Superpowers for your autoshop.

Shop Controller hired me to create a visual brand identity for their new app that helps auto shop owners manage multiple franchises, shops, invoicing, and everything related to automotive repair. Through a brand strategy session, I discovered that the automotive industry struggled with messy, outdated management systems, and Shop Controller aimed to solve this pain point with their app.

Superpowers

The unique selling points of Shop Controller were their experience in data management, their passion as auto enthusiasts, and their comprehensive solution that acts as the "brain" for auto shops. The target audience included shop owners, service writers, general managers, and owners who were seeking a solution to streamline their operations, grow, and provide world class customer service.

Neighbors + Vibes

Market research helped me understand the competitors and the vibe of the automotive marketplace. I wanted to create a visual identity that spoke to the industry while differentiating Shop Controller. The tagline "Superpowers for your auto shop" and the concept of "powering on" emerged as key threads to guide the logo development.

Challenges

The challenge that we were very aware of is that this was a saturated market, and the users would not be tech savvy or forgiving to an app that lacked the features they needed. A lot of times the users for this service would be a bit rushed or need to collect data on the fly quickly. I needed to communicate through messaging and the visual identity  that Shopcontroller was way ahead of the competition and had the features you needed to grow, level-up, and provide world class Customer Experience. 

Developing Solutions

The tagline “Superpowers for your auto shop” came to me as I was developing headline options. It encapsulated a message that was true, inspiring, and intriguing.

The visual branding needed to be more on the masculine side but not at all alienate women or be exclusive to men. In a sense, I challenge that gender was a valid metric to work with. Instead I used a masculine feel because of the inspiration of the tools and parts that are used in the automotive industry. Blocky, sharp, sleek, smooth, greasy. Both genders would connect to this. The color scheme was intentionally chosen to speak towards a sports car and a retro feel. Contrasting bold colors were essential to this branding.

The design process focused on elements that represented powering on, the brain, and superpowers. Sketches and iterations led to a lightning bolt icon, evoking speed, movement, and a superhero-like symbol. The final logo combined two stacked "C" shapes forming an "S," with a lightning bolt in the middle, communicating "Shop Controller" and the idea of "powering on."

Typography

The primary logo typography used was Hero Kid, a condensed sans-serif typeface by W Type Foundry, as the headline brand font. The color palette featured yellow and orange as main accent colors, with darks, lights, and creams. The branding had a primary dark mode focus with a light mode option.

Brand Icons

An icon system was created to mirror the logo's look and feel, providing consistency across the website and app. Fun logo variations using blending techniques in Illustrator added an extra layer of wow for marketing materials.

Finalizing the brand identity involved creating an extended color palette, different logo stackings, and a comprehensive digital style guide in Figma. The style guide included brand strategy, logo types, downloadable assets, color palette, and the icon system.

All together now

All logo assets were exported for various uses, and the Shop Controller team purchased the typeface for consistent licensing. The new brand identity helped Shop Controller move forward with their website, app design, and marketing efforts. Within days of creating the logo, their social media presence and marketing materials were launched, garnering interest in the app. The team was extremely happy with the successful outcome of the project.

Video Marketing

I  created a set of videos for the team to use on the website and in their marketing materials of short branded videos that showcased some of the app’s features. I created a cool logo intro in Figma, did the voiceover from a script, and packaged up a final video version for use. It was super fun, and I feel the videos are amazing touchpoints for Shopcontroller to use to communicate their value and superpowers.