Category
Visual Design, Branding
Category
Visual Design, Branding
Client
Automobile.it
Services
Brand Strategy
UX/UI
Illustration
Copywriting
Social
Launch
2019
Country
Italy
Automobile.it asked us climb in the front seat with them on their journey toward rebranding. Our work included the new website as well as print and digital communication materials, and the creation of a Brand Manual with precise visual guidelines to make sure all future B2B and B2C communication stays in the right lane.
The aim was to strengthen the perception of automobile.it, both for current and new users. Automobile.it is more than *just* an exhaustive, highly specialized search engine: it’s that favorite friend who knows everything about cars, the one you’d turn to the next time you’re shopping for a new one.
In a world full of look-alike car photography, we chose illustration (which, as a design trend, is also enjoying a renaissance among major brands). We worked together to create a visual language to communicate simplicity and immediacy that we refined through user testing.
Francesco Baj, Brand Specialist, automobile.it
From the sharing of the road map to the final positioning, we worked side by side through a succession of milestones. Visual elements like color palettes, fonts and colors were carefully selected and applied to all visual elements of the brand.
The original illustrations were developed first for the new website, and then extended across all other communication materials. Automobile.it is about the people they serve, which is why people, in varying levels of definition, are always front and center. To create vibrancy and dynamism we used abstract elements, including geometric shapes, emojis and irregular background blobs.
We worked with automobile.it to redesign UX and UI to improve the experience on a site that collects thousands of ads every day.
For the homepage interface, we helped make it easier for people to find the right car by associating specific results to specific life needs (e.g. Family, Adventures, City, Ecological, etc.).
Like signs are the road, icons are essential for fluid wayfinding on a website. We helped improve navigation and the user journey by developing an iconography system to help summarize abstract concepts at a glance and link pages and features together. It’s an added help for the many non-expert visitors who simply need to find their way to the car they need.
With this creative roadmap in place, we created the other B2C and B2B communication materials (brochures and calendars), the preview visuals for the app and a landing page dedicated to B2C services.
Our copywriting and design teams joined up to create both marketing and educational newsletters to help facilitate the user journey. This was rounded off with organic and sponsored social media posts and display ad campaigns.
What’s the added value of a close-knit team? The design-led project was supported by our copywriting on tone of voice, language, and web development team for technical support, to help bring the friendly interface to life.