Teams like Ferrari and Mclaren don’t just stand out because they are often leading, but also because they are well branded. You can see and distinguish them from a distance, or when their cars flash past in a blur. Not so with some other teams who to me don’t seem to have such distinct branding for some reason. Now, you could argue that the big teams are well branded because they are wealthier than the others, but I don’t think it’s all down to that – some simple techniques can have a big effect in such a visual sport.
The one that’s caught my branding eye this season is BrawnGP. The story of the team itself is a fascinating one, but their branding has intrigued me too.
The team branding and car livery doesn’t seem to have been talked about very much so far – possibly because they don’t have much sponsorship yet and everyone is focused on their amazing run of wins – but they clearly had some good design advice.
By using a simple colour scheme of mainly white, a bit of black detail and a very powerful fluorescent yellow highlight, the team stand out and catch the eye easily this season. True, this is helped by the fact that without many sponsors there are fewer other logos to distract the eye, but I think this colour combination would continue to still stand out even if they fill up the white areas with logos.
It seems obvious now but finding a bright colour they could own in F1 was a clever move – not only from a general brand promotion point of view, but also it must surely be helping them catch the eye of potential sponsors and proving that their cars are highly visible.
Now it may be that this colour scheme is a temporary one – it will be interesting to see what happens next season when they add new sponsors and possibly a title sponsor. Will they keep the brand identity, or at least the fluorescent yellow? Brawn himself described it at the beginning of the season as a “neutral colour scheme that leaves plenty of potential for the future” which leaves us guessing.
Image by ph-stop