Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross: A Brochure That Drives Ambition

Tomohira Kodama's Innovative Approach to Car Brochure Design

Tomohira Kodama, the creative mind behind the Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross brochure, sought to break away from conventional car brochure designs. The Eclipse Cross, being the first car released under Mitsubishi's new brand tagline "Drive your Ambition", required a brochure that would offer a real sense of the car's dynamism and presence. To achieve this, Kodama employed a unique method of expression, utilizing a motorsports photographer and integrating a QR code that leads to a movie showcasing the car's real perspective.

What sets the Eclipse Cross brochure apart is its aggressive design that symbolizes the brand's new tagline. The brochure's visual perception offers a real experience of the car's dynamism and presence. To capture the car's reality, a motorsports photographer was used, and the brochure was designed with a QR code that provides access to short movies showcasing the car's style and driving performance. The use of red and black as key colors further accentuates the Eclipse Cross's strong personality.

The brochure was produced without the usual perspective setup that often makes car artworks look artificial. Instead, Kodama used a photographer specialized in motorsports and brought the actual car to various shooting locations to capture the car's sparks in the viewfinder. The images used in the brochure were selected carefully from thousands of inspirational shots. The brochure also features a QR code that leads to a video shot at the same time as the main still photography shooting.

The brochure is A4 size with 24 pages and uses FSC approved paper made from thinned wood. In Japan, automobile brochures are considered an incentive item for targeted customers, and this brochure was designed to convey both emotional and functional qualities to the potential buyer. The brochure allows the new owner to obsess over his or her purchase and fantasize about driving it, while waiting for the car to be delivered.

The Eclipse Cross brochure faced the challenge of capturing the car's dynamism and presence as reality with each turn of a page. Kodama aimed to enclose instantaneous discoveries and surprises in the brochure. The artwork/photos used in the brochure are the results of efforts to capture inspirational moments the car creates without any pre-established plans. The brochure pages with a QR code are processed with polypropylene to lead people from the brochure to a web video.

The Eclipse Cross brochure is a testament to Mitsubishi's new brand tagline, "Drive your Ambition". It offers a real experience of the car's dynamism and presence through visual perception. The use of a motorsports photographer and a QR code that leads to short movies showcasing the car's strength adds a unique twist to the brochure. The brochure was awarded Silver in A' Advertising, Marketing and Communication Design Award in 2019, a testament to its innovative and remarkable design.