portraits
Since its establishment in 1982, USA Today has been heralded a unique and groundbreaking newspaper, setting itself apart by implementing visual storytelling and producing concise, to-the-point copy. Founder Al Neuharth proclaimed that the paper was “designed to be different.” Nearing its thirtieth anniversary as one of the top two largest-circulating newspapers in the United States, USA Today approached Wolff Olins to evolve its logo and master brand identity. It was time to recapture the boldness and innovation that had driven the company from the start.
The existing logo looked dated, and internally the pressures of navigating the changing media landscape had led to a fractured brand structure and a lack of consistent vision for the future. Creative Director Lisa Smith, who led the project, says, “The objective was to create a flexible, but consistent, identity system. We set out to organize their brand architecture to accommodate their many business areas and bring USA Today back to its iconic position in America.”
The first phase entailed identifying the core identity and its critical elements while also outlining a clear design brief based on USA Today’s main attributes: “simple” and “straight to the point.” The Wolff Olins team collaborated with Co:collective to articulate the brand’s story, which revolved around the notion that the newspaper reflected the “pulse of the nation,” and infused this into the design work.
Because of the logo’s status as an American icon, the team did not want to alter its central attributes in any drastic way. “The logo was an evolution, not a revolution from the original,” says Smith. “We started by taking apart each component of the original and made decisions around each piece. We broke out of the box, literally, and were left with a circle that was an abstraction of the original logo.”
Wolff Olins’s redesign distilled the USA Today logo down to its essential elements.
The cobrand logos and color palettes provide a base upon which to build distinct yet related content sections. Wolff Olins brightened and refined the colors to bring them up to date.
The designers explored directions that built on the previous identity in order to evolve the logo.
Homing in on the circle shape, the designers experimented with keeping different aspects of the previous mark, such as its stripes and flag-like format. The process became one of distillation, down to the strongest version of each part working together.
At first, the designers thought that the existing typeface, sans serif Futura, was overly associated with the eighties because of its tight kerning, but when researching global news brands, they found that a sans serif typeface in fact provided a distinctive feature. They decided to keep the Futura and customize it to make it more than just a logotype, but a functional typeface that would have strong recognition across all platforms.
With the European font company Bold Monday, the team redrew each letter, noticeably shortening the ascenders and descenders to work editorially in headings, which often have to squeeze into small amounts of real estate in layouts and on the website.
As USA Today was the first newspaper to incorporate a range of colors in its pages, the chosen shades have long been renowned across the brand and its many cobrands, with most people associating them with navigation, from Sports to Life to Travel. The designers improved and brightened the colors, changing the Travel sub-brand to aqua, for example, to differentiate it from the master brand, blue.
The simplified logo can be superimposed with infographics that change with the news.
The designers customized the Futura typeface of the previous identity to make it stronger and more functional.
Building on the newspaper’s longstanding leadership position in visual storytelling, what became a logo circle could now perform as a platform for live infographics. The graphics change with the news, allowing the newsroom to highlight the stories that matter most to the paper’s readership—the nation at large.
“The USA Today logo was redesigned to be as dynamic as the news itself,” explains Smith. “Representing the pulse of the nation, the logo can be used as a platform to express USA Today’s editorial spirit: fun, bold, and impactful.”
Wolff Olins worked closely with the internal USA Today graphics and editorial team, testing the logo for two months prior to the public launch to create guiding principles around what could and couldn’t be done with the brand behavior. For example, they clarified that the logos that would be used on the masthead and section fronts of the newspaper and website should either have a clever twist, be a straight-to-the-point depiction, or be an enticing and provocative graphic representing the related news story.
While developing the master brand identity, it became apparent that in order to bring it fully to life, the newspaper itself would have to be wholly reconceived. Beginning in early 2012, members of the Wolff Olins team spent many days on the newsroom floor, shadowing the process from the morning news meeting to sending to press at 10 p.m. Editors, page designers, the graphics and illustration department, and the production and advertising department all took part in the research and development of the paper’s new look.
“Our goal was to place the brand across the entire ecosystem,” Smith says. “We modernized the printed paper by developing a new approach to content presentation and kept everything concise, factual. We added more color pages to simplify navigation, introduced a hierarchy across stories, and focused on visual storytelling.” The designers also created bespoke pictograms that referred to the digital content USA Today generated with Fantasy Interactive.
The redesign of USA Today’s visual system encompassed not only a bright new master brand and cobrand identities but also refined brand architecture, a redesigned newspaper, and a fresh advertising campaign across all media platforms. Response to the change has been overwhelmingly positive from Gannett, the media and marketing company that owns USA Today, and the public at large. With 1.8 million copies circulating every weekday and growing, one in every seven Americans interacts with USA Today on a weekly basis.
The Wolff Olins team reimagined flagship features of the USA Today print newspaper, such as the State-by-State and the Weather pages. It developed new content ideas like Fantasy Football, which runs weekly during the NFL season, and USA Markets, which replaces pages of stock tables with one page of easy-to-use visualizations of how everyday Americans are investing.
The advertising campaign took visual storytelling to a new level, putting people at the center of the news—literally—by creating human infographics.
Wolff Olins developed quotes to convey the editorial spirit of USA Today in brand communications.
The designers generated specialty versions of the logo to call out different events and, in this case, sports happenings.
Wolff Olins produced icons to link USA Today’s print content with its online offerings, created with Fantasy Interactive.
Mozilla Firefox OS
Brand Strategy and Identity Design
Wolff Olins, New York, New York
Following a competitive pitch in the summer of 2012, Mozilla brought Wolff Olins on board as brand partner for the brand strategy and identity of its new mobile operating system, Firefox OS. The brief centered on how to make Firefox OS visually disruptive and dynamic while retaining the ethos of Mozilla and Firefox, which is to keep the Internet free and open to anyone, anywhere.
“Early on in our thinking we knew we wanted to reinforce the connection to Firefox, but at the same time signal that something was different with the Firefox OS visual experience,” states Mike Abbink, creative director, Wolff Olins. “The OS part of the brand was all about mobility, and for us that was a key factor in developing the new Fox character.”
Wolff Olins presented three different directions for the Firefox OS identity, ranging from the new Fox character to others that pushed further away from the Firefox brand. In the end, bringing the Fox to life—unleashing him—to represent a mobile platform made the most sense. With such a strong icon at the designers’ fingertips, the logical step was to take it to the next level, make it fresh, and free it from the globe shape in the existing Firefox identity.
In close collaboration with Mozilla, the Wolff Olins team evolved the visual system to communicate a disruption in the mobile space. The identity needed to be lively, energetic, fast—like a mobile operating system should be—and convey what Firefox OS stands for. Brand attributes such as security, interaction, empowerment, and freedom were injected into the spirit of the Fox mascot Wolff Olins developed.
“A sort of superhero for Firefox OS,” says Abbink, “agile, fiery, protective, and always looking out for the greater good.”
The brand strategy Wolff Olins implemented brought the Firefox mascot to life, wrapping itself around the standard ad image of a smartphone and illustrating a key message, “Blaze your own path.”
For OS, the Fox leaps, charges, pivots, and swoops, blazing a trail of friendly, vibrant fire, usually across a solid panel of blue. The slogan “Blaze Your Own Path” courses through the system as the Fox jumps and swirls around it, playfully but with obvious intent and direction. The Mozilla Firefox logotype was preserved in the brand mark to maintain its strong familiarity, while the “OS” added to the name continues the structure of the existing FF Meta typeface.
Untethered, the new identity had fun at conventions, on billboards, and animated online when unveiled in early 2013 and will continue to grow creatively through apps.
