Draplin’s fuel economy labels

One of my favorite designers, Aaron Draplin of Portland’s Draplin Design Co., was asked by AOL’s Translogic blog to come up with a fictional redesign of the EPA’s automotive fuel economy stickers.

First of all, here’s the current label. Pretty boring. It doesn’t exactly get you inspired to be more fuel efficient. Below are Draplin’s reimaginations of the label, with commentary.

First off, a story of iconic blue sky and green earth. Health, vitality and a cleaner world. Second, in terms of readability, and, subversive strategy. Basically, you’ll see how the gas guzzlers systematically get harder to read as you go down in grade. The idea here is to make that informational exchange as rough as possible in the “D” grade, and, is a bit of a metaphor of my speculative guess on the nature of such buyers of such gas hogs. Frankly, they could give a rat’s ass less about fuel economy or carbon footprints. Right? Sadly, we’d reckon so.

In my second study I thought I’d go at the throats of juicy, American targets. They tell a simple story of good to bad, utilizing American themes like politics, country music and slang. From the good, down to the bad. Obama down to Palin. Willie on top, and that gunslinger Toby Keith revving up the bottom. Anyway, depending on where you stand in the fuel economy spectrum, you might get the fact that President Obama is pushing us into cleaner territory with green technologies. Or, maybe you might relate to that farce Palin on her 3000 horsepower tundra tank that runs on crude oil and polar bear blood? Do the right thing.

Finally, I wanted to develop a clear icon set to quickly distinguish the types fuels both contemporary, in development and on the table for the future: Steam, fossil, electric and the elusive hydrogen! My dirty fingers are crossed for clean alternatives for all Americans, and, a brighter future. Free of Sarah Palin. Fingers crossed.