Designing an Identity and Online Presence
We worked with CarBerri rebrand their innovative startup and build a website to do their business justice.
Tonight, I’m writing about the process and results of rebranding Ormhel’s company from Listed Motors to CarBerri. It was one of the most intensive branding processes that I’ve been a part of, but the results are perhaps my favourite yet.
But first, before I dig into the process…
…Last week I had the distinct pleasure of leaving a venue with Ormhel Manuel as he walked away from a pitch competition with a hefty sum of cash — still not the most he’s won which is impressive. That day I got to see a crowd of people watch him pitch his startup to a panel of judges. It was the first time I saw his company’s rebranding out in public — of which I had the pleasure to work on with the team — as it showcased itself in his slide deck. I’m happy to report that I thought it stood out in all the good ways.
How we got started
I met Ormhel in a business accelerator called LaunchPad at Mount Royal University. After Ormhel walked away from the subsequent LaunchPad competition with the grand prize of $30,000 he approached me wanting to work together. I was onboard — his startup had interested me during the entire accelerator.
Fast track a couple of weeks into the future and Ormhel had changed his company’s name from Listed Motors to CarBerri (Google’s page ranking was sorting him with real estate companies). The new name change gave me the opportunity to reposition his branding to meet his newly discovered primary target market — women — as well as freshen the image of the company up for the trendy startup world.
First step: colour.
Colour
We had already been equipped with the relevant branding exercise materials and information: business values, target demographic information, mission, etc. With these materials in hand, I like to start with colours because they set the tone for a business. CarBerri needed to establish trust with their customers as they are expecting customers to buy a car completely online — not a small purchase. Developing a slick brand was critical. This meant clean, confident colours.
Originally we began with an extremely cutback palette with just one “colour”; the rest were all shades of grey, black, and white. We checked for colour contrast to keep within accessible user experience guidelines by referring to the A11Y Project and some tools they recommend.
This act of restraint was intentional as it kept us grounded throughout the general design process. We hit on a colour that the team loved with Carmine Pink (#F16670) and didn’t want to messy up our still minimal understanding of the new brand. Carmine Pink stood out to us because red-pink tones were a relatively untouched territory by competitors who almost exclusively used the same tone of light blue. Carmine Pink also evoked thoughts of berries akin to the name CarBerri — raspberries, strawberries, cranberries.
As soon as we began illustrations, the colours rapidly expanded in their depth and frequency. In addition to the flat colours, we added subtle gradients to draw extra attention to certain elements and serve as more dynamic backgrounds for sections of the website.
The expanded colour palette remained within the framework of bright, tasty berry-inspired colours, perhaps with the exception of yellow. (Let me know if you can think of a yellow berry!)
Illustrations
Following in the pattern of flat colours and a restrained palette, CarBerri’s illustrations maintain a restrained and flat aesthetic.
We loved the way the illustrations drew attention to our business model; the human centered illustrations create a human connection without the need for stock photography, which takes away from the simple aesthetic.
Typography
Our approach to typography was relatively straightforward and a result of two needs:
- Fast page loads.
- Confidence inspiring, stable font.
The natural go-to in order to remain within startup budget: default browser font families. We expected that a majority of target customers would be visiting the website on Apple devices, so their default font would be Apple’s own fonts San Francisco UI Display and Text. Microsoft and Android devices would display Segoe UI and Roboto respectively. The great thing about all of these fonts: they all appear natural to any user browsing the web, as they blend right into the platform they’re on. In addition, their loading speeds are instant for their devices. This a major benefit as “40% of people abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load” according to Kissmetrics.
Using default fonts hit on the need for a confidence inspiring, stable font. Each of the default font is a strong, highly readable and familiar font to users. This hit on the target we needed and answered all of our typography needs.
Outcomes
We were very pleased at the end of the project. We were excited to receive some validation from both the client and from results using the identity in public pitches and on social media. CarBerri saw an appreciable bump in social media metrics after transitioning to the new identity, something we will cheekily take some credit for.
Field was unbelievable helpful to our company, and they are probably some of the best developers I’ve seen — and I’ve seen and dealt with a lot. I was impressed during every step of the project and they held my hand the entire way. I have already recommended them to all the people I know.
—Ormhel, CarBerri
Like the identity? If you have a business, startup, or product and think that we might be a good fit for your upcoming project, visit us over at our website. We’d love to chat.
