Better Place is a global provider of electrical transport solutions and services championing a shift to more sustainable electric powered vehicles. Solutions that could potentially provide a green hue to a transport sector that most associate with grimy gas-guzzlers and toxic exhaust fumes. As part of an extensive cooperation e-Types developed a new look and feel for the companies Danish headquarters working on the newly re-designed offices (by the very cool multi-disciplinary designers Space), bringing their corporate identity into the very fabric of the every day for Better Place’s employees.
The concept was created around three central principles that characterize Better Place’s philosophy: 1) the joy of motoring and the sense of personal freedom owning a car provides. 2) The vision of a world without exhaust fumes – quite literally a ”Better Place” and finally 3) the move to world that isn’t dependent on fossil fuels – all the while acknowledging the rich heritage of the automobile industry and the debt owed to those pioneers who masterminded the technological advances made up till today.
Using these principles e-Types, worked with three distinct concepts in an effort to bring Better Place’s essence to life while avoiding the usual clichés of corporate décor; the blown-up logo and the design line shouting at you from every wall. Instead the aim was to create a more personal and organic interpretation of the identity - showing the real people behind the technology, so to speak.
The concept was created around three central principles that characterize Better Place’s philosophy: 1) the joy of motoring and the sense of personal freedom owning a car provides. 2) The vision of a world without exhaust fumes – quite literally a ”Better Place” and finally 3) the move to world that isn’t dependent on fossil fuels – all the while acknowledging the rich heritage of the automobile industry and the debt owed to those pioneers who masterminded the technological advances made up till today.
Using these principles e-Types, worked with three distinct concepts in an effort to bring Better Place’s essence to life while avoiding the usual clichés of corporate décor; the blown-up logo and the design line shouting at you from every wall. Instead the aim was to create a more personal and organic interpretation of the identity - showing the real people behind the technology, so to speak.
First we examined the enormous mark that the automobile has left on our cultural heritage, picking out song lyrics and movie quotes from people like Nat King Cole, Jim Morrison and Tracy Chapman to iconic films like Easy Rider, Rain Man and Sideways. Quotes that pertain to the joy of driving or use the car to describe other aspects of life, creating a (inter)textual montage of typographic statements that now clad the glass facades of Better Place’s conference rooms.
Secondly, e-Types asked the employees themselves what their “Better Place” is, bringing the identity up-close and personal while including the employees in the crafting of what “Better Place” is all about. Answers ranged from “when I’m listening to Abbey Road on vinyl, standing on the Great Wall of China, playing soccer on a warm sunny day, when the rain beats down on the my roof, on the golf course, on the playground with my son Hugo or driving by the sea with the top down”. e-Types tried to visualize these emotions, some times in a more abstract form, sometimes more concretely using photos and text. The many different photos have been framed and hung in clusters in the canteen, the stairways and the halls to create a more informal and intimate feeling.
Thirdly, e-Types and Better Place picked out three major milestones in the evolution of the automobile in modern times: The Ford Mustang, the VW Beetle and the Jaguar e-Type and continued the principle of the photo-clusters into the main hall using these three icons of modern personal transportation. Using this principle of clustering also means that Better Place can keep on adding to their collection of automobiles.
Finally, the whole solution is meant to easily change with the company itself, avoiding the rigid design programmes that end up scarring many corporate headquarters well after the company itself has evolved beyond it. All the statements can be removed and replaced with new ones – either when the culture of the organization demands it, or simply when people grow tired of it and need a change of surroundings. Likewise the framed pictures can be hung, shifted, re-hung and exchanged indefinitely, creating an identity that is as alive as the people who comprise it.
