Brand and product system
Hiring through design
Prodrive Technologies builds the electronics inside the machines of other brands, and they grow by hiring top talent engineers. We became their marketing and design team, ten people covering brand, web, film and eventually the products themselves.
01 · Nothing on a shelf
No product to see
Prodrive makes the electronics inside other companies' machines. There is nothing on a shelf to recognise and nothing in a shop to pick up.
That is a problem when you grow by hiring engineers, because an engineer wants to know what they would be working on. Everything had been built from a technical direction first, so the products carried almost no design and the website read as functional.
The culture was the strongest thing they had to offer a candidate. It existed as 155 words on a page.
A components business has no consumer surface, so everything a candidate could form an impression from had to be made on purpose.
02 · One framework
Quiet housings on purpose
For the products I built an industrial design framework that could be applied across almost the whole range. The brief was exclusive and honest at the same time, which in practice meant taking the flash out.
A company that is genuinely passionate about technology does not need the housing to shout about it. And one framework means a new product arrives already looking like the rest of them.
For the company we directed the brand, the website, the exhibition stands, the annual report and the films. The 155 words became one interactive sentence a candidate could finish.
The brand film put the emotional side of the work next to the technical side, because the reason an engineer joins is rarely the specification. As the work landed we were asked for more of it, so the studio grew to ten people and the mandate widened into product, interaction and interface design, from IoT devices to wireless charging for cars.
Keeping the design quiet was the call, because a louder housing would have described the company wrongly to every engineer deciding whether to apply.
03 · Still in use
Eight years on
The framework covered close to the full product range. Around it came the website, the interactive culture piece, the exhibition stands including IAA, the annual report, the software interfaces and the brand film.
We also took on the HR policy and the careers site, which for a company that grows by hiring is where a candidate makes up their mind.
A components business competes for engineers against companies whose products those engineers already own at home. So the brand had to carry the whole impression by itself. Close to all of the branding they use today came out of that work, and I have had nothing to do with it since 2018.
Specification
Detail
What it delivered
Framework
One set of industrial design rules applied across almost the whole range, so a new product arrives looking like the rest.
Brand representation
A hiring problem
The culture cut from 155 words to one interactive sentence, with a brand film that puts the work next to the reason for doing it.
Hiring increase
Directed
Industrial design, interaction and service, UX and UI, branding, film, marketing, HR and the careers site.
8 disciplines covered