Wolff Olins sketched the Fox in different levels of detail and returned to the crisp cartoon of the original but with a full range of motion.
For Firefox OS, Mozilla’s mobile operating system, Wolff Olins let the Firefox character loose so that it twists, jumps, and flames through the identity system.
The Fox becomes larger than life on city billboards and at trade shows.
Dongfeng Motor Corporation, one of China’s oldest and largest automobile manufacturers, was founded in 1969. At the core of its business is the Dongfeng Passenger Vehicle Company, which encompasses a wide range of passenger-vehicle brands. For the latest series of the Aeolus brand, the Aeolus 4S, Dongfeng sought to update the visual identity that had originally represented the broader company. By 2016, Aeolus would comprise every type of passenger car, including energy-efficient and electric vehicles, and Dongfeng wanted to signal this future expansion with a sharper mark. They turned to Dongdao Design to make it happen.
Aeolus needed a consistent brand presence in the marketplace and on the car itself in order to stand out from the competition. Dongfeng asked for a visual system that could be standardized and applied to every vehicle type, including those coming down the road in the future.
“We believed that our client was not taking full advantage of the Dongfeng brand in the Aeolus identity,” states Yide Zou, the project’s design director and general manager of Dongdao’s Brand Center.
The challenge became how to instigate a consistent visual tone across the Dongfeng brand and its passenger-vehicle brand and ensure that this new system was extendable to future series. At the same time, it was important to communicate Aeolus’s brand philosophy creatively through the logo.
From the beginning, Dongdao worked with one clear direction, which was a subtle change to the shape of the Dongfeng logo. In recent years, the icon had grown into an ellipse. Dongdao wanted to bring it back to a perfect circle.
In order to do this, the abstract swallow shapes, which had been encircled within the logo since its launch in 1987, would have to be realigned for balance and fluidity. The swallow is an auspicious bird in China, as it represents luck. “Dongfeng chose swallows with the hope that its vehicles would bring happiness and luck to its customers,” explains Zou.
Dongdao Design based its redesign of the Dongfeng Motor Corporation logo on the circular form of the yin and yang symbol with two abstract swallows inside of it. The swallow symbolizes luck.
The Dongfeng Motor logo had become more of an ellipse, and Dongdao helped guide it back to a circle, giving it more dimension and a metallic shine.
Dongdao presented different variations for the three-dimensional, metallic look of the logo.
The new design fits well on vehicles in the Aeolus series, from the front grille to the rear taillight.
Dongdao’s solution was to geometrize the two swallows and add a three-dimensional metallic-silver effect. They based the circular composition on the yin and yang symbol, which not only stands for stability but also represents motion, reflecting healthy and sustainable development.
In the final solution, the designers beveled the swallow shapes, creating dramatic shading and optimizing the sculptural quality of the design so that it stands out in ad campaigns and, quite literally, on the vehicles themselves. Dongfeng loved the three-dimensional appearance.
Over the course of two years, Dongdao generated the new visual identity system for Aeolus, which beyond the logo extended to every 4S vehicle—from the design of the car key to the taillight signature to the mark’s presence inside the car and on its exterior—as well as to Dongfeng’s internal office communications, advertising, and 4S dealerships. Both Dongfeng and consumers have been pleased with the look. Dongdao Design was hired on to design the brand identity for Dongfeng’s new commercial vehicle, which launched in 2013.
The icon is created by two abstract swallows in circular motion and sits balanced on the steering wheel.
Dongdao Design developed informational brochures and other corporate communications for the Aeolus passenger-vehicle brand, including its new Web presence.
Every last detail carries the new identity, including the all-important car key.
Qingdao Tourism
Identity Design
Dongdao Design, Beijing, China
The coastal city of Qingdao in eastern China’s Shandong province is widely recognized as one of China’s most livable cities. Meaning “green” or “lush” island, the name is synonymous with the idyllic setting on the Yellow Sea, as well as, to millions of beer-drinkers around the globe, the site of the Tsingtao Brewery (Tsingtao being the city’s historical name). The Qingdao Tourism Authority established the central entity Qingdao Tourism to integrate the many disparate tourist resources in the city and to promote the Qingdao brand internationally.
Dongdao Design came on board to conceive of a brand identity for Qingdao Tourism from the ground up. The task was to design not only a visual system for the company itself but more significantly for the city of Qingdao at large.
“The most important job in branding a city is to find its unique elements that are at the same time widely recognized by a majority of the public,” states design director Yide Zou.
The initial directions the Dongdao team explored centered on a logotype of the name Qingdao: a rendering of the striking red “Wind of May” sculpture located in Wusi, or May 4th Square, which represents Qingdao’s role in the May 4th Movement; regional characteristics such as sun, surf, and sailing; and cultural emblems such as the red-tile rooftops left from Germany’s occupation of the city around the turn of the twentieth century. The designers drew from all of these directions to develop the ultimate solution.
As the sailboat is likely the most prominent signifier of Qingdao ever since the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics—the sailing games were held there—the designers wanted to take advantage of the worldwide attention the Olympics had brought to the city. When they started sketching, the Games had just finished and so the sailboat became a prominent feature in the development of the logo icon.
They played off the initial letter in the Qingdao name and integrated it with the shape of a sailboat, the Q working seamlessly as the outline of a sail. Although a creative concept, it also holds up strategically and in brand communications because it combines two important brand elements in one recognizable symbol. The colors surrounding the sailboat help to accentuate it and were inspired by key city traits: red roof tiles; lush green trees; golden sand; and blue sky and water.
For the logo, Dongdao Design explored many identifying aspects of the city of Qingdao, including the “Wind of May” sculpture representing Qingdao’s role in the May 4th Movement and regional traits of sun, surf, and sailing. The “City of the Sailboat” direction became the final solution, taking advantage of worldwide attention garnered from Qingdao’s role in the 2008 Olympics.
The identity system travels across applications large and small, from billboard to airplane livery designs.
The “City of the Sailboat” direction, as it was called, won out over the others. “The direction is very distinctive,” says Zou. “Qingdao was the only cooperating city in the Beijing Olympics sailing games and so this logo had the most direct communicative effect.”
The identity was launched in 2010 to great acclaim among local residents as well as foreign tourists around the world.
The final design centered on Qingdao as the location for the sailing competitions in the Beijing Olympics. The colors as well as the sail-like lines represent the physical nature of the city and its seaside location.
Qingdao Tourism’s visual identity brightens shopping bags, water bottles, and even rental cars.
On April 30, 2013, also known as Queen’s Day, Willem-Alexander became the first king of the Netherlands to be inaugurated in 122 years. The Amsterdam-based design firm Koeweiden Postma was approached by the city to mastermind, quite quickly, a jubilant yet cohesive visual system for the festivities, which not only included the inauguration but also the annual Queen’s Day celebrations. The project brief outlined the need for a consistent style throughout while implementing different accents for the two events. Koeweiden Postma’s goal was to find the right unifying elements and shapes while flavoring the two celebrations with differentiating color palettes.
As red, white, and blue are the national colors of the Netherlands, these would be infused into the Willem-Alexander identity, along with the traditional orange connected to the royal family, always used on Queen’s Day. Additionally, the color of the city of Amsterdam is red, and so the Queen’s Day Amsterdam identity would also feature orange and red side by side.
Keeping in mind the public spaces in which the events would be held, Koeweiden Postma envisioned an identity system that would succeed on an enormous scale. The fact that the visuals would be displayed everywhere, on posters, billboards, building banners, and more, influenced their thinking about what the design elements could and should do.
