2024 Smith & Diction Year in Review

Smith & Diction
Smith & Diction

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Another year, another recap. This year tested a lot of limits for us. It started off slow. Like…..I guess the robot uprising is here, kind of slow. And honestly, it shook us quite a bit. We were second guessing our process, we were in new business meetings more than we were designing, things got gnarly. But we kept on trucking, because that’s all you can do and if we’re looking for the silver lining, the change of pace forced us to evolve a bit. We rebuilt and streamlined our proposal process from the ground up. We can now turn around pretty much any proposal in less than 24 hours. Which you’re saying, duh, that’s how it should be? Yes. I agree. But it’s easier said than done for a small studio, where just a handful of us are doing everything for everyone at all times.

We learned a lot about what we wanted from our studio this year. We learned that we didn’t want to grow just for the sake of growing. We learned a lot about who we were up against. We saw some proposals that had us a bit baffled. We learned that no matter what, we’re always going to be honest, even if it doesn’t align with the best monetary decisions. We learned that it’s important to step away when your gut tells you to. And that some time in the woods is good for every part of your soul.

All this being said, you might think we didn’t do much work this year. But actually, it’s the opposite. When things picked up after the lull, they reallllly picked up. We worked on a lot of stuff. More stuff than I even remembered working on. Did I black out from March to June? Most likely. But I’m so proud to show off this work and so proud of the team that made it all. We’d be nothing without Summer and Dayan, and we’re endlessly grateful to them, every day.

One last note before we dive in: This post isn’t as funny as usual, and it’s not the usual behind-the-scenes kinda vibe of our normal case studies either. So feel free to blast through and just look at all the pretty pictures.

January

The George

This project got the whole team excited. We’re not a competitive studio in any way—in fact most of the brands we make are touched by every person on the team at some point. But this project had each of us trying our best to make our direction win. We went way too hard and made way too much for a smaller sized client, but we literally couldn’t stop making stuff. I made a completely custom wordmark. Dayan was making brass plate wayfinding mockups. Summer was making insane floral illustrations inspired by the 19th Century ironwork in the space itself.

For the sake of transparency, and to show an even more behind the scenes look at our process I shared a link to the Figma file for this project, and people went wild in there! There were like 300 people poking around at any given moment for at least a week. Sadly, we recently chatted with the folks at The George and this cute little hotel project hit some snags in the financing/permitting phase, and the actual buildout has been put on hold. But who knows! Maybe someone will buy the property and keep the brand for whatever the space eventually becomes.

41 West

We took this project on as a sprint in December of 2023 but we didn’t publish the work until 2024 so I’ll just include it here anyway, even if it’s cheating a little bit.

This work was super fun to make. When we met Preston at 41 West, things clicked so quickly. We immediately got to talking about how when you’re on a production set, you’re surrounded by all these endlessly interesting characters. So we wanted to create a brand that paid homage to all those talented weirdos on a set. We paired a fun illustrated cast of characters with a vintage wordmark that looks like it could be from an old TV station in the ‘60s.

We even got our buddy James Dybvig to animate one of them, which is always a treat. He has such a good sense of the tiny little movements, like that hat flick, that make the animation so much more quirky and human.

February

Ingredient AI

Working with Akash and Gordon at Ingredient AI was a total whirlwind. They came to us and asked if we could make a brand, throw up a splash page, make an explainer video, and think of a cool print piece that they could take to a conference all within about 5 weeks. It was an insanely wild ride and I don’t think we’ll ever do it again, but I’m so proud of the work that came out of it. And I’m happy to be still working with the Ingredient folks at a much more normal pace these days haha.

Thanks goes to Hunter Thompson for the lightning fast webflow dev, Brent Clouse for the speedy video animation, Scott McClelland for the quick turnaround on a dope embossed holographic foil print piece (Did we letterpress a gold foil QR code? Yes.), and the full S&D team for being all hands on deck to get this brand over the finish line. Special shoutout to Trevor Rogers for the intro, too.

Check out the site at ingredient-ai.com

March

Gateway Garden Center

We were approached by the lovely folks at a local garden center who asked us to help them with a new sign—and it quickly turned into an entire rebranding project. Gateway Garden Center has been a mainstay of the local native plant business since 1979. So it’s easy to imagine that their logo, and brand, and yes, their big sign out front—all needed a refresh. We wanted to honor their legacy, while also making their brand feel as lively as the plants they carry.

So we worked with Simon Walker to develop a floral drop cap G that just felt so so perfect. We had a ton of fun slapping that G on all kinds of signage, stickers, tee shirts, postcards, and more. We also got to use Rebond as a brand typeface which I’ve been trying to use for the past two years and it was glorious.

Guilded Home

We worked with the lovely and absolutely hilarious duo, Kristen and Mae, from Guilded Home to give them a new brand identity as they joined their two separate interior design studios into one. We went for a super classy approach that felt as elegant as the interiors that they’re known for.

Dayan designed a beautiful floral keyhole monogram. Big year for florals, and a big year for keyholes for us, too. But anyway, we leaned into the GH keyhole as a signature brand element, kind of reminiscent of that moment when you finally unlock the door and cross the threshold into a new, beautiful home that’s been thoughtfully designed just for you.

