— ABOUT THE PROJECT

Zeus will be the name for the self-driving car for aUToronto. This car will be created and used by students from the University of Toronto for GM's North America-wide competition against eight other top universities across North America.

The branding of Zeus has not been developed yet, which will start from this logo. As both a branding designer and an Artificial Intelligence keener, it was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.

SELF-DRIVING: SPEED & CONTROL

BRANDING, LOGO DESIGN, ILLUSTRATOR

I worked side by side with both the Team Lead, Keenan and the Marketing & Outreach Deputy, Robert, in the early stages of the car’s identity building, where we focused on an image that not only was suitable for the field but also separated us from the traditional car racing teams:

Strength. This is a professional team in a serious competition. Meanwhile, the logo should look intimidating enough to conveys the message of winning the competition.

Control. As the car is autonomous, the name Zeus implies that this car has control over its environment and can adapt to anything (hence the naming after the most powerful god in Greek mythology).

UNDERSTANDING &

CREATING THE BRAND

— 01.

FRAME THE OBJECTIVES

— 02.

FRAMING OUR OBJECTIVES

I developed the requirements of this logo based on the ARMM model:

I. Attention. — stand out from the environment and hack the allocation software in the brain.

II. Response. — trigger the right emotional response of our audience.

Zeus’s logo should give the competitors an intimidating feeling.

III. Meaning. — convey messages aligned to brand values.

Zeus, the car, is strong, fast, yet is well controlled and elegant.

IV. Memory. — be remembered by competitors and audiences; however, this is not as important as the previous ones since this is not a business for profit.

Along with other constraints and criteria based on the team's need:

V. Simplicity. — simple enough to be translated to merchandise without changing it, which includes embroidering it onto a jacket/t-shirt/patch.

XII. Scalability and Flexibility. — work well in a wide range of sizes from as big as a car painting and as small as a website logo.

People should look at the logo alone and begin forming ideas of the vehicle's elegance in design & operation, its willingness to take risks, and our competitors should feel intimidated.

Keenan Burnett, Team Lead

The thunderbolt, eagle (Aetos Dios), bull and oak are Zeus' most recognizable symbols, along with his own face. While the bull lacks elegance and oak lacks aggression, I brainstormed and SCMPER-ed with the other three elements and the feedbacks from the team.

— 03.

DESIGNS &

CRITIQUES

— 04.

MAKE IT PERFECT

The final design is decided with the team using the aforementioned requirement model, and I implemented it by Adobe Illustrator.

Thunderbolt & Eagle. The eagle is flying forward with its wings empowered by thunder, It's a sharp yet simple logo connected closely with Zeus's symbols and the content of a car racing team.

Golden Ratio. The skeleton is based rigorously on the Golden Ratio, maximizing the aesthetics of the image itself.

Blue & Gold. Blue is the color of the University of Toronto and gold is elegant yet bold, which together adds to the meaning and visual contrast which catches attention.