Case StudyOverview
Name: zedX - The Formula Student Electric Team at TU Berlin
Company: TU Berlin
Location: Berlin
Industry: Automobile industry
Product: CorelDRAW® Graphics Suite

Electrifying Racing!

The zedX Vision has a lot of sponsors. The stickers for the logos were all created withthe CorelDRAW Graphics Suite.

The August day finally arrived that dozens of students
had been waiting for in Hockenheim. For the first time atGermany's world-famous motor racing mecca, fifteenelectric-powered racing cars were revving their engines
and waiting for the flag to drop. All of them were built byuniversity students from around the world. One group –from Berlin's Technical University (TU) were presenting
their zedX project for the first time. A project whose
success was helped along in no small way by Corel Draw
Graphics Suite.

Formula Student Germany event in Hockenheim. When PhilippKahle and his fellow TU students heard that the 2010 event
would be accepting entries for electric racing cars for the firsttime, they didn't hesitate for a second. “We were up for it rightaway,” remembers Kahle. “There was just one small problem –we had less than ten months to complete the project from start
to finish!” What a project it was too – designing and building
a Formula racing car that would be made in a limited series of1000 units – and cost less than US$25,000 per car. And thatwasn't all. The judges also look at the car's speed, braking
capability, its design, fuel consumption, engine safety and –last but definitely not least – the costing and marketing plan.

Many automotive engineering students share the same dream.
To design and build a racing car that takes part in the renownedGroup photo with racing car: The proud zedX Vision team in Hockenheim.

Case Study

totally self-explanatory, contrary to some of the other products Itried.” That was an important factor in this project because
the team was constantly under pressure and everything had
to happen fast. “I remember creating our business cards literally
five minutes before we left to go to the Hanover Messe trade
show. I had them printed at our printing shop, which is one ofour partners.”

Layout, graphics, colors: The zedX Vision Christmas card was of course also createdwith Corel software.

Turning into professionals overnight“At the beginning, there were only six of us working on theproject,” says Philipp Kahle. “Nowadays our team has grownto eighteen people.” Kahle, 26, was part of the project rightfrom the outset – and was deputy team leader as well as being
responsible for marketing and sponsoring. “I needed to produce
a whole load of things at top speed,” he says. “Brochures forthe press and potential sponsors, along with posters, displays,logos, business cards, name badges and a website.” And he
had to do everything more or less alone – without the help ofa graphic artist. And without much experience. “I'd produced
the odd birthday invitation before, but never anything on thisscale.” The fact that he managed it against the odds is down
to his own talent as well as to his graphics software. “I'd worked
with Corel Draw 8 a couple of times, so I downloaded the freetest version of Corel Draw Graphics Suite from the web.”© 2010 Corel Corporation. All rights reserved 04/10

In the test version's thirty-day validity period, Philipp Kahle
managed to produce the first layouts of the four-page brochure
as well as the logo for the speedy electric car. Featuring “zedXvision” for zero emission drive, the logo font is slanting tosuggest speed. It's depicted in blue and orange followed by alarge green X standing for sustainability, strength and the year
the project was born – 2010. “But by the time I'd done thatthe thirty-day trial period was almost over”, grins Philipp Kahle.
“And there was still an awful lot to do. So I called Corel andasked them if they'd like to sponsor the project with a freelicense for the program!” The answer came back pretty fast:
yes we would. “To be honest,” laughs Kahle, “I contacted thecompetition too, with the same suggestion. But they didn't
even bother answering me.” Just before the trial period
finished, Philipp Kahle received his Corel DRAW Graphics Suite
package. “The great thing was that I didn't need to spend
ages learning it, even though I was a beginner. The interface isNominated for the Clean Tech Media Award 2010
The Corel solution was particularly helpful for creating sponsorstickers. “I had to work on about fifty sponsor logos, most ofwhich were to be placed on the racing car itself. They all had
to be plain white – no colour.” As many small companies didn't
have a digital version of their logo, Philipp Kahle had to create
vector graphics from photos, graphics files or JPEGs, cut out
the individual letters from them and change their colour towhite. A huge amount of work. The whole thing was thensaved as a DFX file and sent to the print shop.

The colors on zedX Vision's calling card: green, orange and white stand forenvironment, dynamism and zero emission.

In any case, it was worth the effort. The TU Berlin's team wasranked fourth in the business presentation. The University ofStuttgart achieved first place in the overall rankings. But theBerlin team knows what's important – and they've achieved alot. With great PR work, the press reported several times on
the zedX project, so the public is familiar with it. Also, the teamwas nominated for the Clean Tech Media Award in the Young
Talent category. And the online version of the German national
daily “Die Welt” voted the project “Innovation of the Week”.
That's a great basis for Team zedX Vision to start preparing fornext year – which it's doing with more support than before.
Why? Because this time the zedX students will be working
with the FaSTTUBe group from the TU Berlin which designed aracing car with a combustion engine. That means everything
will need to be redesigned. “We want to use Berlin's colours
for the logo this time. Maybe something with red, white andgrey, we'll see,” comments Philipp Kahle. He's looking forward
to getting started on the project too. “Hopefully I'll be able towork with the new version of Corel DRAW Graphics Suite nexttime!”

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