NextWave Energy Monitoring

NextWave needed to stand out in an energy monitoring industry that had innovated very little over the last quarter-century. The company had to prove that great energy monitoring exists — and is a valuable part of energy asset management — to a client base that wasn’t aware of alternatives to legacy providers. It needed a brand that stood out, made noise, and spoke the language of energy engineers and asset owners alike to make a typically unseen part of solar and energy technology visible and enticing.

‍

At DG+, we relish the opportunity to shape a brand’s full identity with unique visuals and strategic messaging that stands apart from the rest. What began as a brand design and messaging project to grow NextWave’s industry presence grew into a full website redesign that put user experience first. 

Retro-inspired brand visuals

NextWave’s new brand needed to look unique while drawing on familiar visuals to welcome the viewers in. DG+ created the NextWave visual brand using retro magazine ads as inspiration to balance the company’s high-tech products, resulting in something wholly new that makes it stand out. We wanted NextWave's brand to feel tangible, so we drew from references that felt useful and built to last: analog equipment, control panels, old computer ads, and early internet culture. Vintage Yamaha manuals and CompuServe-era design became key touchstones, blending technical precision with optimism and a bit of analog weirdness.

The final system used bold color, waveform graphics, utilitarian type, product-forward layouts, and a custom 90s print treatment to bring that inspiration into a modern digital experience. The result is a brand that feels technical without being cold, practical without being boring, and distinct in a category where most companies look the same.

Human-centric messaging

NextWave is taking a new approach to monitoring that centers the human behind the energy asset. The company’s voice and messaging pillars needed to reflect the value of its technology without losing the heart of its team. DG+ delivered messaging that drives this storytelling in marketing, communications, and sales activities. 

A user-first website experience: DG+ applied the visual brand and messaging to a new website structured to guide a user through their research. This included an Applications page that leads the user through a custom quiz, while interactive product diagrams make the product ecosystem easier to understand, with both high-level descriptions for executives and technical details for engineers. 

Sales, events, and collateral

DG+ extended the brand into the materials NextWave’s team needed to sell, present, and show up in the market. This included a refreshed sales deck, product datasheets and a brochure, social graphics, Canva templates to help their team manage day-to-day marketing, and booth/event materials for Intersolar and RE+.

DG+ refreshed the sales deck to help NextWave communicate a more complete story in customer conversations. The deck connected product tiers, software capabilities, compliance benefits, and support services into one cohesive narrative built around performance, visibility, and speed to deployment.

The collateral made technical details easier to scan while preserving the specifications engineers and buyers need. For events, the system scaled into booth graphics, signage, presentation visuals, and printed materials, giving NextWave a more consistent and recognizable presence in busy trade show environments.

‍

The Result

The outcome was a beautiful website that leads visitors towards NextWave’s solutions with ease. After launch, the new site gave NextWave a stronger technical and search foundation, with site health, performance, and search health scores reaching higher than 90% in Semrush. The new brand visuals and messaging can also be applied to all outgoing company communications and assets to make a memorable impression in the energy industry, helping NextWave stand out in the energy world with energy monitoring by humans, for humans.