Tropos Motors

Designing a Brand Built for Movement

Role: Creative Director, Design Lead
Client: Tropos Technologies, Inc.
Year: 2017–2019

Overview

When Tropos Motors emerged from stealth, they needed more than a logo—they needed a brand that could go head-to-head with industry giants. As Creative Director, I led the naming, identity, and full brand ecosystem from scratch, helping position them as a serious contender in electric utility vehicles.

My Role

As Creative Director, I built and led a lean in-house creative team during Tropos Motors' pivotal transition from stealth to market. Working closely with the founders and engineers, I shaped the brand’s core identity and design direction, translating early vision into tangible assets that supported product launches and investor confidence.

With limited resources, I wore many hats—guiding high-level brand strategy while also executing hands-on design. I sourced and directed talent from our production and engineering teams to produce photo and video shoots, stand up the website, and develop launch materials. This scrappy, collaborative approach enabled us to craft a cohesive, high-impact brand presence that punched well above its weight. I also supported Product Education and Production as well as Sales.

Case Study

Tropos Technologies was preparing to enter the commercial vehicle market with a compact yet powerful utility truck—but first, it needed a brand that could carry real weight. I led the end-to-end process of defining a new brand name and visual identity that would resonate across industries, scale across mediums, and capture the product’s unique proposition: small footprint, serious capability.

Through competitive audits, stakeholder workshops, and collaborative naming exercises, we landed on “Tropos Motors”—a name rooted in strength, simplicity, and versatility. From there, I developed a full identity system designed to flex across vehicle badging, digital platforms, sales tools, and branded apparel. Every design decision was informed by the need for clarity, utility, and brand cohesion—reflecting the modular, hardworking nature of the product itself.

Logo Development

The logo for Tropos Motors evolved through a hands-on, iterative process. Beginning with hand-drawn sketches, I explored letterforms and symbols that could communicate industrial strength, agility, and approachability. Through rounds of digital refinement, we narrowed in on a bold custom logotype with subtle nods to movement and utility.

The final mark is clean, confident, and highly functional—designed to perform across contexts from vehicle badging to digital UI. Seeing the logo applied to the side of our first production vehicle marked a pivotal moment: the brand literally hit the road.

Brand in Action

With the logo system in place, we brought the Tropos Motors brand to life across a wide spectrum of touchpoints—balancing function, durability, and visual consistency.

I led the design and production of vehicle badging that reinforced the brand’s identity on the road, ensuring the mark remained legible and bold at scale. We developed sales collateral and printed materials tailored to different audiences, from municipalities to industrial buyers, with a clean, modular aesthetic.

To support long-term product success, I also oversaw the design of user manuals and technical documentation, embedding brand elements to enhance clarity and usability.

We extended the brand into apparel and team uniforms, reinforcing company pride and visual cohesion at tradeshows, test drives, and in the field. With limited internal resources, I collaborated closely with engineers and production staff to coordinate photoshoots and ensure every brand expression aligned with our vision—from pitch deck to product delivery.

UX Exploration & Website Design

To support the new Tropos Motors brand and product launch, I led the end-to-end UX and visual design of a responsive website—from discovery through delivery—while managing a small cross-functional team.

Discovery & Research

I kicked off the project with stakeholder interviews and a competitive audit to identify key user goals and business objectives. Our primary audience included fleet buyers and municipal decision-makers, which informed the site's content hierarchy and user flow priorities.

Team Collaboration

I managed and directed a senior designer, front-end developer, and back-end developer throughout the process—ensuring alignment across UX, engineering, and brand. In a lean environment, I often stepped in to support strategy, design, and implementation simultaneously.

Design & Wireframing

Based on user insights, I created annotated wireflows to map the full experience across devices. These evolved into high-fidelity wireframes and a modular design system that emphasized product specs, use cases, and contact paths.

Visual Design & Delivery

I applied the brand’s new identity to the website, balancing clarity with visual impact. I art directed every phase of the build, collaborating closely with developers to ensure design fidelity, functionality, and responsiveness.

The final site positioned Tropos Motors as a credible, scalable solution in the commercial EV space—helping turn awareness into traction.

Impact & Strategic Growth

The foundational brand work I led directly contributed to Tropos’ early success and strategic growth:

Enabled High-Value Partnerships:
The clarity and strength of the brand helped secure major partnerships, including Panasonic (electric motor development) and Mosolf (European distribution).
Product Innovation Influence:
While embedded with the engineering and production teams, I observed the product’s modular chassis and proposed both the “Easy-Swap” name and product positioning. The concept emphasized rapid interchangeability of vehicle bed packages—creating an entire brand pillar around versatility and speed.
Legacy & Evolution:
Today, Tropos’ evolved brand identity and product line are still anchored by the Easy-Swap feature I helped define and name—evidence of the lasting impact of integrated brand, product, and design thinking.