Ecopod
Contributed by Christian Eager, partner and designer at London-based Designers Anonymous.
Ecopod brand identity: logo, stationery, van livery
Ecopod is a luxury eco-friendly holiday retreat in the Scottish Highlands. The brand identity focused on the high quality of the experience, avoiding the clichés that go hand-in-hand with all things ‘eco’.
To satisfy the strict planing regulations the domes needed camouflage. Our solution a triangular camouflage based on the iconic British Army DPM-95 pattern.
The negative space within the ‘e’ becomes a graphic of the ‘ecopod’ structure. The typeface Avant Garde echoed the dome shape.
We decided against specifying a brand colour, instead we created a seasonal palette of natural colours.
The ‘e’ mark was designed to be used within words or short phrases that express brand values, these words can be layered over photography.
All stationery featured macro photography of natural textures found in the area local to the Ecopod retreat.
The logo is positioned over the first fold of the letterhead, so when folded the pod within the logo sits on the base.
The van livery was kept simple to maintain the premium feel of the brand.
Ecopod print: promotional postcards
A recyclable marketing piece for an eco-friendly boutique holiday retreat.
We created a series of ‘reusable’ postcards featuring photographs of the Ecopod retreat and local area, with branded words overlaid. The pack was also used as a promotional piece for a ‘soft launch’ at the ITB travel, trade show held in Berlin.
Ecopod online: content managed website
The concept was to use the website as a ‘window’ allowing you to view the stunning local scenery and pod accommodation on every page. We commissioned a photoshoot that captured the rugged natural beauty of the location.
View the website at www.domesweetdome.co.uk
To build on the concept that ‘Ecopod leaves no trace on the landscape’ we added an ‘eye’ button in the top right of the screen, which when clicked removes all information from the page so that the view remains ‘untouched’.
A second viewing option was also developed, inspired by Blackle, the “energy saving search engine.”
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17 comments on “Ecopod”
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This is so very smart and thoughtful, I love the “metaness” of form an ‘e’ inside an ‘e’ inside various words. That is very clever and yet the entire identity remains cohesive, intelligent, elegant and classy. Beautiful work.
Nice.
But why is their booking page so lame?
Complete lack of congruence. Bizarre.
Check https://secure.supercontrol.co.uk/availability/availability_grid.asp?ownerID=617&siteID=10233
I am a big fan of Designers Anonymous and I do get that it’s an ‘e’ but does anyone feel that the logomark is awkward and oddly balanced? The space feels too great between the dome and the edge of the circle while the weight of the lines in the illustration seem like they may suffer when reduce down.
I think this is a great example of execution of a brand far exceeds the mark itself. I think the “e” is simple enough and yes, I think it feels off balanced. The point comes through with repetition quite well though and the quality and luxury feel of the brand is communicated quite well.
Logo looks quite awkward. The e shape looks forced which compromises the design. All other materials look great though.
@Tag
That’s a third party website that handles the booking functionality. Unfortunately you can only really “skin” these sites unless they hand over their style sheets… which they usually won’t do.
I agree with Richard, jp, and Rhett, it does look awkward. My first thought was it was an attempt at creating an off-balanced contemporary trend. It took me a while to realise it was supposed to look like an ‘e’, and I still don’t see it, it just doesn’t look right.
Personally, the logo would look great if it was the circle with the geometric dome, and the text ‘ecodome’ next to, or under it, and the ’boutique retreat’ text next to, or under the ecodome text, in a smaller size.
There is a lot of aspects I do like about this however. I love the macro photography, the simple white text on colour/photo style, camouflage, the business cards, the website, pretty much all of it, except the logo.
Apart from the logo, this is very well done, quite thorough in the small details, and very clean looking. Great job!
The biggest oversight:
When working for company that claims to be extremely environmentally conscious, Designers Anonymous created a letterhead with a 4-color, full bleed back.
I think THAT is more embarrassing than a slightly awkward logo.
Almost brilliant. I agree with the comments above regarding the logo. I didn’t see the “e” until it was pointed out.
Instead, perhaps the logo could have been viewed as a birds eye perspective of a pod, with the typography for “ecopod” centered plainly underneath.
Everything else looks great.
Love the design, especially the type treatment on the postcards. And with Castle Aaaaaaaaaaaaargh nearby, I’m sold. :)
Trevor makes a good point, maybe its water based inks?
I have gone through the entire archive of posts on this website and I have to say that it got to a point where I was literally laughing out loud. The commentaries are so basic and shallow that nothing, positive or negative, can be extracted whatsoever.
“Love it”, “Brilliant work here!”, “Love the design.”
It’s a complete joke. The twatfest on the Asterisk post was most entertaining. I prefer Brand New because there is some sense of monitoring this kind of fluff.
As a designer, sites like this that bask decent work in the limelight of greatness do nothing but make a complete sham out of the industry. The redundancies are absolutely ridiculous.
Some of it is great work, yeah. But to type it in every-single-goddamn-time. My god people.
Still laughing.
I love all the assets but the ‘e’ looks like Pacman with his mouth sewn shut – to me anyway.
I also think Trevor makes a good point, regardless of what ink is used surely less is more in these circumstances?
Very nice. Reminds me a bit of the Melbourne identity (taking inspiration from the shapes in the building) and the Creative Scotland logo. The stationery is fantastic, nice to see a letterhead with a washed-out photo actually work well (or is it a vector created from the bark?)
Sam—what you’re seeing as a “washed out photo” on the letterhead is just the photo on the back bleeding through the paper faintly. On heavier stock, you wouldn’t see it at all.
Yet another oversight:
The web development based on ‘Blackle’ would have made sense assuming everyone was using CRT monitors still but flat screens do use a lot less power than CRTs, roughly a tenth if i remember correctly..
Ironically black would actually use more energy as most people have LCD screens, it takes more energy to keep all the subpixels on. Whereas in white, none of the subpixels are turned on to let the white light through – therefore uses less energy.
Anyway what I originally was going to post – is it really needed to have a 2.0 TDI van?
Trevor’s point is excellent and points to the inherent irony of eco-design. I notice similar ironies in design here in Finland where I am based.
I enjoy the versatility in the branding; using the logo as the letter “E” in very meditative, calming words. However I find the logo to resemble Adidas in a way? I also like how they don’t have a set color rather have a full color palatte to expand across the line.