“It was clear from the beginning that the design solution had to be applicable for a lot of different carriers,” explains designer Eddy Wegman. “In order to get as much impact as possible, the design had to be recognized easily, like an ongoing streamer throughout the city.”
Every application had to feel and look the same, without becoming a boring repetition of the same visual. Because the design would interact with various types of architecture, and most important with the historical architecture in the city, the designers steered toward a direction that blended in with Amsterdam’s elegant, symmetrical, and monumental nature. They masterminded a diagonal pattern—like a magnified weave—that can be repeated over and over again and therefore work on both small and large scales without losing its sense of dynamism and playfulness.
Koeweiden Postma modernized Willem-Alexander’s monogram to create a logo for the Queen’s Day Amsterdam celebrations in 2013. They removed the crown from the monogram, as the new king was not being crowned but inaugurated.
The visual identity pays homage to the monumental architecture of Dam Square, where the Royal Palace is situated and where the inauguration took place.
The crisscross of the W and A in the logo echoes out into applications such as flags flying the colors of the Netherlands, Amsterdam, and Queen’s Day in different combinations.
Bus stop posters incorporate the handwritten 2013 as well as the slogan, “I Amsterdam.”
The designers masterminded a diagonal pattern, used here to line a parade route, that can work on both small and large scales without losing its sense of dynamism.
A building wrapped in the weave pattern of the Queen’s Day Amsterdam identity shows just how magnified it can get.
Elements of the identity were incorporated to decorate an information desk.
In terms of the icon, their first thought was to incorporate a crown. But because Willem-Alexander would not be crowned but inaugurated, this no longer made sense. The next obvious element was his monogram, along with the national colors.
“The final solution of the modernized monogram came very quickly,” Wegman admits. “We didn’t sketch for a long time. We felt the logo had to be strong and simple and fit for a modern-day ‘kingship.’”
The woven-diagonal design and contemporary monogram—cleverly intertwining the W and A of the king’s name—extended across both the inauguration and the Queen’s Day celebrations, differentiated only by color. As both the red, white, and blue of the Netherlands and the orange of the House of Orange-Nassau are intrinsic to the cultural identity of the entire country, the combination made utter sense. Koeweiden Postma tested the colors for various production techniques due to the sheer number of diverse applications.
To further personalize the design and give it a human touch, the designers added a handwritten element. “We wanted something unique, for a unique day, not to be seen somewhere else,” says Wegman. They wrote the year 2013—which appears throughout the visual system—manually and then perfected the numbers to get the right balance between readability and irregularity. In its slant and proportion, the final version complements the symmetrical and monumental style of the overall design.
Another component was the city’s existing marketing slogan, “I Amsterdam,” which has been employed every Queen’s Day for the past ten years. The designers incorporated the phrase in various applications identifying specific activities in and around the city to carry on and amplify the traditions of the day through the new identity concept.
With the challenge of fitting all of the moments on what was both a historic occasion and a national holiday—including the inauguration in the Royal Palace; every festivity throughout the city; and an evening cruise on the IJ lake—Koeweiden Postma’s ultimate goal was to bind them all together. Meanwhile, the identity had to be something every Dutch person enjoyed looking at and that engaged viewers everywhere, from the king himself to locals, visitors, and the vast international audience watching on television and online.
“In short, we had the challenge to design the ultimate Dutch business card for that day,” muses Wegman. The city dressing went off without a hitch and to an overwhelmingly positive response.
The Amsterdam Central Train Station, seen from IJ lake, heralds the day with a massive awning.
Even Overhoeks Tower, once the headquarters of Royal Dutch Shell and now an office and residential building, dons the monumental dressing of the Queen’s Day Amsterdam identity.
Van Gogh Museum
Identity Redesign
Koeweiden Postma, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam came to Koeweiden Postma with a question: Did the museum’s existing logo emphasize “Amsterdam” enough? The word mark, set in Syntax, was just that: a word mark, with the city name in relatively small type. The design firm’s response was to revisit the identity as a whole, asking in return: Does the word mark have any real connection to the artist?
Having identified the main underlying problem, Koeweiden Postma got to work exploring other ways to express Van Gogh’s unique contributions through the museum’s visual system. The previous logo was dated, yes, but the most important change would have to do with its essence, the power of Vincent van Gogh. Whereas before the identity was limited to images of his work, used as background in every application, the designers discovered that if they drew upon the most exciting elements of the artist’s output—his brushstroke and vibrant color—a completely meaningful and yet flexible identity system could be achieved.
Van Gogh’s brushstroke is like that of no other painter: It vibrates on the canvas and covers every inch. Koeweiden Postma distilled this stroke to an overall black-and-white pattern that could be used in any number of ways: as an icon on labels and brochures to a supergraphic on packaging and wall surfaces. It plays a fundamental role in the logo. Paired with a sober, high-contrast word mark, the iconic version of Van Gogh’s signature brushstroke conveys the spirit and energy of the artist even when standing alone, without a painting.
“With the brushstroke, a whole new world of possibilities was unlocked,” says designer Mark Holtmann.
It was clear from the get-go that the logo had to support the vibrant colors of Van Gogh’s work. The designers devised a modest black square with the logotype set in rounded Gotham, a neutral, friendly, and contemporary typeface.
“The word mark is not one of a big gesture, but one of details,” explains Holtmann. “The black square allows the emphasis to stay on the artist’s work, while the maximum contrast ensures that the logo remains visible. The design does not try to compete but instead supplements, functioning as a platform, just as the museum is a platform for the work of Van Gogh.”
The type treatment in the final logo is purposefully minimal. Koeweiden Postma modified the lowercase g slightly and condensed the text, aligning it to the right to give it more logo value and to create a more elegant rhythm in the typography.
For packaging, the system extends its yellow and black color palette. Whenever the emphasis is on the museum itself instead of on exhibitions, yellow or blue is used.
For items such as exhibition posters and catalogs, a flexible set of extra colors is available and can be used to either supplement or contrast with the works of Van Gogh.
The museum curators determined the color palette for the corporate identity, drawing one color each from the two most important works in the collection: Sunflowers, from which they took the yellow, and Cherry Blossoms, from which they selected the blue. Yellow and blue became the main corporate colors, with the yellow more prominently used.
The design team worked closely with the curators to mine numerous quotes from Van Gogh’s letters to his brother, Theo. “Vincent wrote hundreds of letters to his brother, giving a rare view into the inner workings of the artist,” Holtmann says. “We wanted to use this treasure and incorporate his seldom-seen literary side in the identity.”
The redesign has been received with great enthusiasm by the museum and by the public.
The visual system adapts to specialty applications such as the children’s line of communications.
The new identity differentiates brochure translations with a simple change in the color panel next to the main logo.
Koeweiden Postma built the new Van Gogh Museum visual system to be dynamic, not static, so that it would develop along with the museum as it adds new aspects and refines existing ones. Here it extends to promotional fliers for Friday night events.
Every app needs an icon, just as every brand needs a logo. In many cases, they are one and the same. Designing an app icon means reaching an enormously wide audience in a rather confined, rounded-square space.
ShopLove, a third-party shopping aggregator app that performs as an online flipbook of one’s favorite brands in fashion, furniture, and accessories, asked Berlin-based graphic designer Linda Gavin, known for creating the Twitter logotype, to mastermind an icon for both its app and website. Specifically, the entity sought a heart for its mark. It in fact needed two hearts, visually linked: a two-dimensional version that would live primarily in the shop’s interface and a more three-dimensional, realistic heart for the app icon.
“I drew a lot of hearts,” remembers Gavin. “It took days before we found something we loved. The heart is already a very popular symbol to use within this genre of apps, so it had to be special. I made so many different custom shapes.”
