Chaos puts start-up taxi company in the front seat

Chaos Design has created a brand name and identity for nascent private-hire vehicle company Blueback, which roars into London on 15 October aiming to take on London’s black cabs and reposition perceptions of the mini-cab market.

The project, which is worth more than £100 000 in fees to the consultancy, encompasses brand creation and positioning work, vehicle livery and all corporate communications – including marketing materials and the company’s website.

London’s private-hire market is still fragmented, with over 2200 companies. Blueback hopes to be ‘the first player to start consolidating’, says Blueback co-founder and marketing director PJ Darling.

Blueback, which will initially launch to the corporate market, aims to market itself to the general public in 2004, once it has built up its critical mass.

‘Our first tranche will have 20 vehicles, making us an average-sized player in the corporate market. We plan to have a thousand vehicles by year five,’ says Darling.

According to Darling the consultancy’s brief was to create a name and look to reflect the company’s core values. ‘I asked them to keep it simple, professional, safe, consistent and innovative,’ he says.

Chaos Design creative director Peter Campbell says the group opted for a name that would ‘conjure up a picture in people’s heads’ and could be visually reflected on the vehicles.

‘The backs of the vehicles are blue, so people can see the brand concept in life,’ he explains.

Campbell says Blueback’s logo, typeface and graphics all create a feeling of motion and the company’s tagline, ‘looking forward’, uses ‘active, dynamic language’.

Chaos Design was appointed in November 2002, after a five-way, unpaid credentials pitch.

The Public Carriage Office, part of Transport for London, is in the process of licensing private vehicle operators and drivers. It expects to have a system in place for regulating vehicles by next spring, according to a PCO spokesman.