Ford International HQ Branding

While working as an in-house art director and designer at a NYC based creative agency, Civic, I was asked to generate visual identity options for Ford’s Detroit based Michigan Central Station. Designed by the same architects responsible for Grand Central Station in New York City, Ford is currently refurbishing the landmark with plans to convert the space into the company’s International HQ and a hub for community engagement.

Ford’s recent commitment to producing sustainable electric vehicles and use of self-driving technology demands a visual system that reflects the company’s historic adaptability and future thinking, but differentiates these new advancements as being a part of a new era. My second branding exploration for the company’s new International HQ makes a simple, unexpected change to Ford’s recognizable logo. Simplifying and rotating the Ford oval communicates the company’s expanding vision of the future of automotive tech. Overlaying rotations of the oval onto itself also resembles a globe while also referencing 1960’s space age graphics, a previous time of American optimism and rapid technological advancement.