CAA South Central Ontario

A sampling of collateral elements Overdrive re-designed, including: website, business cards, poster, brochures.

The ultimate reference: the Brand Playbook, a foundational tool for maintaining consistency, clarity, and integrity in all brand communications. We consolidated our learnings from brand expression and new collateral into a comprehensive document that internal and external designers and managers could collectively refer to, enabling them to effectively communicate and represent the brand in a unified manner.

Icons allows for the communication of complex ideas and concepts in a concise and visually appealing manner. However these icons work even harder, as they are all custom designed and specific to CAA SCO and reinforce the visual brand identity.

The icons empower CAA SCO’s internal design team to create compelling visual experiences using simple building blocks. The loose design of the icons with offset colour brings a professional playfulness to the visual language. The icon library continues to grow and evolve, and new uses continue to be found, including building different scenes and scenarios from combinations of icons. Icons were developed in sets comprised of four different sizes, with varying degrees of detail and colour fill to accommodate different uses from print to display ads.

Following the success of the icon library, it became clear that, although the icon library is extensive, there was a need for further storytelling beyond what iconography can do. The introduction of humans within the illustration style became essential to add a relatable and emotive dimension to the visual storytelling. It also allows for the depiction of diverse identities, cultures, and experiences, fostering inclusivity and representing the brand's commitment to understanding and engaging with its diverse audience. The illustration style we developed is compatible with the icon style, allowing the design team to leverage the icon library to build out larger and more complex scenes to deliver the message effectively.

We developed a modular approach to adding people to the CAASCO illustration style, so that the same details could be repurposed across various assets. Ethnicity: CAA SCO wanted to find a way to emphasise human interaction in their illustration style that would reflect their diverse customers. We devised a modular approach that takes one shape and expresses it many ways. Sometimes simple is more. Note how limited palette is able to express many skin tones without having to deal with the intricacies of many shades within natural skin tones.
Emotion: The many faces of the CAA SCO human. With simple modifications a full range of emotions are possible to the CAA-style illustrated face. Simple elements expressed many ways.

Once the illustration style was finalized, we created a number of brand illustrations that embody the essence and values of the organization.– care, neighbourliness, having Member’s backs. The illustration themes span a wide range of subjects to reflect the diverse lives of their audience, acknowledging and celebrating the unique experiences and backgrounds that shape their individual stories. These are defining moments – the moments that act as touchpoints for community, family, and living our best lives.

Overdrive was tasked with developing a campaign for the Membership line of business. We developed the concept of “Take CAA along the Way” to express the many ways CAA is able to provide aid, discounts, travel advice and more. We used the icon style of illustration to illustrate both static and animated versions of the ads, which were deployed as both display ads and in social media platforms. While the campaign is over, the illustrations and animations continue to live on in new guises.