Branding for a San Francisco-based platform for EV charging

Currently, the Stable is trying to push through the thick target market fog of electric cars. They are developing modeling software that pinpoints the location of all their stations. Concurrently, it produces an estimated charging cost for a vehicle before it heads back to the road. Exactly this piece of software will be functioning for decades, making an electric car future possible and flexible.

The primary target audience set on the executive teams that know their business and fear being left behind or taken over by Silicon Valley. Meaning that these people are waiting for another big bang that will completely disrupt the car market, putting a challenge to the regular vendors’ environment.

Brand identity challenge

The Stable company has two main challenges in mind. First, secure the majority of the location of all charging stations. And second is to create a professional brand image that can stand out and be trustworthy. To build such a brand identity, our San Francisco branding agency collaborated with the Stable co-founder, allowing our team to dive more deeply into the EV industry and deliver the desired result.

First steps

Whenever we get our hands busy developing and forming a concrete brand identity, we start with its positioning. More specifically, we try to identify which niche does it take and what value does it hold. After conducting a discussion with the Stable team and going through some key questions, our branding agency experts began analyzing their industry competitors.

In the meantime, we outlined core brand attributes that resonated with their customers’ emotions and could deliver a joyful experience. Additionally, we defined the tone of voice, character type, and the overall mood, Stable brand identity should have.

Next, our team narrowed down the research process. We stressed out the elements that correctly resonated with the company image by using adjectives to describe it. Simple, durable, friendly, and agile, these were the ones that personified the brand. Next, we formed the first visual representation (mood boards) after connecting both the adjectives and the inspiration sketches. They guided and inspired further our team to create the correct brand identity while providing quality results.

“Funnel” filtering

After establishing the core concept, we started to create lots of sketches and simple drawings. Every single one of them had a clear impact on the further development work. Only the most prominent ones raised closer to the final output.

This process started with a simple task: drawing figures and sketching the lines. Our design team explored additional inspirational directions based on the produced results, the company requirements, and its goals. We guided our client through each iteration, discussing and weighing down every single design approach.

Passing the final verdict

As the filtering iteration was coming to an end, we finalized several designs that our team has produced. It is the so-called “design funnel.” Our team and the client reduced the number of options, choosing only the ones that are likely to be the final output. In parallel, we discussed each produced variation altogether.

The process of creating a Stable brand got finished by the time our team enhanced all of the selected options with concrete detail. Once finalized, we added more elements to it. For that, we detail it and add colors, making the final logo look more appealing and attractive to the targeted audience.

Source of inspiration

Most of the results and other significant design snippets metaphorically represent various road directions, highway paths, and broad panoramas, connecting to a car trip. Others got inspired by abstract and conceptual elements, like the ‘S’ symbol, which is the first letter in the project’s name. At the same time, it connects to the word “synergy” relevant for the project’s industry and the product our client produces: charging stations.

The collaboration continues

In the end, as we have progressed through this huge funneling process, our team has successfully delivered a solid brand identity. And to show its applicability and the potential experience that a Stable customer may have, we prepared a few composite shots of charging stations. It has also allowed our client to understand the correct logo placement and the aesthetic feeling it is radiating.

Together with the Stable team, we created a visual foundation for further brand development and gave a solid basis of how and where the brand logo should belong. Be it an offline environment or an online testing platform, Stable’s brand identity will change as the company continues to grow.