Turo

Turo is a peer-to-peer car sharing marketplace and app platform where real car-needing human beings can rent vehicles from other real car-owning human beings. Renters can browse and book a variety of vehicles, from everyday and luxury cars to very unique models and makes for any sort of occasion.

During my role at turo I was as a Lead Brand Designer working under the marketing team. Projects came in from all areas of the business and varried widely. A core tennant of my role was to uphold and sometimes define brand standards while keeping everything looking — and with the help of the copywriting team — sounding like Turo no matter the request.

Below are some of the projects I’ve had a hand in since joining in 2023. There are many more, but these are my favorites.

From the Driver’s Seat I — an internal magazine

“From the Driver’s seat” is an internal magazine designed and written entirely by the internal “Brand Creative Studio” and was distributed at a company-wide off site in Phoenix Arizona. Everyone on the team contributed to a few spreads and the magazine medium was an opportunity to design outside of the normal brand guidelines that inform Turo’s look and feel across all channels.

My contributions were the newly refreshed Core Values spreads and the “crossword”.

Because the team had almost total freedom to design unique layouts I ended up going totally H.A.M. and turned the assigned crossword page into a “games spread” with help from my copy partner Ranen. The inspiration was “1990’s chain diner activity mats for kids”. A nostalgic sort of ephemera from my youth. The final layout included a heavy newsprint texture and some print errors in the black to evoke an authentic mass-produced look.

From the Driver’s Seat II — still an internal magazine

For edition two I again tackled the “Rest Area” fun page with copy partner Ranen Parry. Edition one was an analog trip to the past but this time it was digital’s time to shine.

I grew up playing SNES (Since 1991!) with a penchant for causal JRPG style titles and wanted to create something that I maybe would have seen in a Nintendo Power spread from that era. From that concept “Rest Area II, a quest to relax.” was born.

Everything in the layout was created from scratch with the exception of the royalty free images of the Super Famicom and the DAEWOO CRT television. The cathode ray tube (CRT) texture , and custom illustrated game cartridge were my favorite parts in the finished piece.

All comped together the spread is a nod to my latchkey childhood, easter eggs and all.

Internal Branding

Above: Birthday brigade cards to celebrate the birthdays of Turo employees.

Below: Two Turo Shop softgood offerings made in collaboration with Sam Hensley. The jacket graphics are all embroidered and the bandana was hand screenprinted with the help of Mike at Against the Grain

A one-off “metal” shirt requsted as a suprise end-of-year gift for one of the product design teams and another created for Turo partners BPO in Manilla to celebrate a new office opening just for Turo support.

Marketing

What would a marketing designer be without designing hundreds or more communications? Turo has a fun illustrations style that often shines most in product and communications. My role focused more on the hosting side of the business where communications could lean text or data heavy. I looked for opportunities to illustrate and animate elements that could add a little delight in-between all the important information. With the help of the very talented developer Maria Giorgetti, all comms were coded, and strived for full ADA accessibility.

Events

Turo holds a lot of events for product users. One of the largest annual events is the Power Host Summit. The Summit is two-day gathering where Power hosts (top earners on Turo) can connect with each other and Turo employees. 

Turo works with an agency for venue procurement, catering, large format printing, day-of run-of-show, and other logistical needs but the programing, content and design is all done in-house. For the inaugural 2023 standalone summit I worked with another designer on my team and for 2024’s summit I was the only designer for the event. Below are some behind the scene moments and day-of outcomes from both summits.

2023 Summit — Austin, Texas

2024 Summit — Phoenix, Arizona

2023 Product design summit - Alamo drafthouse SF