How 8 years can change a logo
Sometimes, as a designer, you look at some of your company’s graphic assets and you say to yourself : “This could use some work”. It could be the company poster that’s been hanging on a wall for years, it could be the sticker you got on your first day and that you put on your laptop…
Or it could be the logo.
Ad Scientiam is a Parisian startup specialized in the development of softwares as medical devices on smartphones and the creation of digital biomarkers.
Ad Scientiam aims to improve the everyday life of the patient suffering from particular chronic diseases like multiple sclerosis for instance.
I began working at Ad Scientiam two years ago as an intern UI designer. At the time, a large part of the 20~ employees knew that, at some point, we would have to change our logo.
It hadn’t changed since 2013 and had its flaws : The font did not have a particular personality, the opacity of the logo made it look weird on different backgrounds, and it didn’t carry an unique message if you exclude the colors which were chosen to stick to the usual medical field colors.
Regularly, recent designs were compared to the old logo highlighting the fact that better could be done !
This difference wasn’t purely aesthetic; the values of the logo didn’t embrace what had become our core values over the years of building the startup.
As a leader in crafting innovative medical devices for patients, we couldn’t be mistaken for just another medical company.
Our logo had to make a difference by embracing and displaying our core values.
…
So what ?
So what was the tipping point ? What kickstarted the making of a new logo ?
Well … a certain virus that emerged during the year 2020 sent us all home and gave the whole team the opportunity to take a step back and calmly think about the future.
Of course, it wouldn’t have happened without some other key elements :
- Ad Scientiam was growing at a good pace, reaching 50 employees; the danger of being forgotten by partners by adopting a new logo was a minor one.
- Hirings in the UX and UI field helped us better manage and disperse workload between the two teams.
- As a startup, even one with 50~ employees, the managers and the team didn’t lose their agility and creativity, which enabled me to have time to craft & propose ideas.
Time to craft a new logo !
New ? Yes and no. I had had no objective concern leading us to opt for a complete rebranding or renaming. Even though Ad Scientiam had solid partnerships and our name was well known in the business, it had to stay recognizable.
We had workshops to redefine our values and broke them down into these :
- Ad Scientiam does not just develop products : it helps patients & healthcare professionals
Ad Scientiam embarks the patient from the beginning of projects, making sure that our solution can be useful for them; For that, we often partner with patients’ advocacy groups. We also make sure that our solutions can help healthcare professionals with more objective monitoring, giving them data that facilitate the decision-making process.
- Ad Scientiam is not a century-old megafirm with constraints: we are a young & creative startup.
When redesigning the logo, this was the main concern that I had. I had to show who we really were. The logo had to breath youth, creativeness. It had to tell how innovative Ad Scientiam aims to be, on the vanguard of how we will heal people tomorrow.
- And most importantly, we go forward
The core name of Ad Scientiam describes its ambitions better than anything : it’s Latin for “towards science, towards knowledge”. Visually, it had to display a movement going forward, something that leads to science.
The 3 contenders
The first 3 drafts of logos.
As you can see, these drafts are pretty straightforward visually. What other way of going forward than a leap, multiple jumps, or a road ?
I gave the old colors a refreshing update, making them bolder.They now represented the typical colors of the medical field (green & blue) but with a touch of freshness and youth.
Discussions were held to choose one of the 3 drafts and give it some modifications and polishing.
The one that got the love of the jury was the third one because the idea of the road going up and forwards better represented the road “towards science” that we take every day working at Ad Scientiam.
Ad Scientiam is so proud to embrace this new logo from now on because it reflects what we are and what we do.
The road going up and forward forming the “S” of Scientiam, the vibrant colors, the bolder font, the flexible and organic shapes … It all corresponds better to a young company which dares to innovate in the health environment, not stuck by challenges but instead pushed forward by new technologies and upcoming talents.
What I learned as a designer
The challenging times we all went through these last two years was also an opportunity to better understand and write down why we’re all working for.
In conclusion, what you must remember from this story is that when the activity slows down a bit, maybe it’s time to wake that idea or project that’s been sleeping in the back of your head for a while.
Designers and innovators, never be afraid to put your ideas on the table. Give it the polish it deserves and then push it forward !
In other words, do something that will make you proud of working where you’re working.
I personally can’t wait to have this new logo printed everywhere on coffee mugs and posters to replace the old one ;)
The views expressed here are my own and do not reflect the views of Ad Scientiam.
