It is almost a year now since I started freelancing. And I am still pondering what my design practice is about. How do I adapt to the world in a way that makes sense to me, and to the people I work with. Do I need to change my shape all the time? Do I need new tools, new moves, new shiny AI generated bamboozling SHAPE. But the title of this post is not about finding MY SHAPE. but finding YOUR SHAPE. And yet... it might be.
One of the thing I love about the work I have done over the last few years, is what happen with the people I work with. What happen to the people I work with. The human journey. Developing a visual identity for a business is helping them find their shape. Finding the shape of the business. Finding the shape of what is in between the business and the people interested in their services.
It should be like a poem, every time you look at it, you experience something new...
Finding the shape that makes sense right here and right now. Being okay about the fact that it might change or not change. Looking for a shape that is not too frozen. Looking for a shape that sizzles, the shakes, that dazzle. It should be like a poem, every time you look at it, you experience something new, it moves you, and it also always directs toward the same direction. A logo is a precise blurriness.
Whether is the logo itself, or the glow that grows around a name, the energy that pulses within and without, that draws your people in, a bridge to connect with them.
It is a shape.
People always panic about the shape. It feels like a shell, claustrophobic, a solid envelope to inhabit. Like a onesie you've got to wear everyday. That Graal that will make them thrive. You have to choose wisely.
So we start working together. And I come up with various angles, ideas, concepts, showing my design biceps. From many forms we find a way and come down to two. And then suddenly there is an existential crisis. We have a sliding door situation. One shape and it's shadow. Which shape do we feed, which one do we put under the carpet? They need time to feel the shape that fits. It is honest work. It is almost instinct. Only they know? Because it has to belong to them. Not to me.
Sometimes the logo disappears, like a matrix of the whole that still is there.
So, helping you find your shape. I like doing that. And the human journey that stems from it.
So let's explore the shapes. All of them. For fun, creative flow, and food for thoughts.