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Design of GUIDES and manuals for employees of Freight One Company
Freight One Company (FOC) is a multimodal cargo carrier; it is part of the international transport group UCL Holding.
In Russia, Freight One is the largest private operator in the rail freight market. It operates 1,346,000 cars for various purposes. In addition to covered cars, the company owns cement trucks, tanks, gondola cars, and operates the rolling stock of third parties. In 2019, Freight One transported 164 million tons of cargo; its share in the total traffic of the Russian Railways network was 12%. The list of services offered by Freight One includes industrial logistics, forwarding, railroad car rental, repair and washing. Freight One has 14 branches in Russia alone; in addition, there are representative offices in Finland and Kazakhstan. At the beginning of 2020, the company had 3,750 employees.
The history of successful cooperation between the Studio and Freight One started with the redesign of advertising materials. In 2018, we did a lot of image-building photography of the company, and then created an unusual image-building brochure. In the summer of 2019, we received an order for several projects at once to promote corporate rules and values within the company. The first thing we decided to do that time was to tell about the company’s team values. The studio prepared a corporate booklet with the rules of teamwork. We decided to move away from standard solutions and design the guide in a rare format. “Freight One team rules” were made as a cube. A three-dimensional booklet can be twisted in the hands, while it does not have a large footprint on the table and will always remain above the papers.
The next task that the Studio was to solve was the creating instructions for using corporate mail. We needed a product that would help employees get used to the email application and use it with confidence. We made a problem chart with solutions and illustrations. For example, the guide contains answers to questions about how to create a group of contacts, or how to create one’s personal signature. We tried to explain everything that could cause problems for the mail user in simple words. The guide was made specifically for the Cargo One mail server, and the programmers integrated the guide into the mail app.
Another interesting task that was set before the Studio was to tell what values and actions of employees are considered improper in Freight One. We decided to satirize shortcomings such as bureaucratization, bureaucracy and procrastination in a format of a comic book. What we got was an anti-guide in corporate behavior. The main character, named Vasya (short for Vassily), permanently settles in the meeting room because he has to participate in seven meetings a day, as well as in additional meetings, all of which condemn having many meetings. He is constantly asking uncomfortable questions, showing the absurdity and harm of bureaucracy. The comics created by the Studio can be printed as posters and used for campaigning.
See various designs of industrial postcards from the Studio and the design of the corporate character for the Tosno Mechanical Plant.