Turo

Background

Turo, previously known as RelayRides, aimed to disrupt the car rental industry by connecting renters directly to vehicle owners. With cars sitting idle 92% of the time, they wanted to put cars to better use.

They needed a new brand, including name, strategy and visual identity that would help change perceptions of the outdated car rental market and transform rental cars from a simple utility, to a more integral part of our journey. 

Process

We worked closely with the Turo team for nine months, rethinking every aspect of the experience. Throughout the process, we rented over 40 cars through Turo’s service — and even put our own personal cars up for rent. We lived the spirit of the brand, infusing a sense of adventure into every step of our process — even down to hosting our design presentation at a San Francisco GoKart track rather than in a boring conference room.

Brand Strategy

We created a new brand strategy based on ‘Inspiring Adventure’. Focused on people, the brand emphasises individuality with the understanding that no two journeys are ever the same. Turo is not just a service to book a car; it’s so much more, celebrating everyone’s unique understanding of adventure. We defined three core characteristics: Pioneering, Unscripted, Aspirational, which underpin everything the brand stands for. For both renters and owners, it’s about embracing our own adventurous spirit and celebrating the journey.

Brand Identity

The new name and logo symbolise the starting point of the journey. The visual identity is simple, clear and directional, encouraging all of us to get out there and start our next adventure.

The brand uses colour in a very simple, selective and secondary manner — allowing for the owners’ cars and renters’ aspirations to form the colour story. A new typographic approach breaks industry standards, utilising a series of serif typefaces, presenting Turo with a more refined, editorial tone.

Brand Expression

Once the identity system was formalised, we worked hand-in-hand with Turo’s team on core elements of the user flow, designing the UX across the key elements of the website and within the product itself.

To further celebrate the spirit of adventure, we concepted a brand film to introduce Turo to the world. We collaborated closely with the client and partnered with Camp4 Collective on production.

Turo already had an amazing user base across 3,000 cities and 270 airports. Yet the community didn’t have a place to share their own stories. As part of the brand launch, we developed content to kickstart a new user generated blog, ‘Adventure Stories’. Each member of our team took to the open road to record their own stories as a photo-journal. From Chicago to Big Sur to Cincinnati, these genuine adventures helped create a library of authentic content for the brand.

The DesignStudio team’s creativity energized us all to develop the best possible brand.

Andrew Mok
VP Marketing & Analytics AT Turo