Smart Electric
With their main manufacturing hub in Taiwan, headquarters and sales arm across North America, and design studio in the UK, Smart Electric approached Alloneword to help collate their visual infrastructure to their truly multinational company.
Overview:
With their established client base in the US, Smart Electric wanted to bring their visual presence up to date with the modern design practices of the products themselves. Working closely with the Smart Electric Design Director, through a series of workshops, visual experiments, and thorough research and discovery, the end result is a minimal but confident branding which can be manipulated for all three departments, and their geographical locations.
Services:
A Design Strategy to Span The Globe
The main challenge for Smart Electric was that their manufacturing is in Taiwan and interacts with customers and partners there, but their sales arm in the US also operates within a different field and to different customers and partners. With the introduction of their specialist product design studio in the UK, Smart Electric needed a brand that was versatile enough to be used for describing different locations, or different departments, but also minimal enough that it could be applied with the most effortless of logomarks.
Promotional Video Production
In order to showcase the new brand to their existing clients at upcoming pitches, Smart Electric required a promotional video within a quick turnaround time.
An Identity Steeped in Design Heritage
Part of the rebrand was to bring more design heritage to the company, and reflect the new design sensibilities that their UK design studio would be bringing in. Alloneword conducted an in-depth research and discovery phase, presenting moodboards back to Smart Electric for review and comment, giving them insight into the proposed design treatments and an early chance to comment on likes and dislikes. This early critical thinking helped to pull the brand in tighter, and hone the minimal aesthetic into something one of a kind.
“Having worked with their Design Director Jonathan when we were both in previous roles, I was really pleased when he drafted us in for a rebrand for such a large multi-national company as Smart Electric. Being a product designer himself, Jonathan was so collaborative and great for bouncing ideas back and forth, and I feel this really shows in the end result.”
Jon Dodd, Design Partner at Alloneword
External credits and collaborators:
Video soundtrack: Dan Phillipson