Brand Design – August Nguyen

Sea Hackathon is the biggest annual innovation event organised by Sea Labs. Despite being a signature of Sea Labs, the event has never have a clear visual identity.

OBSERVATION ANALYSIS

It was unclear whether a holistic visual identity is necessary, and how should it be done. Visual designs for similar events from biggest tech companies in the world were analysed to identify the common practice. The results were categorised into several design directions and levels of effort-consumption.
It is reasonable to assume that the more important an event is, the more high-effort the design will be. As Hackathon’s significance is high, the two most low-effort options were eliminated.

BRAND POSITIONING

The design directions were also ranked in terms of design consistency and customisability. While higher consistency enforces identities, customisability provides the room for themes and messages. As Hackathon requires a clear identity and medium flexibility, the Adaptive Logo direction was chosen as a result.

DESIGN RESEARCH

Three main goals for the logo design were set out. The logo must be derivable, distinctive to Sea, and closely linked with Hackathon’s nature. Keywords related to the goals were listed out, and a secondary research was conducted to gather the elements that respond to each keyword.

PENCIL SKETCHES

From 9 main categories of logo designs, unfit options were eliminated. All potential keyword combinations for the feasible categories, as well as their associated elements, were listed out as a basis of the pencil sketches.

DIGITAL DRAFTS

Three sketches were picked out for digitisation, with symmetry and signature elements kept in mind. Besides, the final drafts also require a logical construction that is easy for reproduction.

The final candidates were then applied into graphic representation. Their flexibility and identity strength were carefully evaluated.

CONVERGENCE

Combining letter H with the idea of teamwork and programming, this option carries large positive and negative space, with very strong central gravity. Its complex geometry, however, may limit possibilities.

INTERSECTION

This option carries large positive, with strong central gravity and simple geometry.

CUBE

This option carries very large positive space and little negative space. Its isometric design and off-centred focal point may reduce the number of potential composition.

Intersection was selected, for it is simple, stable and flexible. The most matured key visual was also chosen to catch up with the imminent production timeline.

CREDIT

The pencil sketch stage and web design were partially assisted by Wen Yiran, Senior UI Designer, Labs

We Bridge Language Barriers

When people immigrate into the United States, they have difficulties communicating and understanding, which prevents them from assimilating to the new country. Ladon is a solution to provide them with passionate translators who strive to bridge not only language barriers but also cultural gaps.

The project has won the Social Venture Challenge in CGI University 2016 and First prize in Social Entrepreneurship Challenge Lab by UC Berkeley. Ladon’s service has been launched in California and San Francisco in five languages.

WELCOME TO LADON

In order to compete with other services already existing, Ladon positioned themselves in a unique place — between personal machine translation like Google Translate and traditional translation companies. Ladon is a modern on-demand service, and still remains the core of having human touch which make them reliable and relatable.

DESIGN LANGUAGE

The key factor to Ladon’s success is the ability to spot a gap, and how to fill that gap with design.

As Ladon’s clients come from different backgrounds: from elderly people, social workers to organisations and businesses, the design language was made a flexible combination of flat design — which focuses on content — and depth — which enhances legibility. It looks friendly yet professional at the same time.

Ladon’s fundamental philosophy of being friendly, caring and human-run is translated into a warm and bright shade of blue — the colour of hope and peace — that we call “Ladon Blue” and a system of cartoon characters as the guides for our web pages.

LADON APP

The mobile application is an even more sophisticated representation of the design language. It has to combine the distinctive Ladon visual with the operating system’s assets, and at the same time, looks refreshing and action-nudging. This results in a series of elements — shapes, patterns, colours and animations — that can transmit information, and at a deeper level, the brand’s friendliness and human-feeling.

The available language assistants are grouped into a pseudo-3D shade that let users know how many assistants are available, as well as their call settings at a glance, and expanded upon users’ interaction to reveal detailed information about an assistant’s background, passion and history.

EXPERIENCE RESEARCH

In order to expand the business, Ladon has spread its service to organisations and businesses. Interviews and observation tests were conducted to discover the pain points during non-English speaking consumer-to-business transactions, and test them against a portal/marketplace wireframe, where we bridge the language barriers between consumers and businesses.

One year after its pilot study, Ladon has expanded its service to more than 190 registered clients across the U.S., and recruited a network of more than 100 empowered immigrants as language assistant.