Below: Before and After Images in Slide Show, Animated GIF, Summary, Credits
With media being under constant economic pressure, it’s hard to find a publication that stays true to high-quality, well-documented writing. Romanian tennis website www.30-0.ro is one such rare bird. Although a niche, independent player, with 440k unique visitors a year, it competes with established sports publications belonging to large media trusts.
30-0 has always experimented with new media and formats: podcasts, live TV shows, fan stories turned into comics, theme-based micro-sites etc. Five years after launch, they felt the website became too restrictive for their ambitions, with an inconsistently applied and outdated visual style. As the publication planned to also launch a line of branded merchandise for sale, they decided they needed an appealing and wearable visual identity.
An online survey amongst readers confirmed 30-0 was “Taking tennis further” by staying true to its quality and innovation principles.
The new logo and visual style use a tennis metaphor – “painting the lines” – to convey the publication’s courage. The “3” in the logo depicts the ball falling close to the court line, thus telling the story of a courageous game style. Similarly, key headlines “paint the lines” of the tennis court, which form a flexible layout grid. The electric colors pour more energy into the mix.
When 30-0 rebranded this spring, a branded T-shirt simulation spurred fan comments asking for the T-shirt to be sold. This generated the perfect vibe for launching the shop. The new website displays visual alignment across all its sections. Its improved structure and design led to an increase in page views (+ 27%), in visits (+ 20%) and in unique visitors (+ 4%) half a year after the rebranding. The shop is only three weeks old, but it has already made its first 100 customers happy.
Client: 30-0 – www.30-0.ro
Founder and Project Lead: Adrian Toca
Brand Strategists/Designers: Storience – www.storience.com
Managing Partner: Adriana Liute
Senior Advisor: Stefan Liute
Senior Designer: Ovidiu Pop
Designer: Raluca Ciubotaru
Animator: Ana-Maria Taranu
Web development agency: Live Design
Web Developer: Bogdan Gheorghe
