is not forthcoming in communicating what the company provides service-wise. It is hard to establish a connection  between the company and the sector of their business. This is unsuccessful when considering Globals sponsorship of LUFC, as Global’s services are not clear from their name and therefore LUFC fans may find it hard to gage the business. 

As a group we then decided to go away tonight and consider some ideas for the rebrand, taking in to account today's findings, with the intention to decide on one of Vignelli's typefaces and begin our process in creating a new design treatment for Global tomorrow. 

Below are our in-studio workings from today's session.