RATCHET HEAD
DIY AUTO SHOP TEAM BRANDING
Ratchet Head
Once upon a time, I was the co-founder of a D.I.Y. auto maintenance shop. The idea behind the shop was to offer a space for the D.I.Y. mechanic to work on their car. This shop would be run on a subscription basis (much like a gym), with all equipment provided after proper training. In addition, classes were offered by trained professionals.
What started as a D.I.Y. shop quickly turned into a race team, race support and rental service, which was completely outside the scope of the original business plan…thus my departure. However, before I left I was able to prototype race liveries for the team.
Branding
Prototypes
The idea behind the new liveries was to showcase something that no one, up until that time had scene. Ratchet Head was rather cutting edge at the time. We were constantly being offered franchise opportunities. I wanted to utilize our striking RH logo and brand design against a technical pattern background. These patterns were made up of patent technical drawings of actual ratchets. I utilized that as a background, bordered by a contrasting wrench design that was used in much of our marketing. The suits and race car livery never went into production as far as I know.
All designs were production ready and designed in photoshop and illustrator.
Prototype Prints
While prototyping this design, we did management send the pit cart and a helmet to print. These were the early stages where I wanted to see how the technical drawings would look large scale and in real life. At the time, the owner was adamant about having a blur behind the main RH logo. This went against our brand guidelines and I would have omitted it from the full branding project.
Side note: I did in fact wrap both of these items myself!
