Stephen Lloyd

Overview

In April 2024, Axon broke into the AI Era with its industry-first draft report writer, Draft One. Unlike Axon's other product launches which were for tangible products like TASER CEWs and body worn cameras, Draft One was the company's first official software launch.

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Goal

Figure out how to visually represent a cutting edge software with a rather generic user interface of a police report writer and create the look and feel of all marketing materials spanning print, digital, social, OOH, trade shows, events, presentations, and more.

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My Role

My first task was learning every aspect of this new software as possible. I was in dozens of calls with the product team and attended several webinars and events around the world with customers who would be trialing the product. I even tested out the product for myself to glean any insights into how I could visually represent this through a new logo, icons, and design elements.

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The actual Draft One logo is made up from our brand's font Benton Sans Medium and our signature icon, the Axon Delta. Our group creative director had designed this lockup in one of our early presentations so I pulled it out as an option to play around with in banners and early explorations and of the dozen or so options, it held the most weight among the different placements so I ran with it and never looked back.

Since its AI generated content is the special feature under the hood, Draft One's user interface is basically a black and white police report writer without very many bells and whistles on the frontend. When I tried it out in dark mode, that's when I realized that the police report in the background would make a great textural element to compliment the logo. 

The final design element was highlighting customer quotes we received who had trialed the product. By literally using a highlighter treatment, these big bold phrases became our hero pieces to grab the attention of new customers. 

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I took these three elements and went into design execution mode to create animated paid ads, magazine print pieces, Powerpoint templates, event signage, and more.

Outcome

With a few months of planning, we had one of the most successful product launches in company history. There were audible gasps in the auditorium when the audience saw Draft One in action.

The entire CX was seamless from the event of the launch to the informational webinars, from the print ads in policing magazines to the paid digital ads across the internet. The Draft One branding became instantly familiar with customers and became Axon's fastest selling software product.