Final Thursday, amid the glass towers of Canary Wharf, British eVTOL producer Vertical unveiled Valo, its absolutely electrical vertical take-off and touchdown car. On the similar time, the Bristol-based firm revealed a refreshed model identification by Pentagram, designed to propel Vertical from trade insider to family title.
The Valo car is formidable by any measure. It’s a four-passenger electrical plane with a cruise pace of 150mph, a variety of as much as 100 miles, and the power to take off and land vertically. In sensible phrases, meaning journeys like Heathrow to Canary Wharf might be minimize from 52 minutes by automotive to simply 12 minutes within the air. The long-term imaginative and prescient is to make city air journey really feel as routine as reserving a ride-hailing app.
Pentagram accomplice Angus Hyland and his workforce have been tasked with refreshing and modernising Vertical’s present model forward of the Valo launch. The venture encompassed model technique, a brand new verbal framework, and the naming of Valo, developed in shut collaboration with Vertical’s inside stakeholders.
Crucially, the design workforce wasn’t ranging from scratch, as Vertical already had sturdy model fairness, significantly in its hummingbird image, a visible metaphor for vertical take-off, hovering, and agile flight. Analysis confirmed that whereas these components had earned credibility throughout the eVTOL sector, the model remained comparatively unknown outdoors it. With the case for electrical vertical flight already properly established, the problem turned certainly one of visibility and accessibility.
Pentagram’s strategic focus shifted in the direction of democratising the imaginative and prescient. Slightly than positioning eVTOL as a futuristic novelty, the model wanted to think about a world the place city life is not constrained by visitors. Pentagram says the purpose was to create a extra democratic, accessible model whereas nonetheless reflecting the “prime quality, innovation and security requirements” on the coronary heart of the enterprise.
That primarily means they got down to normalise eVTOL as a viable mode of transport, with out dropping the seriousness required of an plane producer working in a closely regulated area. It’s the place the concept of changing into the ‘Uber of the skies’ begins to really feel much less like hype and extra like a thought-about positioning.
With that in thoughts, the brand new tagline, “To the skies”, was developed to seize each Vertical’s imaginative and prescient and its aspirational spirit, opening the model to a wider viewers whereas interesting to clients, buyers and companions alike, in accordance with Pentagram.
Visually, the hummingbird has been reimagined moderately than changed. Drawing on the curves and geometry of the Valo itself, the image has been simplified and streamlined, introduced nearer to the type of an actual fowl. It now sits on the coronary heart of a extra versatile identification system, paired with a brand new wordmark and a looser relationship between the emblem components.
Typography comes within the type of Common Sans, a variable typeface chosen for its fashionable, technical and engineered really feel. Elsewhere, gradients impressed by the sky at totally different instances of day, from daybreak by to nightfall, run throughout the identification, alongside expansive sky imagery and polished product images. A repeat sample, derived from the distinctive ‘Y’ form of Valo’s wings and physique, provides one other layer to the system.
Past static visuals, Pentagram developed movement rules that mirror the plane’s motion, defining how components behave throughout digital and bodily touchpoints. Purposes vary from branding on the car to launch ideas, investor supplies and longer-term customer-facing campaigns, all underpinned by a complete set of name pointers.
The Canary Wharf launch marked a transparent step change for Vertical. With Valo and its new identification unveiled collectively, the corporate signalled its evolution right into a extra established, authoritative participant, extending its attain properly past the eVTOL sector.
Pentagram’s strategy anchored the model in engineering excellence whereas opening it as much as a broader, extra aspirational narrative, positioning Vertical not simply as a technological pioneer, however as a reputable contender for the way forward for on a regular basis city mobility. Who is aware of – it may not be lengthy till we’re all hailing rides to the skies to beat visitors on the bottom.
