Prototype
The homepage, in both themes.
Recorded from the Figma Make prototype on a desktop and on a phone: scrolling the page, then switching to the dark theme.
Open the Prototype (Opens in a new tab)
Motsee
A logo, a colour palette and a homepage for a startup marketplace built only for motorcycles.
At a glance
Motsee was a startup building an online marketplace just for motorcycles and riding gear. In one week I designed its logo, its colour palette and the homepage of the marketplace.
Most of this Case Study is about the thinking behind the brand.
Problem: The client wanted a bold, edgy brand for young riders.
The client wanted to break into the Polish market with a brand that was bold and had character, one that would appeal to lots of young riders. It had to be a bit edgy.
There was a gap in the product too. Polish marketplaces treat motorcycles as a side section, and those sections are poorly made. None of them lets you filter listings by the licence category you need to ride the bike.
Research: The logo drew on motorsport, the homepage on Otomoto.
- Motorsport lettering for the logo: the AMG emblem, BMW’s M series, the new Formula 1 logo and the official F1 website.
- Otomoto for the homepage. It holds almost the whole Polish market for vehicle listings, so people across the country already know its layout. Following the same structure meant riders would know where things are on their first visit.
Process: Two logo directions, and why one was dropped.
Motorsport lettering is heavy and tight. A marketplace has to be easy to read, so I toned the references down and removed some of the heaviest bolds. Two directions came out of it.
Logo directions
The geometric ///S went first. The three slashes were too close to the BMW M emblem and could be mistaken for it, and on their own they didn’t read clearly enough as an M. The client wasn’t sure which way to go, so I made the call.
Construction · Direction A
What it says
The flowing red MS is the one we kept. Its line is a road. It is also how buying a bike on a marketplace feels: you follow a winding route through the listings until you find the right motorcycle, and then you ride off.
Colour: Red, black and white, the colours people link with motorsport.
I kept to the most familiar of those associations so the brand reads as motorcycles at a glance. The red comes from the logo and leads; black and graphite carry the dark theme, white and a light grey the light one.
- MS–01Motsee redThe logo. The brand colour.
- HEX
- #AE2625
- RGB
- 174 38 37
- CMYK
- 22 98 98 14
- MS–02BlackDark background, headings.
- HEX
- #0A0A0A
- RGB
- 10 10 10
- MS–03GraphiteCards in the dark theme.
- HEX
- #171717
- RGB
- 23 23 23
- MS–04WhiteLight background.
- HEX
- #FFFFFF
- RGB
- 255 255 255
- MS–05Light greySurfaces in the light theme.
- HEX
- #F3F4F6
- RGB
- 243 244 246
Solution: A homepage riders already know how to use.
For the homepage I followed the client’s guidelines and the Otomoto layout closely. The page opens with search by brand, model, year, price and location, with shortcuts to popular models below it. Next come Premium listings, then listings recommended for you, each card showing the city, price, year, mileage and engine size. The footer links to bikes by licence category: AM, A1, A2 and A.
- Premium listings were how Motsee would make money: a seller pays more to have a listing featured.
- Services was the client’s plan for later, when workshops and race tracks could post listings too.
- Dark mode was my idea. Going through listings can take a long time, and a dark theme is easier on the eyes.
Outcome: The client took the MS logo and approved the homepage.
The client chose the MS logo and approved the homepage, which they liked a lot.