CO CARS

When we began working with Co Cars in 2011, the cooperative operated five cars in Exeter. It had launched its car club and wanted to raise awareness, increase membership and expand its low-carbon transport offer. Our role was to create a brand identity that could support those ambitions.
 

Co Cars offered consumers and local businesses affordable, on-demand access to a car. Its main competition was car ownership. Co Cars members could use a car when they needed one, without the hassle and cost of owning it. The brand identity needed to make the club more visible and recognisable. This would help raise the profile of car-sharing.
 

Raising the club’s profile

We had a clear brief. The identity needed to be distinctive and eye-catching when glimpsed on a passing car. We created a bold, simple logo incorporating a distinctive core icon. Its simplicity allowed it to be adapted to local car clubs.
 

Flexibility mattered because Co Cars’ ambitions went beyond cars. The car club was the starting point, but the wider goal was to provide low-carbon transport options. The identity therefore needed to leave room for the organisation’s offer to develop.
 

A wider transport network

By 2023, Co Cars had grown to a network of over twenty cars, stretching across the South West from Falmouth to Salisbury. It had launched Co Bikes, a docked, on-street electric bike hire network. Co Delivery, an e-cargo bike delivery service, had also been added.
 

The brand identity evolved to accommodate this expansion, but our original logo remained at its heart. It provided a distinctive and familiar foundation that continued to work as the organisation and its services evolved.
 

Co Cars closed in 2023 following prolonged service suspensions during the pandemic, changes in travel habits and supply chain issues.

How can we help your business?
Discover how our services can help you create the competitive advantage that makes your business first choice for customers. Explore our Brand Identity service.