Gavin finalized the flat version in the first round of sketches, along with the logotype using Marketing Script, and selected fonts and a color palette. She also created other custom icons for the shop’s interface.
The 3-D version took a while to tailor right and make unique; it had to look great as a flat icon and thus be minimal yet memorable. Gavin’s ultimate challenge was to make the heart appear simple but feel tangible at the same time. She worked a jersey texture into the lush red of the heart shape to give it a spongy, breathing depth. She takes her textures from photographs and applies them to designs in Illustrator and Photoshop.
ShopLove seized upon the final design because it looked three-dimensional and therefore more interesting than a plain form. The icon appears to curl in on itself while still upholding a straightforward heart shape.
Linda Gavin’s icon for the online shopping app ShopLove appears three-dimensional, helped by a red jersey texture for the heart and wood for the backdrop. She wanted to distinguish the heart from others on the market, while still upholding a simple shape.
Gavin settled on a two-dimensional version of the heart first and played with the typography.
Gavin experimented with different ideas for the heart icon as well as a logotype that turned the S in ShopLove into a heart.
The two-dimensional logo is unique in that it appears to have depth. The scripted logotype won out in the end.
From the solution, Gavin could create multiple versions of the icon to suit different international markets as well as shopping seasons. “Every culture is different and we picked the most Nordic-looking icon to go with first,” Gavin states. “It’s always possible to change the look and feel of the icon as long as the colors stay the same. I love the shiny red heart version, which might work well in the Asian market during Christmastime.”
Gavin’s design for the ShopLove logo and app icon fits seamlessly with the company’s mentality and bighearted enthusiasm for its forward-thinking venture. It may have taken a number of tries, but both client and designer are thrilled with the outcome—a symbol both strong and endearing at the same time.
The ShopLove logotype can appear embossed by giving the type and background the characteristics of fabric.
For the shop’s interface, Gavin created simple icons, including a clothes hanger and a pair of glasses.
The heart stands out and is also flexible to suit different international markets and shopping seasons.
WorkHub
Logo Design
WorkHub, a one-to-many marketplace founded by David Link in 2011, distributes digital tasks across boundaries, with projects begun instantly and on demand with minimum effort. Through its Web app and soon-to-be-native apps, WorkHub members work on smartphones, tablets, and computers—anytime, anywhere—with the promise of delivering the highest quality output possible.
When Link founded WorkHub, he fashioned his own logo after searching through thousands of submissions he received online. He designed the website using this initial identity but still wasn’t happy.
“David wanted to make WorkHub beautiful and friendly,” says designer Linda Gavin, whom Link contacted after seeing her emotional design work for Twitter and ShopLove. “I agreed with him: WorkHub needed to communicate soft values and be less technical visually.”
Collaborating, Gavin and Link sketched a number of different icon images including wheels and clouds. They spun out explorations implementing different fonts, color choices, and textures. Gavin took the best ideas and vectorized them, trying out different looks and feels. They wanted to strike the right balance between a flat image and one that had more depth to it.
Homing in on the cloud shape, the designers experimented with both round and square fonts, both serif and sans serif. Finally, Gavin recommended using Frankfurter D over Gotham Black to match the Black Rose W that Link had come upon and which he felt fit the cloud best.
Gavin and Link originally worked with a black and silver color palette for the logo but in the end decided to keep the mark to blue and white, giving a subtle embossed look to the letter W. For the logotype, Gavin altered one of the bold weights of FrankfurterD to get the font the way she wanted it—curvaceous yet straightforward, just like the cloud itself.
For Link, it was important that the new logo design follow the principles of simplicity and consistency with respect to the brand WorkHub set out to establish. “WorkHub introduces a new paradigm we call ‘cloud working,’” explains Link. “It’s the natural final step in an evolution: recruiting (one year at the office), freelancing (one month at home), cloud working (anytime and anywhere). WorkHub’s new logo exemplifies that real-time, ubiquitous, fluid work paradigm—a cloud with a W inside.”
To introduce the concept of “cloud working,” WorkHub’s new paradigm of online task sharing, Linda Gavin, in collaboration with WorkHub founder David Link, created a simple cloud shape with a soft and friendly W inside it.
The final WorkHub logo was given some depth, the W appearing embossed on the thick blue cloud. The app button mimics this.
Different trials for the WorkHub logo included explorations of wheel shapes and different typefaces.
In addition to the logo, WorkHub needed an archetypical character that could be used as a persona representing WorkHub’s algorithmic technology. “WorkHub marries community and technology. We wanted something cute and approachable to underline WorkHub’s modern and human approach to outsourcing,” explains Gavin, referring to her visual design of WorkBot, WorkHub’s new figurehead.
WorkHub plans on releasing client applications across all major platforms. The first native app will be released for iOS (iPhone and iPad). “WorkHub wants to reach out to the largest work market in human history,” says Gavin. “It is critical that its corporate identity be consistent across smartphone and tablet environments as well as traditional desktop environments. All users with mobile Internet can access WorkHub. It’s a perfectly flat world.”
WorkBot, the approachable figurehead of WorkHub, was created to symbolize the company’s human approach to outsourcing as well as its modern technology. Gavin played with many variations before landing on the final character.
Gavin decided that Frankfurter D had a friendlier feel for the typeface than Gotham Black (below) and worked better with the Black Rose W Link chose for inside the cloud shape. “My favorite fonts are the friendly ones,” says Gavin.
Android is a larger-than-life brand name today, representing the world’s top-selling smartphone operating system. But before 2005, the year it was bought by Google, Android was a concept in motion, dreamed up by serial entrepreneur Andy Rubin. Envisioning a new kind of software company that develops operating systems and applications for mobile devices, Rubin knew that the brand would have to speak to businesses and consumers alike. He had worked with the San Francisco–based design firm Character on a previous venture, Danger Inc., and asked for their help in creating the identity for his new startup.
Before 2005, Android’s identity development was markedly informal—this was Rubin’s dream project. He had acquired the Android URL and wanted to play with its brand presence, to personalize it.
“Originally, the Android identity was more about Andy than about Android itself,” explains Character cofounder Tish Evangelista, who was lead creative director on the project. “Working with Andy was the inspiration for the design. Unlike other big identities in which a lot of people are involved, this was a one-on-one project.”
The groundbreaking concept behind the Android operating system was that it would be an open platform, so that any mobile device company could license it (unlike Apple’s iOS). Rubin, from the beginning, wanted the visual system to reflect this, omitting rules and regulations in the early stages of developing the brand. Character’s main task, then, was to create a unique and ownable brand look and feel for Android that would resonate with both business and consumer audiences, allowing either sector to use the Android identity as it wanted.
Rubin’s lifelong passion for robots and science fiction fed directly into Character’s early logo explorations. The design brief included reading Philip K. Dick’s novel (and genesis of the Android name) Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and watching Blade Runner, the sci-fi film based on the book. Rubin also introduced a character that he had in mind, a friendly robot figure that would speak for his sense of humor and imagination as the visual system evolved.
Character’s solution for the Android logotype stemmed from Andy Rubin’s love of robots and science fiction. Working through versions that directly referred to sci-fi movies, the designers landed on a design determined by perfect geometric shapes. Negative space plays an equal role in the composition to the letter parts themselves. The light green color represents new growth and openness.
Each letter in the Android logotype has been formed out of circles and squares. The Character team wanted to implement perfect geometric shapes to reflect Android founder Andy Rubin’s approach to his projects, which is methodical and mathematical but with a sense of humor.
Character experimented with logotype designs referencing different sci-fi films, such as Blade Runner and Alien.
