This month saw the release of our 500^th endangered species illustration. RSK Group challenged us to create a suite of livery designs when it switched from hiring to owning vehicles as part of its meteoric growth. With many distinctly branded operating companies and vehicles ranging from small cars to tanker trucks, this was no mean feat. But the CEO wanted more. Each vehicle was to have a unique graphic identifier to highlight the global biodiversity threat.

Bumpy beginnings

With hundreds of species to illustrate and scores of livery designs, we had to work efficiently, but things did not start smoothly. We arranged some of the many disciplines that make up the group to run diagonally across the vans: geologists, archaeologists, environmental scientists, etc. However, the company applying the livery decided, without consultation, to adapt our designs, introducing spelling errors and leading to unfortunate word splits. This was frustrating as the designs had been carefully considered, including where to break words, and proofread twice. Fortunately, the few vans that hit the highway with errors were fixed quickly. We visited the company, a sub-subcontractor to the group, and set up new procedures to ensure that we approved future adaptations of our designs as applied.

Creative spark

The latest animals in the herd are electric. Charging points are being installed at the group’s UK offices and a salary-sacrifice electric car leasing scheme has recently been launched for UK-based employees. Several RSK Creative employees have already signed up.

Ground Heat, RSK’s specialist ground-source heating provider, is one of the companies with a new electric car. This one features the Woodland Grayling Butterfly.

This project demonstrates our design team’s adaptability. Whether we are designing van livery, an interactive decarbonisation technology manifesto or floating wind exhibition materials, we aim to deliver great results every time.

“Seeing our work drive by is gratifying,” says Dom Bebbington, one of the designers delivering the project. “The new electric Renault Zoe wrap was one of my favourites as it gave me the freedom to be more creative and experimental. Whenever I see an RSK vehicle and it’s safe to do so, I have a look at the unique graphic and try to remember if it’s one of mine. I like the reptiles, which are always interesting to draw, and they remind me of my time working at Chester Zoo.”