There is probably no trio that you haven’t come across on the streets of Stuttgart and southern Germany: von der Weppen on license plates. These are the car dealerships, right? Founded in 1972 by Klaus von der Weppen, the rich history of the company and the opening of one branch after another left a little something on the asphalt for almost 50 years: its own brand, which sells or leases other car brands.

In 1972, vehicles on the streets were very colorful, a bit smaller, and there were still fewer of them. Nowadays, the entire industry is adjusting for the future, and this is impacting the brand’s external appearance. You have to go with the flow. By the way: von der Weppen already received the 1st prize from the city of Stuttgart in 1996 for exceptional services in the field of environmental protection. After moving into the newly built headquarters on Heilbronnerstraße in 2019, the question of its own identity in the engine room now arose.

The strategic guideline of the new company CI was: The family. This is what von der Weppen stands for on all levels. It is a family business, as evidenced by the powerful name. It offers many car families and does not exclusively represent just one brand. It is, and wants to be, a car dealership for the whole family. The 18-year-old gets his first Twingo here. The trained banker treats herself to a small convertible. A mid-range SUV for the four-person Swabian clan. The practical van for the tradesman. Grandma and grandpa get a new Dacia Duster. Everything, of course, also available as hybrid or full electric.

A somewhat dusty old lettering was transformed into bold and clean lettering. VON DER WEPPEN. It works with or without the addition "Autohaus" and looks striking on the license plate, the main communication tool of the Weppens. In short form, it becomes the emblem and new logo VDW. Framed in a notch, similar to a rearview mirror, it stands out on various media. Because that was the fundamental hustle: creating an expressive brand design for a car dealership family in contrast to the many car brands (and thus many brand designs) it offers.

It is the thoroughly thought-out, fundamental components that serve this purpose and perform their work as a perpetual motion machine. A clean, flexible logo, a signal color (dynamic yellow, a signal color and the symbol for e-mobility in one), and typography that really hits the mark, especially when it comes to numbers. Oh, percentages!

Give me a V: When rotated 90°, it becomes a racing arrow. Sometimes quieter, sometimes double or triple as loud. Individual fragments are broken out and serve as fluid teasers and disruptors for discount or financing offers. It's cool, it's immediate, it's understandable, and it fits the brand – really weppy.

The family has been using this call for a long time, sometimes more, sometimes less detached. In collaboration with Hochburg, a connecting mechanism was created based on this and in combination with claims we created, using "echt weppig" as the resolution, underscored with highlighter love in VDW yellow. A renewed suggestion: We are the humorous car dealership next door for everyone. Everyone wants to fly in the premium sector nowadays, but we stay street and are here for you with fair prices. Weppy Weekend.

This is also reflected in the selective visual world, which faced the same hurdle as the VDW brand formation itself: The material that had to be worked with comes from the individual manufacturers. However, it had to look like von der Weppen in the communication. For this, a conceptual visual framework was created in fusion with the newly created, flexible design elements that underscore the family-oriented, personal, human character.

It should also be reflected prominently on the web and its individual sections. On the website, the brand orchestra of colorway, disruptors, graphic snippets, and pictograms flows seamlessly together.

For the Instagram formats, presets were created where predefined photos can easily be combined with the claims and artworks and published. Everything makes sense, and everything is always von der Weppen. Your weppy car dealership. Looking for affordable leasing?

The entire Hochburg toolbox works both on a sheet of paper, on exposed concrete in the showroom, in the digital space, on merchandise, and in digital media.

The road of simplicity is often initially the foggiest and the hardest. To overcome it, you need a clear mind and an open-hearted client. Once you’ve reached the destination, the view is clear and distinct. There it stands, the future of the brand.