A look at Saudi Arabian software organization brand identity design, Innosoft, created by designer Fernando Diaz.
I saw this project and I liked it, but loved it after hearing Fernando’s thinking and approach. Ya, you see a the bluish cyan color, straight and cubic form, you think of a tech-software-company, but there is more to that. This is why I approached Fernando with a couple of questions.
Who is Innosoft ? What do they do?
Innosoft (Innovative Software) is a new organization from Saudi Arabia that provides integral services for Start-Ups: Research, Innovative Develompment & Incubation.
Why did they approach you?
They contacted me (via Behance) asking for an identity design project. I always emphasize the importance of showing your work on every social network you can, this really opens doors and great opportunities! It also makes you improve by receiving constructive feedback and sometimes by comparing your work with other designers.
What was the problem?
They already had a logo and website for Innosoft, but they wanted to give this brand the importance that it deserved. They also wanted to design the other parts of the branding communication such as Business Cards, Letterheads, etc.. The cliente client acknowledge that their visual communication lacked design thinking, that was a very important step, and they were willing and ready to change it. In this case the owner of the company was young and demanding, this helped a lot to achieve the final results.
What sparked the creative process?
Fist of all I asked the client for more information, so I could understand their business and create a small brief: objetvies, target, insights, field of work, what they wanted to communicate, etc… This information is very important to understand what the client needs. Sometimes they don’t even know who they are, or what they need, but in this case it was fairly simple.
So with that brief I created a brainstorming based on the 2 most important concepts they wanted to communicate “Creativity” & “Innovation”. I’ve never used brainstorming seriously before, I thought it was a waste of time, but for some reason I gave it a chance in this project, and it ignited a lot of tiny sparks that eventually became the final idea, now whenever I have a big project I always use it.
Let’s talk about the symbol.Tell us about the building process, how did you got to the end result?
It all started with a brainstorming idea that was “thinking out of the box”, so I presented 2/3 ideas to the client based on this box/cube with some creative elements that communicated the out of the box idea. He finally chose what I thought was the worst idea (which usually happens), but we continued that path anyway, trying to improve the idea, adding more elements that could make the logo communicate better the concepts at hand.
At the end I think the result was, by far, more creative and innovative that what I had expected, specially because I thought the other idea was better. And sometimes this happens when you have a very demanding client that pushes you out of your comfort zone and, for example, makes you choose an idea that you hadn’t planed.
What are the roles of the colors used in this project?
Well in this case I immediately started using a kind of cyan mixed with white, I think that this mixture had the youthfulness that the target was looking for. This logo has a lot of sharped edges, and is a very geometrical shape, so, sometimes if you use the colors wrong the logo can have the opposite effect in your target. So the cyan and white mixture made the logo less boring, less serious (than for example a brown, violet, or red), but it still had the professional look I was going for. The black is not 100% black, is more like a 90%, which lowers the contrast and makes the blue even more bright. (And shh, don’t tell anyone, but I’m actually slightly color blind).
What is the role of the pattern? (it appears out of nowhere)
The texture was also a very important part of the identity, without it the identity would have felt very artificial, and it would have lacked certain amount of depth. The texture makes the cyan a little less colder, closer to the user, and the identity less empty, like everything was carefully planed and I think in general every brand or designer should communicate that.
I see that you split the Inno(thin font) and Soft (bold font), why?
Well this was a aesthetic use, I didn’t wanted the logo to be “InnoSoft”, I wanted to use lowercase letters so the legibility worked better, but I still wanted to show that the word was a mixture of Innovative Software, so I thought the best way of doing this was by making one part light, and other bold. I tried both ways, the first bold, the other light… but the final decision was made optically by what I thought worked better aesthetically. I love typography so most of the logos I do are not just a font, I take the time to change the letters to make them more unique, and also so that they can work better together, sometimes by changing them a lot.
What was the feedback from the client?
He loved it and is very proud of using, and for me this is everything I can ask for!
Who is Fernando Díaz?
I’m just a 25 year old Graphic Designer from Montevideo, Uruguay that feels lucky to work at what he likes! This is my passion, and I only hope you can see it reflected in my work. You can learn more about me and what other design related activities on my website.
