Red Lion Logo

Platform Strategy & Design Language

The Story

Platform solution to leapfrog the competition

M3 teamed with Red Lion Controls, a global leader in Industrial Automation and Networking, on a journey to help improve their product offering efficiency and overall visual brand presence. Red Lion identified a key need to combine subsystems from their automation, networking and cellular groups into a cost-effective, modular platform that could be easily configured for multiple applications. Red Lion also wanted to leverage this new platform design to elevate their brand while creating a meaningful experience to become the catalyst for a new cohesive line of future products. The combination of Red Lion’s industry and engineering know-how and appetite for change and M3 Design’s Design Language and Engineering experience enabled the beginning of a new dawn for RLC.

Manticore system
Our Solution

Collaborating on a holistic change for a global leader

  1. A product platform strategy that turned 47 unique products and configurations into a single platform solution.
  2. Integrated thoughtful and intuitive user interfaces to enable easy wayfinding/diagnostics, mitigate errors and decrease setup and maintenance time.
  3. Enabled Red Lion customers to upgrade their systems without downtime or product overhaul.
  4. Delivered a new, edgy Visual Design Language that helps distinguish Red Lion from their competition by using a visual strategy to create improved consistency, brand equity and market awareness across their broader portfolio.
  5. Created the new Red Lion brand identity that repositions them as a progressive, market pioneer. No longer ‘me too’.
  6. Created a production mechanical design that met or exceeded requirements.
Manticore mounted to a wall
"M3’s team of engineers and designers moved us outside of our comfort zone and ultimately helped us create a fantastic product." Colin Geis Director of Product Management
red lion manticore option modules
The Experience

Defining the brand tone

As part of our process, we worked closely with Red Lion’s key stakeholders to understand the core brand tone and bring definition to the Red Lion brand identity that repositions Red Lion as a progressive market pioneer.

Design Language process images
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The Brand

Helping to Rebrand a Market Stalwart

Red Lion's marketing team was already working on updating the company's positioning and outbound visual presence. M3 helped design the brand DNA for Red Lion which supports their narrative of "Excellence. Redefined."

donkey oil pumps
res lion logos
red lion logo on a laptop screen
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The Industrial Design

Performance Driven Controller Aesthetic

Strong design details were introduced into the hardware design to accentuate the high performance aspect of not only the product, but also the Red Lion brand. The iconic halo illuminating light ring promotes a high-tech, modern aesthetic and acts as a key functional element indicating specific diagnostic states to the user. Alongside the halo, edgy chevrons embedded in the diecast housings become a key brand signature supporting the modernized makeover.

red lion side view
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The Engineering

Rugged outside. Reliable inside. Genius from every angle.

Creating a modular platform is challenging enough, but that coupled with the need for significant thermal dissipation performance and stringent shock and vibration durability called for rigorous engineering. Rugged construction, industrial certifications, built-in web server and Red Lion’s Crimson® software provide a single, dependable solution for control, networking and data visualization in even the harshest environments.

cast aluminum component
manticore internal view
interior view of electronics
2 people operating a flexedge

Turning the Concept into Reality

With the chosen concept in hand, the M3 and Red Lion Engineering teams worked together to create the production design for the system.

flexedge green led ring

Testing all Aspects of the Design

Everything from thermal simulations to light piping mock-ups were carried out to test the design and validate the final product approach.

flexedge metal parts

Prototype Parts to Confirm Assembly

The M3 engineers went through numerous iterations of part printing and prototype building to check fit and assembly procedures.

flexedge in manufacturing

Turning the Concept into Reality

First Article inspections were performed on tooled components and the overall system, and production CAD databases and documentation were finalized for handoff to Red Lion.

The Results

A platform strategy and product design that turned 47 unique products into a single, modular platform solution with a fresh and unified brand identity

  1. Enabled Red Lion to easily and efficiently provide custom solutions to their customers.
  2. Manifestation of the new industrial design allows for the roll out of future products under the new Red Lion brand DNA, providing increased portfolio consistency and market impact.
  3. Company-wide global rebrand
Up Next

Delivering Market Leadership with Design Language

View the Case Study

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