Xantrex

Overview

Xantrex is a power solutions company for a variety of vehicle applications: RVs, Heavy-Duty Trucks, Firetrucks, Ambulances, Police Vehicles, and both recreational and commercial marine vessels.

I pitched, led, and executed the design of a false cover ad for Heavy Duty Trucking, a magazine that boasts reaching more than 115,000 executives at commercial truck fleets (think vehicles that transport goods to supermarkets) and over 4,000 truck and trailer dealership managers.

Process

With a 12-business-hour turnaround, the team needed an idea to market Xantrex’s lithium-ion battery and solar power solutions.

I propsed the idea of compositing a narrative of a “truly” lithium-ion powered heavy-duty truck being driven on top of a solar power road to reach a destination.

Through Photoshop, I stitched together multiple solar panels to construct a road that matched the depth of the existing photo, including replacing the truck carriage with an entire lithium battery.

Iterations

One of the biggest concerns from my manager was the lack of clarity that the composed item on the truck was not clearly a lithium-ion battery. Having worked with him, we came to a compromise in ideas to successfully meet the publication deadline.

See carousel to review the various versions.

Room for Improvement

With a quick turnaround time, I lacked time to find a better solution to communicate the lithium-ion battery without blatant text. I’d propose playing around with more of just the positive and negative ions and perhaps opting to use a more subtle text somewhere, such as “Li-Ion.”

I’d also take more time to find a more appealing way to display the copy. Despite it’s existing clarity, I know there is opportunity to improve.