Branding: HOP
Posted: May 19, 2011 Filed under: Logos & Branding, Transport & Logistics | Tags: Auckland, branding, city, design, hop, identity, logo, transport 7 Comments »
HOP is an electronic card based ticketing solution introduced by Auckland Transport and developed to simplify payment across all of its public transport services. The branding and marketing campaign was designed and implemented by Designworks a full service design agency with offices in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, New Zealand.
“…HOP’s fresh attitude, modern mark and crisp, bubble-styled design scheme allows for a highly visible presence that can be easily understood by commuters and visitors alike. Encouraging everyone to take advantage of what their city has to offer and explore using public transport.”
Taken from Designworks‘ website.
This identity contains everything required to sufficiently represent transport, a roundel for community, two blue dots for points A to B and overlapping circles to symbolise an integrated network. It could be seen as straight forward design by numbers result, ticking the necessary boxes but it still delivers an effective design solution that builds on other successful transport identities such as London’s Oyster Card (both seem to have a blue dot in common). The typeface is a little generic but has punch due to the structural snappiness of the name while the secondary typeface, NewsGoth is a bit loud and aggressive for a human centred experience. The variety of purple tints deliver a sense of quality and reassurance and look sharp when placed on white backgrounds. The overlapping circles are given a 3d treatment in a number of applications outside of the logo-mark but is an unnecessary level of detail.
The collaterals are neatly done and have an strong (albeit loud) conversational structure while the circle is effectively utilised as a visual stepping stone across the brand services.
Another great find – really bold.
I’m not sure about the 2nd blue dot appearing in the white circle on some of the versions but overall, really nice.
Yeah that second blue dot is a bit of an oddity, I could image it spinning around in an animation. I think it’s there to represent the two points of a journey but like I said in the article the identity seems to just be ticking a lot of boxes. Thanks for your comment.
Fantastic article! I love how different this identity is. Very fun and very abstract. I can see why the second dot would give some odd perspective to the brand but in a way it just adds to it’s unique direction.
Hi Kael, glad you like the article!
I really want to like this but it just reminds me of the Channel Four logo way to much.
Still very good.
Hi Ryan, do you mean Channel Four in Australia? I can’t find an example, if you can post a link that would be great.
I think the blue dot is necessary for the user to make the connection to what the product is aiming to do – make taking public transport easy.
Looking at google maps as an example, if you are traveling from one location to another there is a dot that shows you present location and the intended destination.
The real bummer is having to have the snapper logo alongside.
Nice work Nick!