ABB

Electrical, promotional.

A series of campaigns for technology giant ABB, in collaboration with Napier.

Campaign concepts

Art direction

Copywriting

Graphic design

Video production

Project

For the past year, we’ve been working with Swedish-Swiss technology company ABB, world leaders in electrification and automation. In collaboration with Napier, we’ve created integrated campaigns for multiple divisions across Europe and North America, from ideas and copywriting to video production.

Throughout them, we’ve explored evolving the distinctive brand assets ABB have built up over many years, giving each campaign an identity within the main brand. The iconic logo, with ‘+’ shapes within each letter, we felt was often quite static – so we brought it to life by turning it into a series of intersections that illustrate their cross-sector expertise.

01

BuildingPro Suites

This is a software service that acts as a smart digital assistant for buildings and portfolios. The platform integrates building automation, HVAC, energy, and more, with tools that improve efficiency, sustainability, comfort, and performance.

Building intelligence,
one module at a time

The platform’s benefits are more compelling than screengrabs. So we leaned into a typographic approach, with keywords rising from the ground like buildings to different heights – because the software is highly scalable. We added architects’ models as a finishing touch. The app itself is shown as isolated modules, to focus attention on what’s essential.

02

ReliaHome

A new range of electrical products for the North American residential market. Historically, ABB have been known for industrial and commercial only, so we needed to encourage perception change: they do great products for the home, too.

Where our expertise
meets your project

Inspired by the logo, we visualised the proposition as an intersection of two roads: ABB’s experience in other industries crossing with the residential project on the audience’s mind. We used examples of aerial intersections across all kinds of sectors, and wrote further messaging in the format ‘Where… Meets…’.

03

ELITE Circuit Breakers

Machine learning has come to the humble circuit breaker. These vital safety switches have to deal with complex electrical loads as our homes include more and more electrical devices. ELITE uses advanced algorithms to distinguish real threats from harmless noise, reducing interruptions while ensuring safety.

Elite intelligence, elite protection

From the outside, they don’t look special. We had to visualise the clever thinking within. The breaker has a multicoloured shadow that moves and stretches alongside benefit messages starting ‘Elite’. Leaning on the ELITE name matching the dimensions of the product, we stacked the word repeatedly just like circuit breakers are stacked in rows in US fuseboxes.

04

EPiC Mobile

This relaunched app acts as a remote control for a range of industrial electrical equipment. Before, engineers would carry a laptop and various connecting cables to install and monitor equipment – this app means they can do away with all that.

Pocket sized, epic control

We contrasted the small size of the mobile app with its grand name. The small hovering phone stands in for the letter ‘i’ in the otherwise uppercase name. Open sky backgrounds get us away from industrial interiors and give a sense of the epic vista. For a company used to showing products in very literal settings, this was a major shift.