Marussia Virgin Racing 2011
The brief:
Create and launch the Marussia Virgin Racing brand; a Formula 1 racing team heading in to their second season and hungry to be noticed.
Poke’s answer:
A strong, simple brand identity and a brave look and feel that differentiated MVR from the pack before they even hit the tarmac. The solution included a visual toolkit, production design for the pit garage, driver suits, trucks, motorhome, website, business cards - everything but the car.
Nitty gritty
Marussia was a principle sponsor of Virgin Racing in 2010 but moved into the title sponsor position in 2011 - in much the same way as Vodafone did with Vodafone McLaren Mercedes.
We delivered a piece of brand strategy to position Marussia Virgin Racing with new harmonised values, tone of voice and a combined, flexible logotype & word marque.
Drawing on inspiration from Russian contstructivism and visual themes from 100 years of motorsport heritage, we developed a colour palette, graphic, illustration assets and guideline documentation, to allow MVR to manage parts of the delivery in house.
When you’re at the back of the pack, sponsor confidence is hard to maintain and representing yourself successfully becomes even more critical. Our work now runs through every vein of the MVR brand, adding genuine brand and monetary value - in terms of awareness, fan appeal, sponsor confidence and merchandising potential.
Highlights
- Shaping a new brand in one of the most exciting sporting events on the planet (duh).
- Seeing Timo and Jerome standing in the pits, next to our work.
- Working with illustrator Tavis Coburn.
- Watching Sir Richard Branson, Nick Wirth and rest of the team getting excited about the work.