Character began an exhaustive exploration of different logotypes revolving around the themes of various sci-fi movies and works of fiction.
“We asked ourselves, ‘If Android were a movie director, how would that look?’” says Evangelista. “If he were Steven Spielberg, what would that look like?” The Character team created logotypes mimicking different movies, from Pixar films to Alien. They presented more than twenty-five different designs to Rubin.
The ultimate solution meshed the sci-fi theme with the idea of using only perfect geometric shapes—circles and squares—to reflect Rubin’s thought process, which is methodical and mathematical. The designers implemented a bright, fresh green in the logotype to represent growth and openness, harkening back to the company’s original intention of providing an open-platform operating system.
After Google acquired Android, aspects of the visual system were susceptible to user manipulation due to the identity’s lack of regulations. “People placed a cowboy hat on the robot,” Evangelista recalls. “Android needed to reign it in and set down some brand ingredients.”
With Rubin, Character established guidelines for how the Android identity could appear, producing an “Ingredient Brand Style Guide” that illustrates acceptable usages of the brand mark, logotype, and color palette. The finished visual system maps out every design element in the Android brand, from its distinctive logotype to its robot icon, color palette, typography, lockups, and numerous applications. In its dual senses of fun and high-tech futurism, the identity is as bold and innovative as the technology itself.
Because the Android identity originally had few rules for its appearance, users were changing the robot character and logotype on a whim. Character drew up an “Ingredient Brand Style Guide” for Android customers, outlining acceptable spacing, color, and placement opportunities for the identity.
DC Women
Logo Design
Character, San Francisco, California
Originally Droors Clothing, the skateboarding footwear brand DC Shoes has evolved into one of the most popular purveyors of sports apparel for skateboarders and snowboarders in its more than twenty years of existence. In 2003, the potential in the women’s category for skateboarding and snowboarding footwear was huge yet underserved. DC Shoes launched a dedicated women’s line to expand the brand beyond its male-dominated identity and appeal to a wider mainstream audience. Eight years later, with momentum building in the women’s line, the company decided to create a separate women-only brand, DC Women, and brought Character on board to develop its identity.
The DC Women logo would have to appeal to the existing DC Shoes audience but also speak clearly to a more fashion-forward consumer. At the same time, it was important that it visually connect to the existing DC Shoes logo, conveying the same urban attitude that the brand had become known for. Character set out to explore designs for the identity derived from the parent mark.
The final logo for DC Women invokes the original DC Shoes mark but goes in its own, elegant direction, conveying the themes of linkage and continuous movement.
The designers outlined three possible directions: transformation, linkage, and authorship. The first direction drew upon the concept of metamorphosis, as the brand appeals to a younger demographic of women who are growing up. They experimented with turning the DC Shoes logo into a symbol of growth, renewal, and transformation. Trials showed how the intertwined D and C letters could turn into different shapes, from human to butterfly, to show the brand as an optimistic and energetic agent of change that can’t be contained.
Another approach centered on the concept of authorship, turning the original logo into a silhouette onto which they could imprint different imagery or scrawl a variety of “DC” signatures, much like the MTV logo from the 1980s.
“The idea was to signal individuality and personalization, encouraging young women to take part in defining the brand and what it means to her,” explains designer Ben Pham. In each case, the star from the existing DC Shoes logo appears, linking it to the larger brand, while the imagery makes it DC Women.
A third concept won out: linkage. Exploring different ways of interlocking the D and the C, the Character team broke free from the heavier typeface of the original logo with a more slender and elegant lettering, while at the same time “linking” forever to it through its intertwined format and star shape. The design recalls the infinity symbol, signifying continuous change, and yet the linkage theme invokes the brand heritage.
Character’s explorations for the DC Women logo used the DC Shoes logo (left) as a base and then branched out to consider very different directions.
One direction centered on the theme of transformation: The trials twist and torque the DC letters into different shapes.
Another direction focused on the concept of authorship, silhouetting the DC letters into a solid form that could be imprinted with hand-drawn initials and other doodles.
Today, DC Shoes is a full-on action sports brand, a leading designer and manufacturer of performance skateboarding and snowboarding footwear, gear, apparel, and outerwear, as well as other fashion accessories. More women have entered these sports, and the brand shape-shifts to accommodate them. Character applied the new logo to a variety of usage scenarios including product, print, and online placements. The project culminated with the development of supporting brand guidelines. The DC Women identity successfully launched in early 2012.
The end result came out of a design direction exploring the theme of linkage, based on the linked letters in the original logo. In each instance, the star shape ties the design to its brand heritage.
The logo has been integrated into the full range of DC Women shoe designs.
Ultimately, the circular format won out for all blog logos. Davidson selected some favorites.
The project that graphic designer and animator Fraser Davidson took on for SB Nation was not the creation of a single logo or identity but of more than 350 logos, one for each sports blog in the SB Nation network. At the same time, the mission was to create an overarching and recognizable brand presence by styling each logo in a similar way. Since its launch in 2004, the sports-blog hub had grown rapidly, taking on dozens of unique voices, each with its own, distinct personality. Eight years later, in 2012, the SB Nation logo itself had begun to disappear behind the often radically disparate blog identities.
“We started noticing that readers often weren’t aware that their favorite site was a part of SB Nation,” says Ted Irvine, director of design at Vox Media, which powers SB Nation. “Despite the SBN logo sitting just above each blog logo, somehow folks weren’t making the connection.”
Up until then, the team at Vox Media had shepherded each logo online. Now it was time to give the “family” of SB Nation logos a unifying voice. They hit upon the notion of hiring a single designer to create all 350-plus logos, including that for SB Nation. This way, there would be no mistaking the overall brand each time an individual team, region, or sport was speaking.
Coming across Davidson’s work on Dribble, they seized upon his ability to simplify a sports identity to its essential parts. Davidson is an animator by trade whose work for sports entities has grown from a hobby to projects for Nike. Vox Media gathered the different logos the bloggers had created, mainly by hand, and passed them on to Davidson. The bloggers were given questionnaires to fill out so that they could say what they liked about their original designs and wanted to keep. The task then became to refine the designs and bring them up a notch so that they attained a consistent level of sophistication as well as overall uniformity.
Fraser Davidson at first explored crest and shield shapes for the SB Nation blog logos.
Davidson set out to simplify the imagery he was given so that nothing infringed upon what was relevant or that related to a team. “One initial problem was finding the right ‘holding device’ that would contain the logo imagery as well as tie all of the different logos together,” he states. Vox Media had come up with a circular shape for the SB Nation logo itself but was still toying with crest and shield shapes—common in sports identities—for the individual blogs. The thought was to let each mark keep its unique typography in order to maintain autonomy. But the more they experimented with how these forms would coexist online, it became clear that this would produce too many problems in terms of layout for each design.
Finally Davidson and the team decided that the circular shape was the right lockup for each and every identity, as it gave the most flexibility for all of the potential applications.
“Especially in sports, people become tied to marks,” Davidson points out. The power behind each logo came from thousands of fans bonding behind a cause, team, and city. He had to enforce above all else the essence of what each group bonded over. There were six different types of marks: region, such as major cities; sport, such as baseball, hockey, soccer, etc.; college; professional; general blogs about a sport; and specialty blogs, such as Out Sports (about gay athletes), drag racing, and more.
Each questionnaire that a blogger completed became a creative brief that Vox Media then handed to Davidson to do his own discovery work. The experience was much like having three hundred different branding conversations over a period of weeks, but Davidson works fast, hand drawing on computer. Diving in, he created more than 330 logos in just six weeks. He started with professional football and then moved through each sport, working through the logos by category.
