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brand

native

Had the pleasure of working with @fffflood over the last couple of months on a /native rebrand.

Native partners with ambitious founders to ground work within a compelling narrative that gives your users something to believe in. We root your company with great ideas while pushing forward what's possible through exceptional writing, thinking, and getting in the weeds day-to-day to grow your business and improve your product.

The stacked forms in the logo take inspiration from steps, pages, and building blocks, representing the foundations we help create and a path forward.

Lately, I think about my work as a "GTM role player" – I plug in, lay key foundations, and then help level up your company. I think this is a great reflection of that direction.

More to come, but really excited to get this out into the world. Much love to the goat @fffflood.

Paragraph

Great writing deserves to be shared, seen, and supported.
But today’s internet makes that harder than it should be.

We want to give writers a place where their ideas thrive — and today, we’re launching a new look and a new home at https://paragraph.com.

Read more below ↓

Beautiful new brand & product update from @paragraph 

Notable:
• .xyz –> .com — friendlier domain to much wider audience & improved SEO
• "Where ideas thrive" packs so much emotion and meaning into 3 words.
• Warm browns & neutrals resemble book spines & pages
• Brown > Black background makes dark mode makes reading much easier & cozier

Where writers share, grow, and get paid — one post at a time.

tried Superhuman. wack ux. despite what people say, NOT fast.

then it hit me--maybe they won the classic left curve way, on the power of a great brand. the patagonia vest set absolutely loved that "Sent via Superhuman" signature

Make your customer the hero of your story.

Actively unlearning fixed brand frameworks from my early career to build more flexible systems right now:

- defining relationships between elements more important than defining the elements themselves

- semantic kit of parts is more usable than technical specifications

- one size fits all approach = one size fits none
 
- determine where a communication lives on spectrum between utilitarian function and emotional expression. Adapt the brand kit accordingly.

- brand expression doesn’t stop at guidelines and standards: it starts there

- the logo may be the most recognizable part of the brand but it’s only one part. It doesn’t need to be on every graphic. Other brand elements can create similar recognition.

- logo system > logo lockups

Brand narrative is a slept on onboarding opportunity for products: Communicate your product's story in a way that shows you deeply understand your audience's needs and they will come to your product with a clear job-to-do, more innate trust, and more valuable feedback.

https://brand.dropbox.com/ is an exemplar brand guidelines. Solid foundations present strategic pillars that every choice is carefully crafted against. Comprehensive and clear without being overly-prescriptive. Custom website experience lives the brand identity.

Develop a point of view and commit to delivering on it well over time.

Design

A new logo and brand identity for Sandisk by ELA Advertising in New York.


What are your thoughts on this?


We don’t store data in spinning disks anymore. I guess the clever half moon D had to go. 

I do mourn the nice serif font logos as they go, though. 

Anyway, the new logo looks like a printed circuit board. So it works at a technical level.

As we continue to dive deeper into rebuilding our design system foundation (beneath itself), it felt like a good time to go a layer deeper to the brand foundations and revisit our mood board and original vision writing.

a few quick hits from the intro to @jihad's Native branding. the first two friday demos have had me excited all week. 

similar to the process we ran for @proxystudio.eth - however i've returned to a bit of writing to kick off the project.

The @atlas logo has evolved from the original animated orb basic frame component created by @antimofm.eth to the current logo variants. The previous web version of the Atlas logo faced scaling issues and problems with different color backgrounds. (See next cast)
To address this, I simplified it to a flat, single-color version. The B&W version was chosen by @jrf for easier development.

the way I thought about this more than almost anything besides fees + network lol

narrative and attention are two sides of the same coin

your bot is your brand

The two important lessons here:
1. Take big risks and experiment with your brand.
2. Listen to your audience.