A Parallel Design Process for Dynamic Media

In the traditional brand development process, a brand needs to transport its own set of values. It is developed as a static sign to mark out and "brand" on paper, packaging, car hoods, computer cases etc. These brands are essentially sign stickers put on any medium, irrespective of the inherent qualities of a medium. That worked well enough as long as all media have been by definition static - catalogues, name cards, car hoods etc. While working well enough on static backgrounds, these brands appear superimposed on dynamic media. The standard brand development process remains little changed and is still essentially geared for static backgrounds, mostly paper. However, less and less information is actually consumed on paper - one of the reasons why even quality newspapers such as the New York Times are in trouble.

To create an identity which is not superimposed, but blended into the medium, I experimented with parallel development. The identity for Design Zone, a support framework for creatives in the Gulf region, was developed from the start across three identity devices in three different dimensions: A community application in 3D, a website in 2.5D and the logo in 2D with the added dimension of time. The advantages of the process is that three parallel developments interweave in time, and during the creative process ideas for one medium cross over into the other two developments. Thus the brand is not just stuck onto the surface, but driven by underlying visual narratives and interwoven into the dynamic media.

The first step is to explore underlying narratives which can drive the message from within the media which carry it. To visualize the meaning of Design Zone I started with the idea of an abstract "landscape of creativity" - a virtual space of imagination. Below the first rough concept renderings of this "imaginative space", colored in hues of turquoise:

The second development was the sign. It started out as a collection of different animated signs rather than a single logo, as the idea was to express the diversity of creative expression on the basis of Islamic art and decoration: geometry. From there the logo developed into a single sign which yet is many signs: Over time, driven by an algorithm, the sign takes on different shapes and colors. Here some of the the initial concept graphics:

Below the final design of the dynamically changing logo.


For the site, I wanted to suggest the mission of Design Zone as a catalyst for creativity through a visual narrative. The logo, representing the spirit of Design Zone, should appear as an actor with character. In the visual narrative, the logo helps to realize and bring forward creations. It does that by by bringing them out from the depths of imagination into reality, helping to make them into actual expressions. This narrative is told by making the logos accompany and slightly push information windows from the depths of the "imaginative space" into clear view - a narrative for the experience of consciousness in which we form imaginative artifacts from "blurry" sensory impressions.

The idea of an "imaginative space" also served as the basis for developing a creative community site. Below two screenshots showing one of the features, an embedded 3D creation application running in "the cloud", designed to be intuitive to use.

The primary advantage of this parallel design process is the transfer of design ideas between parallel developments. This favors the embedding of underlying metaphorical design ideas across all media used.