Aaron Hoffmann Principal UX Product DesignerI've a deep passion for solving problems, be they digital or physical, UX or UI, product or brand, or some impossible Tetris stack. Data-driven design philosophy; data-backed decisions are the most logical and defendable. I lead by example, choosing my roles based on team chemistry, ability to exercise my broad skillset, and opportunity to make a positive change in the world. I speak Geek and Japanese and would be delighted to explain the most unusual sushi I've ever eaten.
Well that was quicker than expected. I wound up churning out a couple pages of ideas based on the original Drippy Bird “Unscribble”. I just felt that was less of a logo/brand identity and more of a crap illustration, yet still an idea that deserved a proper execution.
Among the three images below, a few solid core concepts could be selected and fleshed out further, but I’m happiest with the final image: a single, simplified version of the original mark.
Thoughts?
This might very well be my least favorite of the series so far. I think the idea is there, but the visual execution could use a lot of refinement. If I find myself with a bit of free time between thoughts and tasks, I’d really like to push this one. The bird’s pose can be toyed with a bit, maybe verging on a phoenix, but the little flourish after “Bird” in the word mark might be the key to a visual language in this brand identity.
So Drippy Bird. It’s an outdoor goods brand that specializes in keeping those with adventurous spirits dry. Sounds like it could be a park maintenance technician’s cleaning agent of choice, but no; that’s an adventure of a completely different nature.
So far in my explorations of modern UX/UI apps, I’ve run through Axure RP 8, Balsamiq, and Adobe XD. Each has their strengths, and Sketch from Bohemian Coding is no different.
I find the overall toolset and options to be the most authentic visual analogue to designing directly with HTML and CSS code. Whereas Axure includes many authentic CSS properties, they don’t always render correctly, even within the application, and many CSS level 3 properties are absent from tool and object options. Sketch really fills out its panels with nearly every option you can think of (while remaining faithful to CSS3 spec), especially when it comes to visual design and layout. It also lets you recycle elements easily, making the creation of responsive layouts very quick. Overall, designs tend to look much more polished than Axure.
What it misses out of the box are all of the interactive elements and scripting that Axure does offer, though to be fair, these features are easily acquired through free plugins, something Axure is short on (many Axure add-ons, plugins, etc. are NOT free, and tend to be quite expensive, IMHO).
I think going forward, I’d personally prefer to use Photoshop/Sketch for pixel-perfect layouts and designs, but use Axure (or Adobe XD to a lesser extent) for wire framing and interaction design before passing off to the dev team.
Part of me wonders whether some might interpret the use of a medical term like “scoliosis” as offensive in the same way other terms of diagnosis, but this project isn’t as concerned with names as it is with the transformation of chaos into interesting brand beauty.
Scoliosis Screw to me sounds a bit like a skateboarding parts supplier. Maybe it’s just the shared alliteration of with the name.
Frankly, this one sounds a little vengeful. A snippet of some larger idea I’m sure:
All these rules
yet no contest to win,
All these finishing lines
yet no race to begin,
All these confessions made
yet no truth to the sins.You haul all day
and bruise all night
but your difference to the world
a short list to recite.
#4 in the series, an errant line or two couldn’t interrupt this idea. Double-V–W as English speakers might know it–bread means what? White bread? Whole Wheat? Looks like an extraordinarily flexible breadstick.
Another nearly illegible scrap from my notebook in need of transformation, let me know what you think:
a
pinchful of breadloaf
torn from its cozy yeastmates,
whole wheat mere passengers
on a placid pond.
betrayed by its buoyancy,it succumbs to the will of the water.