Kennedys is a paid client brief for a taxi driver transitioning to private hire. The brief called for a vehicle magnet for the side of the driver's car. The design must comply with the West Lancashire Borough Council licensing requirements, and any vehicle livery must be approved in writing by the Environmental Health Manager.
As the Environmental Health Manager must approve any design, communication with the client was key to ensuring the designs met the WLBC's compliance requirements. The requirements state that the livery must be 300x600mm in size and only include the name of the private hire driver, business phone number and WLBC Private Hire Only, unless agreed otherwise with the council. I started researching existing taxi and private hire liveries and noticed that the quality of the designs were often poor, which led me to start researching legibility of type. During this, I found that lower case sans serif font families have better readability when moving at speed, as seen on UK road signs. I also looked into the WebAim Colour Contrast Checker, to ensure maximum legibility with design choices.
Earlier iterations in the design process explored various typefaces and shapes for the vehicle livery, but after reviewing the WLBC requirements with the client, it was decided that these would not meet the compliance requirements. Further developments used research to better inform design decisions, ensuring that typefaces were lower case sans serif and colours chosen passed the WebAim Colour Contrast Checker. The final design used Stack Sans, as this has good readability when moving yet still has enough expression in the letterforms to work as an informal logotype.
The final outcome for the brief is designed to meet WLBC requirements, pending official approval, as the livery contains the minimum information. The WebAim Colour Contrast Checker was used to ensure the light blue used would be readable against the black, and the vehicle livery remained practical. A sans serif font, Stack Sans, was chosen to further support the readability. Overall, this design is a strong response to a tightly regulated brief, but if I were to push this project further, I would have it include full branding for the private hire driver, including business cards and an online presence.