Project Overview:
Gaia Hydrogen Cars is an automobile brand focused on bringing the latest sustainable technology to the automotive industry en masse.
This hydrogen-powered vehicle brand pushes for sustainability as the most abundant element in the universe, hydrogen, making up 3 quarters of all matter, emits only a waste product of water when spent, unlike typical gasoline engines.
Project Scope:
Full Brand Identity
Services Rendered:
Art Direction | Illustration | Style Guides | Graphic Design | Brand Identity
Automotive Branding built for the Digital Age
As we move more and more online as a society, transitioning our brands from the physical to the digital is of utmost importance. Perhaps the most recent to experience this adaptation phase has been the automotive industry, the chrome bevels and large strokes becoming a trend of the past.
In designing a brand for Gaia, the logo, being the face of the brand, had to meet certain criteria to work in the digital realm. It had to be flat, high-contrast, easy to use, reduced to only the essentials, and importantly, symmetrical enough to be the visual centrepiece of the vehicle.
A brand identity for an automobile company in 2024 comes with challenges, as attitudes toward the relationship between automobiles and the environment have fundamentally changed the way brands are perceived. The Gaia brand was conceived to carry itself with an eco-concious confidence, a with a tone that rebels against the old unsustainable norms of the auto industry.
The Gaia logo is crafted to display continuous movement, utilizing 45 degree angles & sweeping curves, all carefully crafted on a grid & further kerned for the best possible brand recognition. The brandmark, known as the "Droplet", reflects multiple meanings- firstly & most obviously, the fact that the hydrogen powered engines Gaia produces emit only water as a byproduct. Secondly, the the "Droplet" includes a G, allowing for brand recognition when the "Droplet" is used alone. Finally, the "Droplet" is crafted using a single line, creating one single, looping movement, symbolizing the water cycle & environmental benefit of hydrogen fuel-cell engine technology.
How did I get here?
The first step of creating a brand from scratch is the ideation that leads to defining the brand's personality & logo design.
From the first moment of pen on paper I knew I wanted to create a custom workmark for this logo, something that was on a grid so that future brand materials were scaleable for all usage cases. Given the advanced technological goals of Gaia, many space-age ideas were running through my head, as I felt the brand personality leaned futuristic. But, as you can see in the sketches, the challenges of this goal are to keep the workmark legible.
As the wordmark came along in the ideation phase, I opted to shift gears to creation of an icon for the brand, as most car companies have displayed on their vehicle's front fascia, as a central brand identity. The combination of a water droplet and a "G" came to mind after exploration, the droplet form lending itself well to a symmetrical icon that could be proudly displayed on brand materials.
The Brand 360°
The Gaia Hydrogen Vehicles brand identity is made up of intentionally designed components from the largest to the smallest usage cases.
Gaia's vibrant personality injects itself into every facet of the brand through various graphic motifs ranging from layout structure, tone of type, illustration guidelines, and graphic motifs such as the Gaia leaf, Gaia stripes, & Gaia clover.
Corporate Style Guide
I developed a corporate style guide and illustration standards guideline to quickly and easily help future G.H.V. designers create on-brand illustrations based on the Gaia brand principles.
Keeping an Identity
Gaia Hydrogen Vehicles personality can be found on every single piece of corporate branding.
Below you can find stationery including letterheads, business cards, and envelopes, as well as display pieces such as flags, vertical showroom placards, shopping bags, magnetic gift boxes (everyone needs a awesome box for the keys to their new vehicle), packing tape, and owners manuals.