A common motif he found was a state outline or city skyline, but in numerous cases these were unrecognizable to a wider audience and had to be reconceived. There were also copyright issues to address, as the blogs are separate from a team’s official site, and so he had to be careful not to replicate imagery that belonged to a team, city, or other entity.
The project, heralded as “SB Nation United” by Vox Media, launched in late 2012 to enthusiastic acclaim and great admiration for Davidson’s comprehensive as well as swift design work. The family of logos continues to grow.
Davidson advocated for treating the individual blog logos like the circular SB Nation logo and experimented with text placement around the border.
These test marks displayed an array of potential type treatments, color ways, and illustrative styles to show how the blog logos could retain an air of individuality while still appearing as part of the SB Nation family.
Davidson played with crest shapes, iconic landmarks, and flag icons for regional blogs, with different type styles.
Other directions tested out subtle landmarks in flag and banner shapes; logo forms that referenced signage, such as the famous Las Vegas sign, and belt buckles; and modern heraldic styles that integrated text into the badges.
Davidson created more than 350 logos for the SB Nation online sports blog network.
Cambridge Pythons
Identity Design
Fraser Davidson, London, England
As a team that had formed in the early 1980s tied completely to its Cambridge University heritage, the Cambridge University American Football Team, the Pythons, used the university crest as its logo up until 2011. This is when it reestablished itself and hired on Fraser Davidson to create a reinvigorated identity.
Because the crest had been the main mark for so long, Davidson crafted a python element for the logo, word mark, and helmet initial. Through a series of explorations, he landed on wrapping the snake around the crest shape, which worked well across all of the different graphics.
“Snakes being essentially long lines, it seemed the neatest way to incorporate him,” he explains. “It was also possible to extrapolate the design across the other lockups and word marks.”
In meetings with Davidson, the student-run organization specified what it wanted from the logo as well as which particular elements to include—such as the snake and the school colors. They were wary about wrapping the snake around the crest, wondering how the tail would come up on the other side. Through much iteration, Davidson worked it so that the tail lined up in a visually pleasing way, and in the end it prevailed on the new helmet design.
The university colors of blue and white had to remain prominent, but the team wanted some red in the logo as well. Davidson found a way to work it in but not on the snake itself, so as to keep the icon wholly “Cambridge.” In the shading on the helmet initial, the blue and white intersect in such a way that echoes the cross in the Cambridge crest, a subtle nod to tradition in an otherwise total revamp of the look.
A final version of the team logo excluded the Cambridge University crest and made the mark all about the python icon.
Fraser Davidson wrapped the snake icon around the shield shape, which referenced the Cambridge University American Football Team’s previous insignia. As blue and white are Cambridge’s official colors, the designer experimented with adding red into the mix for extra dynamism.
The python intertwined nicely with the helmet initial, in both red and blue. Inside the C, blue and white intersect as they do in the cross in the Cambridge crest version of the logo.
Davidson offered directions with the team name spelled out inside the C initial.
American Standard, in more ways than one, is a household name. Having provided plumbing and fixtures for families for more than 130 years, the brand itself had become a “fixture” in homes across America. In 2012, company president Jay Gould called upon Sterling Brands, with which he had worked on major brands in the past, to give a fresh spin to the logo and identity system—in essence, to raise its standards.
The tagline “Raise the Standard” had been developed in-house along with a new mission for the brand: to show the world how innovative American Standard has always been. American Standard Brands was awarded a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant in 2012 to develop and test a low-cost, prefabricated toilet system in developing world countries, yet no one seemed to know this about the company.
“Jay Gould wanted to reintroduce the brand to a whole new generation of consumers,” says Debbie Millman, president of Sterling Brands. “He wanted it to be more accurately seen as the progressive organization that it was.”
The existing logo—American Standard written out in a style of script intended to look like handwriting—had served as the brand’s word mark since 1899. It was time for a statement about the entire, far-reaching entity of American Standard, one that spoke to a more socially and environmentally conscious audience. Gould wanted to start by reconceiving the mark, from which every other element would grow.
Sterling Brands’s initial evaluation of the logotype revealed that, although the script felt approachable, functioned well with secondary messaging, and reproduced easily, its conservative look did not express the passion and unique vision of the company. The script had even become dated compared to competitors’ logos and lacked a certain “evidence of hand that would prompt it to ring true in the hearts and minds of their internal and external audiences,” states Creative Director Kim Berlin.
The new American Standard logo stacks the two words so that the A and the S can intertwine. The monogram can be used like an icon, although never replacing the logo itself, and also as a supergraphic. The old logo, in black and white, inspired retaining the script in the redesign, but has been made more dynamic and symbolic of the company as a progressive institution.
Sterling Brands presented a range of logo directions with a more classic solution on one end and more contemporary typefaces on the other.
The designers distilled the directions to two versions, one of which broke free from the original logo and presented a modern typeface with a blended AS droplet at its center. They tried different applications such as business cards and fixtures.
The mission became to leverage the script—which was recognizable, even classic—so that it conveyed American Standard’s inventiveness and forward-thinking personality as well as its message of optimism. At the same time, the supporting visual system would have to be easy to implement across all products and communications and flexible enough to build and maintain a clear brand voice.
The explorations were preceded by a thorough assessment of the category and resulted in the plotting of a unique color territory. The team found an opportunity for American Standard to stand out in the warm, sunny zone of marigold, teal, and gray. The designers developed a range of twelve directions the logo could take, with more classic solutions on one end of the spectrum and more innovative expressions on the other. Ultimately, the team narrowed them to two concepts: Number 1 with its strong tie to the brand’s heritage and Number 7 representing a total shift away from the existing identity.
Number 1 celebrated the original word mark by keeping the script, but upped its dynamism by changing the color and angling the mark upward to the right. The A and the S found a mutual connection point, sealing the logotype and creating a monogram that could be extracted from the word mark and used as a standalone element, similar to an endorsement or sign-off.
Number 7 paired a crisp sans serif word mark with an AS monogram centered between the two words in the brand name. Inspired by the script of the existing American Standard logo, the A and the S were combined to create an expressive droplet whose rendering paid homage to the original mark while shifting the brand forward in a meaningful way. The drop monogram could also function as a standalone element throughout the visual system.
Both the design team and the American Standard team were divided on which direction to take. In the end, Gould left the decision in Millman’s hands.
“I decided that, given how much else was changing about the brand and its presence in the marketplace, it made more strategic sense to keep something of the existing word mark, while number seven would have been an aesthetic choice,” explains Millman. “The ultimate solution harkens back to the heritage of the brand.”
The team designed a visual system that places the new logo at the center of its universe and uses scale and dynamic cropping to express the forward-thinking qualities of the brand. Millman admires the way the monogram that comes out of the word mark can be used like an icon in certain cases, so that the link to the company’s heritage is there while breaking free from the old logotype. A fresh photographic style and approach to typography support the modern feel and complete the identity system.
The American Standard visual system was launched in spring 2013 to tremendously positive reviews inside the company and out.
Creative Director: Kim Berlin; Typographer: Holly Dickens; Designer: Theresa Chee
The chosen solution for the logotype has been tilted upward in applications such as business cards to amp up the brand’s progressive qualities, and the monogram makes an elegant design as an icon as well as a supergraphic. The final logo appears on fixtures, interlinking the A and S but still recalling the previous logotype.
Sterling Brands carried the identity into American Standard’s new Web presence and app icon.
The slogan “Raise Your Standard” was developed in-house and Sterling Brands incorporated it into various applications.
