A hybrid of traditional and futuristic technologies and branding
Australian Bus Manufacturing is a century-old business with a strong presence in the Australian transport industry. Known for playing an integral part in the development of buses around Australia, the company decided to step into the future by entering the New Energy (Electric) Vehicle market.
Initial project challenge: Logo refresh – shifting the past into post-modern
The first question we had to ask ourselves was how to transform an intensely traditional brand identity into a high-tech futuristic brand story? Problem number 1: The company only possessed an outdated logo that wasn’t in a vector file format. Problem number 2: We could only work with limited technical information about the New Energy Vehicles themselves – as the state-of-the-art technology needed to be kept under wraps for copyright/Intellectual Property purposes. Outcome: We had very little content or assets to work with.
The logo provided to us may have come from the 1970’s. It was chock-full of serifs and would have looked great back in the day but was now severely outdated. We chose a sans-serif font and incorporated smooth lines to symbolise the ease in which a fully electric vehicle would drive down Australian highways. Shades of blue were employed to emphasise coolness – no hot, smoking petrol engines here.
Unforeseeable problems strike halfway through the website build
After doing extensive research and content writing on New Energy Vehicles, and subsequent web design wireframes and concepts, a spanner was thrown into the works. The client explained that due to regulatory and funding requirements for the project, the creative brief had to completely change. Now we needed to emphasise the history of the brand in the Australian bus industry, only touching upon their current intentions. This obviously meant we were sent back to the drawing board.
Our content writer knuckled down on sourcing historical information around the brand, and our web designer went on the hunt for photographs of old buses to incorporate into the new ‘hybrid’ (no pun intended) design. The result was a modern website focusing on a traditional brand yet hinting at its future intentions via use of eco-friendly-based icons and colours. This meant the client could exhibit its long history to government and corporate investors, while simultaneously sharing its goal for the coming years.
MiSolution helped XM eDrum to build a professional, user-friendly website. In addition to making it easy for customers to find the information they require they can also find and buy our products without any difficulty. Jesse is a very kind and active partner to work together with. He is always able to help us think of fast and effective sales and marketing methods, plus is adept at reminding us of fine details we often overlook. He is more like a good friend than a work colleague and is willing to help any time we need it. I’d recommend MiSolution’s website, writing, and digital marketing skills to help your business attain success.
Roger Chang, Export Sales Manager, XM eDrum