A new lorry fleet hits the road
Designing graphics that move
We love a large-scale design challenge, and they don’t come much bigger than a 24-tonne articulated lorry! We recently sat down for a chat with one of our designers, Dave Protheroe to find out how he approached creating a new look for the Involvement lorry fleet, and some of the challenges he faced when working on such a big project.
How do you go from a client brief to a finished design?
Each job will have a unique set of client requirements. It can be about communicating a specific message or reaching a certain audience. There are as many reasons as there are design briefs. It’s important to understand the client’s needs at the start of the process.
The key information for a branding brief will vary, many companies have a set of brand guidelines, that will lay out brand colours and fonts. This helps to build a brand identity, so whether it’s lorries or letterheads the graphics should match the brand voice.
In the first stage of the process, sketching ideas down on an A3 pad is an efficient way to get ideas down quickly. The best designs are then honed on the computer. They are still only an outline sketch at this stage, but they are enough to communicate with the client what the idea is.
A range of ideas is then shown to the client to see which one works best for them. Then there is a phase of presenting and amending. It’s a filtration process. The idea is honed and refined each time.
Eventually, you get down to the subtleties, the thicknesses of a line or the size of a font. Until it all comes together, and the design is signed off by the client.
How do you create large-scale designs that make an impact?
Good graphics are the fastest way to communicate an idea. They make it easy to understand the brand message at one glance. Colour, images, and words can communicate a lot of information quickly. In the case of a moving lorry, there’s just a fraction of a second to get your message across so the design needs to be right.
It’s important to visualise how the design would work once it was off the screen and on the road. Small text or imagery will be lost at a large scale so designs can’t be too detailed. Lorry-size graphics must be large, clear, and concise to have the strongest impact. Creating scaled images helps the client see how the designs will look on the finished lorries.
Going from the design sheet to the finished lorry
A lorry will look different from each angle. Passing vehicles can only see the Lorry sides briefly, whilst the back of the lorry will be more visible for longer. This means the rear door can include more information than the curtains. The set of three doors shares a common design language, with a matching layout and complimentary colour schemes. They each communicate a key brand message to following traffic.
There were also different specifications between the curtain sides and the trailer doors. The curtain canvas had to be a duo-tone colour scheme. The final design features a white brand logo and web address on an Involvement grey background. The arrow graphics echo the logo and suggest speed and movement.
Lorries are moving billboards, so every element needed to work together to reinforce the brand message. The finished fleet design successfully combined logos, colour, and graphics to make a bold brand statement for Involvement.
It’s always a great moment to see designs come to life, and the new livery has had lots of compliments from drivers and others in the haulage industry. Keep an eye out for the Involvement lorries the next time you’re out on the road.
Please get in touch with us today to discuss your design requirements. Our expert team of designers can help you make the most of your brand in print, digital or on the side of a lorry!
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