Good Move.
Putting a positive spin on safe driving.
Distracted driving isn’t good for anyone, and folks don’t like being told what to do—especially in Idaho. Because of this, promoting safe driving is a unique challenge. So when my friends at SOVRN reached out with a mission to do just that, I was quick to ride shotgun. What made this assignment unique was that we were building a brand intended to be used by a handful of Idaho agencies independently as a co-op effort to promote safe driving in the Treasure Valley. Our goal was to create a brand and then pass it off to be used by internal teams across different organizations, including the Community Planning Association of Southwest Idaho, Valley Regional Transit, Ada County Highway District, Capital City Development Corp, City of Nampa, City of Meridian, and City of Boise. With a clear road ahead of us, it was time to step on the gas—mindfully, of course.
My role:
Assist the SOVRN crew with naming, identity design, graphic toolkit, and usage guidelines.
The goods.
This project had several moving parts, but four things stood out as critical elements to the project’s success:
- Naming—what are we going to call this thing
- Logo—a new logo to serve as the brand’s primary visual element
- Graphic toolkit—a design system that goes beyond the logo
- Usage guidelines—document proper usage for all agencies involved
The name.
We got to work and created a mountain of solid name options. From the start, we knew it was important that the name had a positive feel to it. This optimistic perspective would lean on positive affirmations instead of the usual preachy messaging about safe driving. And, like most design-minded creatives, we wanted a short name. In the end, the name that rose to the top was “Good Move.” We loved this name because it was active, positive, and effortlessly worked within copy. As someone who obsesses over words and their symbiotic relationship with graphics, the fact that the phrase had the memorable “sticky” factor and worked so well with copy is what brought it home in the end.
The visuals.
Riffing on the positive affirmations and active change in the name, we developed a custom wordmark set that blends a fun vintage script-like “Good” with an angular and active “MOVE.” For color, we continued to lean into the positive through the heavy use of green. Green for go, good, and now, Good Moves. We supplemented the green with a bright yellow to make the color foundation of the brand punchy enough to cut through the persistent digital noise of phones. Lastly, we expanded the brand with several other support graphics like a smile, fun patterns similar to tire tread, and the use of an arrow in the primary logo, tying it all back to the act of movement and change in behavior.
Logo animations by the talented crew at SOVRN.
Positive roads ahead.
Nothing gets the juices going quite like a worthy creative challenge. It’s the good stuff. So when it all comes together, and the team is right, and you create something you’re proud of that checks all the boxes—it comes with a great feeling of accomplishment. This was one of those projects. Working with the SOVRN crew and all the safety agencies involved was a pleasant journey from start to finish. Now that’s a Good Move.
