brandknewmag.com
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In parsing this complex design, both Borthwick and Cooper
realized that they liked the ineffable visual quality of it.
The logo seemed to be built from a puzzle-like stack of
shapes, with each shape being derived from a new custom
typeface that Franklyn had developed for an accompanying
wordmark. What was Betaworks, after all? An investment firm
offers seed funding to startups, sure, but it also incubates
products and handles design in-house, relaunching Digg
as a reimagined media brand, and releasing a hit iPhone
game Dots. It’s a strange hybrid of a company existing in an
era when technology, software, media, social presence, and
financial investment are all tentacles on the same octopus.
The philosophy behind this logo--one of embracing a complex
design over a simple one--could apply to the rapidly evolving,
increasingly multidisciplinary brands beyond Betaworks. Not
long ago, Ammunition built a brand identity for a cloud
technology company named Mesosphere. Instead of building
The typeface is based upon Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine-what many consider to be the first computer.
one logo, the company created a piece of software that
could change the logo’s angles, colors, and even animation.
Simple? Not at all.
These logos represent
big thinking, not simple
thinking.
THESE LOGOS
REPRESENT BIG
THINKING, NOT
SIMPLE THINKING
“The
more
simple
things are, the easier
it is for you to like it.
Your brain says, ‘This
makes sense so it’s
good!’” Cooper says. “A lot of [the early logo designs we
reviewed] were simple, good, clean. They were all perfectly
understandable in two seconds. Your gut reaction to that is,
‘That’s nice.’ But we wanted something more than nice. We
wanted something that challenges people and makes people
think about things.”
Its curves stem directly from this schematic...
Mark Wilson is a writer who started Philanthroper.com,
a simple way to give back every day. His work has
also appeared at Gizmodo, Kotaku, PopMech, PopSci,
Esquire, American Photo and Lucky Peach.