05
Zero to brand for an AI development firm
LATENT Brand
A part of my pursuit to learn new things, I took a brand identity design side project. I was fortunate to focus on building a narrative, defining a north star and core values, which then translated into brand identity design to fit those values and motivation.
Project overview
The clients are Johny and Guy, two well-known developers and entrepreneurs from Tel-Aviv, who decided that after 12+ years in the industry to open a one-stop shop for AL/ML development firm.
The project included zero-to-one for their brand, spanning from Discovery of the motives and storyline to a name and core values workshop to identity and web design.
Discovery and visual research
Sharpening my skills in brand design in my past positions helped me understand my starting point, and build the process on top of that.
Discovery was my main focus for the first phase, from founder interview and personality workshops, we managed to build a set of core values for the brand, answer major questions such as who we are, where we want to be positioned, and how we want the right people to see us.
The visual research was dedicated to understanding the AI/ML development industry, the competitors, and the client’s visual anchor to better understand what they would like to be. I also researched content writing strategies, patterns, and trends in the industry. Together we explored the option to ‘zig’ when everyone ‘zags’. Moving away from the competition, we settled on a strong narrative and story-led strategy, minimalism, and curiosity instead of text-heavy and formal writing.
Design and conclusion
The design phase included experiments to find the best fit for the core values - confidence, execution, and ingenuity. considering a strategy to move away from the competition, We settled on a strong minimal color palette and Swiss-type fonts to showcase superiority and tech-savvy feelings. The art direction brief was built by me as sharp, technical asymmetry illustrations to go along with the storyline. Lastly, I designed the social kit and created the web-design language and the briefs for illustrations.
Key learnings and special thanks
“A brand is how people talk about you when you leave the room” is something I learned lately. We can design all we want but if the brand isn’t consistent over time, it won’t have a clear message. I focused a lot on preparing the founders for the ‘day after’ the project was done. Making small decisions with the brand values in mind, to help future potential clients decide to hire them.
Once again, making sure you design the right thing, before designing the thing right was a smart choice, as after we settled on the brand core values, the rest of the project was a fun process of exploration of the most fitting representation of the brand, and playful experiments and sessions.
Special thanks to Ilan Grif, for helping with web-flow work, and Orico.creative for executing illustrations beautifully.
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