CarMax Iconography System

 

Background

Over the course of two decades CarMax’s product and brand departments were out of sync and each using their own off-the-shelf solutions for iconography. The icons styles varied widely and none were bespoke to CarMax.

Problem

Due to the complex nature of CarMax’s business, icon needs varied widely across platforms and applications. They need to work in our physical retail stores, HR training documents, across consumer facing web products, and within associate software tools.

Solution

We developed a unique icon style rooted in our brand strategy that had flexibility built into its DNA. Each icon starts on a shared canvas and is built using simple shared principles. Icons are then simultaneously shared to the DAM for Marketing and a Figma component library for Product where they are pulled into a code repo. All icons are tagged with metadata to increase searchability.

Results

  • Icons are unified across end-to-end customer and associate journeys.

  • Reduced confusion within Product & Marketing by having a single source of truth.

  • Instant up-leveling of visual design across 65 product teams.

 

Construction

Icons for UI components

 
 

Icons for marketing use

The marketing icons are scaled up 4x from the base 24px UI canvas.

These icons contain additional detail and sport several more styles, such as glass.

 
 

More Work