Fresh photography and a bright, contemporary color palette of marigold, teal, and gray make the American Standard brand feel new all over again. The visual system had to be flexible enough to stretch across applications including packaging.
NO MORE
Logo Design
Sterling Brands, New York, New York
A logo often speaks louder than words. In the case of the NO MORE identity, it can initiate an entirely new voice. In 2011, Christine Mau, the European design director at Kimberly-Clark, joined forces with actress Mariska Hargitay’s Joyful Heart Foundation to form a coalition to fight domestic violence and sexual assault. They approached Debbie Millman at Sterling Brands to execute a logo based on Mau’s design that could stand for the cause and catch on easily to raise awareness.
Mau had hired Sterling Brands for previous projects at Kimberly-Clark, but this one was different in that she was helping to brand something that was close to her own experience. A victim of abuse herself, Mau could leverage her creative success and give a voice to an issue people don’t usually want to talk about openly.
Inspired by the idea of reducing the incidence of domestic violence and sexual abuse to zero, Mau proposed that the visual expression incorporate the concept of a zero. Sterling’s design team responded by embedding a zero within the word mark, thickening the weight of the letter O and aligning the negative space with the logotype’s horizon line. “This icon grew to be known as the ‘vanishing point,’” notes Creative Director Kim Berlin. “A simple but powerful symbol to embody the optimism of a future free of domestic violence and sexual assault.”
Sterling Brands also developed the color palette for the identity. The logo had to occupy a spot on the spectrum that hadn’t been taken before by any other activist group, especially those relating to women (pink was out). “We wanted it to be as unique as possible,” says Millman, who ended up custom mixing the bright yet rich blue tone.
With its simple icon and concise color palette of NO MORE blue, white, and gray, the identity is built to proliferate, through charm bracelets, pendants, pins, bus-stop posters, taxi banners, whatever can be worn and seen throughout everyday life. It is an identity that everyone can take part in. “One intention of the visual system is that it pervade the businesses, groups, and celebrities participating in its message,” Millman says. “It is a way for people everywhere to speak out about the problem.”
The logo was launched in March 2013, in conjunction with Vice President Joe Biden’s efforts in Washington, D.C. The cause continues with a remarkable ad campaign starring Mariska Hargitay.
Creative Directors: Kim Berlin and Christine Mau;
Designer: Stephen Dunphy
The NO MORE logo, created by Christine Mau and developed by Sterling Brands, pares the message about ending domestic violence and sexual assault down to two distinct elements: the words and the vanishing-point icon.
The NO MORE identity speaks in more than one language.
The vanishing-point icon was designed to take different forms and so proliferate as quickly as possible. Its shape and color make a pretty pendant for a necklace as well as a standout pin on a lapel.
Celebrities such as Ashley Greene from the Twilight film series spoke out for the cause when the identity launched in 2013.
Bus stop posters provide excellent locations for the message in both its pure logo form and as a slogan.
Designs for smartphone screens as well as the NO MORE website keep the message clear and simple.
For VERG founder Matt Vergotis, the logo design he created for his own company led to identity projects for other ventures. Amber Events, which specializes in event production in Gold Coast, Australia, admired the gemlike quality of the VERG logo and in 2012 sought something similar for its own mark. The chiseled, transparent surface is created by manipulating gradient overlays, something Vergotis has experimented with for a while. With the technique established, it then became a matter of conceptualizing the theme for the brand mark.
Just as the V in the VERG logo represents the name and a quality simultaneously, Vergotis used the A in Amber Events to initiate a duality of name and theme in the icon. Because the company handles all phases of event design through to implementation, its mark would have to be confident in its execution and thus indicative of the service it provides clients.
“The idea I had was to capture, with the use of geometry, the bringing to life of an event,” Vergotis explains. “A symbol that portrayed the moment a light shines on it, the moment it takes center stage.”
He worked through sketches that traced the process of event production using the arrow-like shape of the letter A. The peak grows upward and breaks free of its box to create an image that conveys a spotlight as well as an envelope (the invitation) all in one. Whereas the forms are simply a triangle poking out of a square, after only moments, anyone can see it—the event, its moment, all lit up.
“When creating an abstract mark that’s not literal in its approach, it’s easy to infuse reasoning and rationale,” says Vergotis. “But what’s difficult is executing your conceptual idea so that the mark communicates your reasoning and rationale. While it’s not always important for people to understand it straight away, if it’s explained and people still don’t understand, then it’s missing something. The Amber Events logo makes sense in one of those clever-uses-of-geometry sort of ways without having to present something literal.”
“What’s really important is that lightbulb moment,” says Matt Vergotis about his design for the Amber Events logo. “Sometimes you have to work hard for it and sometimes it comes easily. I’ve found the ones that come easily are often the most successful.”
Vergotis’s sketch demonstrates how his thinking process about the logo helped to create the final image.
What began as an A shape breaking out of a box materialized into the letter created out of gradient overlays (culminating in amber) that appears like a spotlight shining on a stage. The overall image also recalls an envelope, like an invitation to an event.
Vergotis developed stacked and inline versions of the final logo with different backgrounds.
A gray-and-white line version of the logo shows how well it holds up in two dimensions.
Business cards carry the logo with both white and gray backdrops.
The gradient overlays, in Vergotis’s mind, are really a matter of color choice. Complementary colors are necessary for finding an aesthetic with gradients. The designer selects his palette carefully and then makes numerous subtle changes to get the look right.
Vergotis’s presentation to Amber Events included logo functionality, color systems, and stationery concepts. The name Amber not only provided the A that sparked the logo theme, but also the color. The palette revolves around the warm, golden glow of amber, accompanied by a soft gray logotype or backdrop to accentuate it.
The designer always presents a logo in context along with the thought process that went into its creation. “It’s all about searching for that lightbulb moment,” he says. “Some ideas come to me quickly, where I start penciling them down straight away. Other times, I’ll spend many hours online researching. Then there’s the odd one where I’ve taken a phone brief and jotted down the name in a doodling fashion, finished the call, and looked down and thought to myself, ‘Hang on a minute, there’s something in this.’ Of course that’s rare; it has to be relative to the client and their request.”
Stationery fashioned for the identity system takes advantage of the full color palette. Vergotis crafted stamps out of the logo.
Feather & Gem
Logo Design
Out surfing one day, a friend of Matt Vergotis’s asked if he would design a logo for his wife, who had recently established an interior decorating firm. “I’ll pay you in surfboards,” the friend said.
Vergotis, whose design shop VERG specializes in logo and typeface design, turned to what he had seen of his client’s interior design work, including her own Queenslander home, for inspiration. He decided to approach the identity through lettering in order to capture her eclectic style, as she has an eye for sourcing cheaper items that pair well with expensive pieces. Her environments are homey and appear rich and warm with memories. The name Feather & Gem plays upon the mismatch of elements, a feather being beautiful and easy to source, whereas a gem is much more elusive.
Designer Matt Vergotis created an identity that plays with logotype for his friend’s interior design company, Feather & Gem.
“When tackling the different typefaces I wanted to create an individual personality for each word that came together as a successful arrangement, like the interior of her homes,” Vergotis states. “For the feather I focused on a cursive approach that wasn’t too literal. I didn’t want it to look like a feather, but rather feel light and have flow like a feather. For the gem it was more about creating something more solid and structured.”
Vergotis presented the logo and identity in black and gold at first, to evoke his client’s strong personality. She had also mentioned that she didn’t want anything too girly. But the black and gold palette felt overly masculine and recalled the brand presence of a popular rum label, so Vergotis took an entirely different route. Inspired by Gold Coast, where he and his friends live, he recast the logo in oceanic blue and a wet-sand beige. Immediately, the logo was seen differently. “It’s an important example of how colors can drive emotions,” he notes.
