Consistency and flexibility for Alfa Laval
CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT, ART DIRECTION
W COMMUNICATION AGENCY
2018
This project was done in 2018 during my time as Art Director at W Communication Agency. Photo and retouching: Depiction.
Alfa Laval is a leading global provider of first-rate products in the areas of heat transfer, separation, and fluid handling. The Alfa Laval Food & Water division works with various industries, ranging from Food, Dairy & Beverage to Biotech & Pharmaceuticals and Water & Waste treatment.
The challenge of this project was to create a concept that would be flexible enough to work for the entire division, each industry separately, or in different configurations depending on specific needs.
The idea
In order to showcase a wide variety of products from diverse industries, communicate process engineering effectively, and maintain recognizability within a single concept, a visual framework was developed.
The top-down images of products in a grid pattern create a visual consistency while providing the flexibility to mix products from different industries to build imagery needed for specific communication needs. Furthermore, the grid pattern symbolizes the consistency, predictability and reliability of Alfa Laval’s process engineering solutions.
The modular characteristics of the concept make it easy to adapt for use in a variety of formats, sizes, and channels. In digital media, it can be easily animated by scrolling the objects sideways, further emphasizing the aspect of process engineering.
Execution
To ensure consistency, all objects were photographed with the same distance, lighting, and exposure. The imagery was then retouched and cropped to the same size. This resulted in a bank of images that the teams at Alfa Laval could pick and choose from without having to worry about scaling objects to match.
The photoshoot required meticulous planning, rigging and testing in order to make sure all objects could be easily identified, and that the object and its shadows would fit within the same image size.
The result
The result is a flexible and easy-to-understand design system that aligns with the Alfa Laval brand. It can be adjusted for different markets, expanded upon, and creatively applied across various channels.
Approximately 90 key visuals were developed for the food, brewery, edible oil, pharma, protein, sugar, starch & ethanol, and water & wastewater industries. The image displays a small sample.
Drafts of applications on ads and a brochure.
Examples of how the concept can be applied to exhibition walls.