Logos, Labs, & Lessons
Designing a logo is usually a rollercoaster of an experience, especially when you’re designing for yourself or your own company. Last month I started my new job (yay!) at Pandera Systems, right in the midst of their rebranding transition to Pandera Labs. My first task at my new job was, of course, to design the new Pandera Labs logo and branding elements. Words cannot accurately express my immediate anxiety. Now don’t get me wrong, I was thrilled to take on a challenge like this, but it was a challenge none the less. To be able to fully articulate into a logo the ideals and character of a company that I had literally just joined was a daunting task.
Once I gathered some visual inspiration and Pinterest-ed my little heart out, I thought a good start would be to experiment with the “P” letter and maybe even a “PL” combo with some trendy tech-like vibes. Not only did these end up looking like 90s-era minor league sports team logos, there was also a lack of any substantial meaning, or representation of anything Pandera Labs was about. So it was back to the good ol’ drawing board.
After a few more designs and some hard thinks about the meaning of life, it was time to get feedback from the whole Pandera Labs team. Now as most designers and creatives can attest to, bringing folks into your design process who have no background IN design can be an interesting experience, to say the least. Mostly, I’ve found that the biggest challenge in this type of collaboration is getting everyone to agree on anything. Whether it’s a color, a font, an idea, an ice cream flavor, anything really; everybody’s got their own opinions. What I like to do when I encounter a situation like this, where I’m feeling flustered or exasperated, is to flip it into something positive to get my spirits up. So, a positive here: everyone CARES! I could have been left on my own, twiddling my thumbs wondering all the while if my teammates, who I’m trying to represent in this work, cared about what I was making and felt I was doing a good job in telling their company’s story. But luckily, I’ve got exceptional coworkers who care about the company we work for; who are able to give me insight on what Pandera Labs means to them, which I would’ve missed out on otherwise.
So once I was done philosophizing about design and receiving feedback and ideas from my teammates, it was time to synthesize. One way I like to do this is to just group a bunch of words together and start making connections. A lot of the feedback I received from the team centered around the ideas of growth, building, motion, and creation. Along with an abundance of ideas and variations I created from these ideas, I also wanted to do some experimentation with the original Pandera Systems logo. I think one of the main things everyone actually did agree on, was that we wanted to create our own, personalized mark, but I was definitely into the spiraling shape of the original logo. Upon further inquisition and investigation (*cough Google cough*), I found that the spiral symbol represents development, expansion, and growth; exactly some of the ideas the Pandera Labs team were expressing! 😱👏🙌
From iteration to iteration, and with constant involvement from the Pandera Labs team, we were finally able to narrow down, simplify, and land on a logo that was not only reminiscent of the circular, spiraling visual of the original Pandera Systems logo, but also implemented some great representations of who we at Pandera Labs are as a whole: Analytics, Operations, Development, and Product Design.
I really wanted to drive home all the ideas brought to the table, so I took on the beast that is Adobe After Effects, watched about 50 YouTube tutorials, and figured out how to do some slick animations. These animations really help to express the ideas of growth, movement, and creation, and also illustrate how the team as a whole works in sync with each other. Learning something new always gives me a bit of an adrenaline rush, and finally figuring out how Adobe After Effects actually works — and not just staring at the program for hours on end — made me feel like I could conquer the world. The ability to learn something new, while simultaneously getting to create something so personal to my new work-home and getting to interact with all of my coworkers right away was an incredibly fun and entertaining experience.
Check out my in-depth case study at malloryhaackdesign.com