“Whereas mark design is more like doing brainteaser puzzles, lettering feels to me like dancing, finding and refining movements, and exploring forms and combinations. Lots of paper, lots of ink, and good music. While the reward is there for cracking brainteasers, dancing just feels good.”
The final solution strikes the right chord, marrying the eclectic typographic solution to create a design that works as a complete lockup. Vergotis loves generating patterns, and for Feather & Gem, he created interlocking sea ropes encircling alternating feather and gem icons. The unified pattern will be used on the back of business cards and on letterheads, as well as wrapping paper and tags when selling items sourced individually.
A sketch for the logo captured the initial idea of representing the eclectic qualities of Feather & Gem—its bringing together of commonplace and high-end items—through different typefaces.
Vergotis cast the identity in the colors of Gold Coast, Australia, where he and his friends live. The blue-green of the ocean, beige of the sand, and pearly white play nicely together and give the visuals a soft, sophisticated touch.
Vergotis loves creating custom patterns. He drew icons of a feather and a gemstone, pictorial versions of the words in the brand name, and created a pattern incorporating the rope from the ampersand in the logo.
With a typographic solution, the essences of the two words in the brand name can be expressed along with their literal meanings.
Scandinavian design has for decades been the go-to style in furniture all around the world. The region’s love of the natural world established the tradition of implementing wood and organic fabrics in functional pieces created from pure, minimalist lines. Saiwala, a Russian home-furnishings brand and furniture manufacturer, wanted to accentuate its Scandinavian roots through its positioning and corporate identity. Moscow-based DDVB came on board to execute the design.
DDVB developed the positioning “In harmony with yourself,” emphasizing the spiritual connection one has to one’s surroundings and especially to one’s home environment. The brand story underscores Saiwala’s ability to bring notes of peace, harmony, and comfort into an interior.
In brainstorming different ideas for the logo, the DDVB team explored three directions illustrating the positioning. One sought a more typographical solution, overlapping the w in the word mark with a centering v to show balance and continuation. Another coalesced the sign of the Odal rune from ancient Germanic alphabets, symbolizing “heritage” and “soul,” and the image of a quiet boat to make a new icon, along with a corresponding logotype.
The team at last alighted on the symbol of the bird in Scandinavian literature, which represents the soul. The name Saiwala itself translates as “soul” in Celtic.
“The bird also represents the sun in Scandinavian countries and so embodies those attributes of warmth, comfort, tranquility, and harmony that we wanted to bring out in the identity system,” states DDVB cofounder and creative director Dmitry Peryshkov.
Designating the bird as the main icon for the corporate identity, the designers fashioned a simple silhouette and detail element that reference patterns commonly found in Nordic textiles and decoration. They spun graphics from this rudimentary, line-drawing concept that complement the bird based on the idea of Saiwala’s “naturalness.” “If we identified Saiwala with a bird,” says Art Director Vova Lifanov, “it was logical to surround it with ‘natural’ patterns such as leaves, tree branches, and more.”
Moscow-based DDVB represented the dual themes of “harmony” and “soul” through the symbol of a Scandinavian-styled bird in the Saiwala logo. The name Saiwala means “soul” in Celtic.
Two initial directions for the Saiwala logo experimented with using the ancient Odal rune, meaning “heritage” or “soul,” combined with the symbol of a boat as an icon. Another implemented a purely typographical solution.
DDVB developed motifs of household items drawn in the same simple way as the identity to be implemented in store communications, corporate stationery, and other applications.
Merchandise tags and in-store publications carry the illustrations inspired by the logo icon.
The bird icon inspired line-drawn graphics that could convey the theme of nature throughout the identity system, including in catalogs.
To emphasize the Scandinavian love of natural materials, DDVB brought native textures such as wood, felt, and linen into the visual system. A gentle, muted color palette carried out the theme of coastal sand, rocks, and sea—the bird icon appearing in a soft gray-blue reminiscent of the North Sea.
The team developed a large number of unified applications, from the retail spaces themselves—including in-store accessories and furniture elements—to catalogs, brochures, and giveaways. Peryshkov conceived of using worn-wood boards and simple glass panels in the interior decoration of Saiwala stores and envisioned imprinting these with simple, linear drawings like the logo design. The designers produced dozens of line drawings depicting items found in the home—the runaway slipper, a mitten, a candle, a pillow.
“We found that the corporate identity matched with different kinds of interior elements, not just furniture,” Peryshkov explains. He proposed that Saiwala display pillows in its stores embroidered with the bird icon and patterning from the corporate identity, along with felt boots, candlesticks, and other items, in order to fully utilize the visual system. The items could be sold and also provided as souvenirs or giveaways with furniture purchases.
The corporate identity and visual system has launched to pleased consumers throughout Russia, extending to all retail locations as well as the Saiwala website.
Creative Director Dmitry Peryshkov envisioned extending the identity into both retail environments and merchandise and pairing it with natural wood, metal, and glass elements.
Saiwala billboards magnify the simple elements of the design to communicate feelings of comfort and harmony.
Embroidered pillows and candleholders make full use of the visual identity and provide items that can be sold or given away in stores.
Stream
Identity Development
On-demand streaming of video and multimedia content has exploded in recent years, so that far more companies around the world now offer such services. The challenge of standing out among the competition has become a major hurdle in developing a brand identity in this particular business sector—exactly the challenge that DDVB took on in developing the visual identity for Stream.
As a new content provider in the Russian market, Stream needed one crucial element: emotion. DDVB’s evaluation of the brand led to a presentation of three different solutions to brighten the icon and make it more personable and expressive.
The solution for the Stream logo designed by DDVB in Moscow brings emotion in through the character of Octopus, with a custom logotype.
Creative cirector and DDVB cofounder Leonid Feigin and senior designer Artem Semenov collaborated on the project. The first direction they outlined featured a friendly-looking goldfish, at-the-ready to gather any video desired. The second direction offered a large letter S with in a variety of color sections to represent the “superstore” quality of Stream, with its always diversifying range of entertainment.
The third direction introduced the character Octopus, a fun, bright-pink creature that controls content flow by using multiple “foot-hands” to capture what consumers want amid an ocean of entertainment options. Stream ultimately selected this last option for its simple, vivid, and most of all emotional sensibility.
DDVB selected three main expressions for the Octopus as he appears throughout the visual system.
Stream’s Octopus character came to life in bright pink. The designers had fun drawing a full range of emotions for the face.
Senior Designer Artem Semenov created a custom typeface for the Stream logotype based on the shape of the Octopus.
DDVB explored initial directions for the Stream identity that included a multicolored S icon to symbolize the variety of media content Stream provides.
The Octopus’s malleability allows Stream to pose him in themed settings to fit different media content.
“The image of the octopus performs as an emoticon in brand communications,” explains Feigin. “The bright pink color makes the identity recognizable and memorable. Despite its simple graphics, it can transmit a large range of emotions actively used by Stream.” The typeface was custom designed by Semenov to resonate with the Octopus icon.
At first, some members of the Stream team questioned whether the new design wasn’t too bold, too different from its competitors. The designers were able to convince them that the identity not only provided a refreshing break from the norm visually but also strategically; it gave consumers an icon to connect with and rely upon.
Octopus made his debut in summer 2012. He has endeared himself to Stream employees and customers alike ever since.
Another direction imagined a friendly, dynamic fish character that could “swim” through the ocean of online content and retrieve a desired item.
An early version of the Octopus character portrayed him in black with a more square profile.