What it had to solve
Develop a 'more relevant and distinctive identity' for the electric street-car racing series to attract new audiences.
The idea
Stop competing with Formula 1 and move the goalposts: a layered, interruptive identity inspired by the rawness of urban city environments.
How it works
Prophet worked with Formula E's in-house team to refine and flatten the logo and create a new typeface, graphics and colour scheme built from layered, juxtaposed elements. DixonBaxi, with the same in-house designers, made the TV graphics, title sequences, augmented reality and display systems, fully responsive to race conditions and showing data such as battery levels and driver IDs around the chevron device.
What it did
The source gives no audience or commercial results. It reports the delivered system: a heads-up display showing the race from the drivers' point of view, a sound suite by String & Tins, and a title sequence building from preparation to finish line.
Background
In January 2018 It's Nice That reported that branding agency Prophet and Formula E's in-house team had redesigned the electric street-car series' identity. The brief was a 'more relevant and distinctive identity' for new audiences. Prophet partner Greg Handrick said the answer was to stop competing with Formula 1 and move the goalposts, describing a 'more contemporary and disruptive visual identity' inspired by urban rawness, with layered elements giving energy, interruption, unpredictability and drama.
DixonBaxi built the on-screen layer: TV graphics, title sequences, augmented reality and display systems that respond to race conditions, staying discreet while the action runs and filling with data when it heats up. A driver's-eye heads-up display exposes 'human and tech data' about the stresses of driving, backed by sounds from String & Tins.
Why it lands
Copying Formula 1's polish would have invited unfavourable comparison, so the identity went urban instead.
Responsive graphics let the broadcast show more or less data to suit the moment in the race.
Both agencies worked with Formula E's in-house designers, and the chevron device carries through to the on-screen data.
What you can take
A young category earns more by defining its own look than by imitating the incumbent it wants distance from.
Since then
The It's Nice That article reports the launch of the system and records no later results.
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