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time to ride
Innovating is about creating new products, services or working methods, as well as having the ability to understand clients and adapt to their needs. Companies are evolving and adapting without losing their essence and what makes them special and unique. The strongest companies are not the ones who survive, but rather those that adapt to the new circumstances in the best way. This means either evolving or dying.
Cooltra was founded in 2006 in Barcelona as a response to a need. The spark for Cooltra came about when Timo Buetefisch’s motorbike broke down on him during his stay in Barcelona and he had to leave it in a repair shop for several days. Right then he realised that a day and month rental service was needed and hadn’t existed until that point in the Catalan capital. From the beginning, Cooltra has always evolved and offered more services, and its visual identity has also undergone a transformation in the same sense at each stage.
Cooltra’s first logo
It was designed like the logos for Italian scooters from the middle of the 20th century by Arnau Masramon in 2006. It had a little bit of shading and the slogan in capital letters. In order to emphasise the two meanings of the word (Cool and Transport), the two parts were designed using different colours, blue and yellow, which were the same colours that the first shop was painted in.
The company’s second logo
A few months later some visual adjustments were made to the second version: it was flatter with a new font for the slogan. There were 2 versions of this logo (the one you see in the picture) with “Scooter Rental Barcelona” and another with the phrase “The Scooter Company”.
This was eCooltra’s first logo
Six years later, with the launch of the new eCooltra line of business, Laura Pérez Ortiz added the “e” from electric in the same type as “Cooltra” but moulded with the aim of replicating a plug. This is how it made reference to the particularities of electric scooters. Here is where the company started to have 2 logos, the Cooltra one and the eCooltra one.
The choice for two tones of green is linked on one hand with the colour associated to sustainability, ecology and the environment and, on the other hand, with the original division of the Cooltralogo into two colours, before being yellow and blue. With eCooltra, the idea was to divide “eCo”, placing importance on the ecological aspect of these scooters.
Cooltra’s third logo
In 2013 Arnau Masramon changed the logo. The “all blue” was simplified so that the name Cooltra would stand out and sound like just one word.
eCooltra’s second logo
The name eCooltra was initially chosen for the Cooltra’s electric fleet, but in 2015 it was decided that it should be used as a new brand for the sharing service. The logo was a modernised version of Cooltra’s emblem with finer, sharper lines.
Cooltra’s current logo after the unification
In 2020 the company unified all its mobility solutions onto the one platform, meaning that the sharing line joined the rest because the commitment to all things electric extended throughout the entire company. Since then, users can find the motosharing (electric scooter rental by the minute) and the different renting options that the company offers under the Cooltra name (daily or monthly rentals) all on the same mobile application. Coinciding with this pioneering launch for two-wheel mobility, the Group showcases a unique and revamped corporate image which was created by the art director, Marcel Brons.
This change in name and brand unification was also done to represent the company’s solidity and its commitment to sustainable electric mobility. “We no longer have to highlight the “e” in eCooltra because the commitment to electric mobility isn’t exclusive to this subsidiary of the group, but rather it extends to all of the areas of business; it’s in our DNA”, explained the CEO of Cooltra, Timo Buetefisch.
During this time Cooltra became part of new worlds and secured itself very quickly as a digital-based company. The logo needed to be adapted to the era and to represent movement. On a functional level it needed flexibility: Now you can read it in big or very small (like an app icon).
An icon that goes with the logo and its parts
A logo was created with bespoke letters which are compact, strong and are similar to movement due to their curves. A new icon was also created that would accompany the logo: an abstract graphic representation of one of Cooltra’s vehicles (it could be a scooter, motorbike or a bike) from above, which contains the 5 assets considered most essential for our clients:
The icon can be placed next to the logo or on top of it. It can even be used without the logo.
The colour blue runs through Cooltra’s veins. It resembles trust, nature and electricity. So we decided to keep it, but we made the colour stronger and brighter. Instead of the yellow colour in the first logo, we chose a very bright fluorescent green to contrast the blue and to show Cooltra as a sustainably developed company.
The logo is the first graphic symbol or element that is related to a company or a product. It provides a first impression and it has to be a good one. The aim is to connect people with the brand whilst conveying all of its values.
Ultimately, 15 years of our company’s history have been transformed into 6 logos that have encapsulated the essence of the company from the outset and have aimed to convey the values, the company’s culture and the way to be and showcase itself to its clients, so that each and every one of them remembers the symbol that identifies us and makes us easily visible in the whirlwind of our cities.
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