Continuum

Our old buddy Tom Wingert (who we’ve known for at least a decade and loved working with in the past) was on the very cusp of opening a new kind of VIP fitness club in NYC called Continuum when he asked us for a little help. He needed a little brand extension to his original visual identity—making sure the vibe was built to match the absolutely incredible space. We took what he had and added some new type, expanded the color palette, and built a fancy looking Google Slides deck so he could go out and convince people to feel confident dropping $10K a month on an over-the-top gym membership.

April

Anterior

Most people don’t know this, but before Chara joined S&D full time, she worked in pharma advertising for a few years. So when Anterior came to us to help them brand their medical AI tool for payor organizations, Chara actually knew exactly what they were talking about. I, on the other hand, did not.

If you want to take a deeper dive into this work we wrote up a full case study for this project which you can read here. Overall, we just loved working with the Anterior team so much. They were so smart and so decisive. They have taken the brand and really run with it over this past year. Plus they just started building out their internal design team and we’re so excited to see them grow. Can’t wait to see what they have in store for 2025.

May

Top Secret Project

I can’t say or show much of this project yet. But this was one of those things that once you get the call, you make it happen, no matter what else is going on. We worked on this for a solid two months, and in the most non-exaggerating way possible, I think it’s going to change the world. Keep your eye out for this symbol in the next month or so. You’ll want to be part of it.

Shout out to Summer for the amazing logo and Justin Lawes who made it glassy and floaty.

July

Living Roots

I showed off a little bit of this work in the recap of 2023 and believe it or not I’m still working on the full case study for this brand. This Summer we had a wonderful time visiting the Living Roots tasting room on Keuka Lake to chat with owners Seb & Col Hardy, and design bud Justin Dusett. We absolutely loved seeing the brand in action all throughout the space. The coolest thing was probably seeing our hand-painted logo screenprinted on all the glasses everywhere. Fun fact: the top of the root symbol in the logo is the 8oz pour line. Practical AND pretty. You can have it all.

This was a literal bucket list, dream project for me and I’m so proud of this work, so I’m being extra picky about what goes in the case study. But I promise, you’ll see the whole thing in 2025. It’s one of my favorite things I’ve ever made.

Minted New York

This year we only took on one design sprint and boy did we pick the perfect one. Marcus Milione reached out to us for a brand refresh for his company Minted New York and after chatting, we both agreed that the full brand process would have been overkill for what they were looking for. So I floated the idea of a sprint but told him that it comes with a lot of risk, to which he responded: I generally love risk.

And that, my friends, is how you get us fully on board.

The Minted crew was looking for a brand refresh that could take them into more of a sportswear angle. They kinda just needed a logo that could feel at home on the side of a sneaker, or tiny on the corner of a pair of running shorts. So we landed on this starting block M symbol that just felt so right. It’s got the weight to be embroidered onto literally anything, but also has the momentum that keeps the brand feeling fresh and fast.

August

Solana

This was a big one for us this year. The folks at Solana Mobile asked if we could help them come up with an identity for their new phone, the Solana Seeker.

They wanted a brand that felt more accessible than most other crypto brands. Something that didn’t feel overwhelmingly neon or like you were hacking into a mainframe. So we landed on this restrained Seeker wordmark with a custom “r” and also updated their color palette to feel like a grown up version of Solana’s regular brand colors. Something that felt a little more refined and also a little more accessible for maybe the not-entirely-sold-on-crypto crowd. Clean and crisp.

Prometheus Summit

We randomly got a DM from Sania Saleh being like, “Yo, you wanna work on something wild?” And we immediately said, “Yes, we love wild.”

Before long, we found ourselves creating the identity for a one-of-a-kind invite-only summit out in Jackson Hole, WY. We’ll hopefully post more of this at some point next year as it shifts into something even bigger than an annual event, but for now enjoy this fun little sun/robot/human figure logo.

September

Alma

This was a fun one because it pushed us into a brand new medium: AI. We hadn’t used AI seriously in our workflow up until this point, so it was a bit of an adjustment. It took quite some time to wrangle, but it was really fun when we figured it out, and unlocked a lot of doors that I don’t think would have been possible for a studio of our size even a year ago.

We wrote a full case study on this project, in case you’d like to see and read more about the nitty gritty of what went into creating this identity.

October

Perplexity Merch

We actually worked on these merch designs over a year ago, but it hit the streets this year, so it only felt right to add it to the recap. We worked with Phi and Henry to design the first drop of Perplexity merch and truthfully, we were only a very tiny piece of this puzzle. Phi is a legend when it comes to making merch that feels extremely high quality. He took our designs and 10x’d them into these pieces that have everyone talking. So proud to still be a tiny piece of the Perplexity rocket ship. Go get yourself a Know it All hat.

November

Sotto

This was yet another brand that we made last year, but we were asked to keep it under our hats for a while since production is still underway. So we just announced it this year. We created this brand for Sotto, which is a new kind of light-weight, soft spoken, apartment friendly piano. We wanted to create a symbol that nodded towards the uniqueness of the instrument, so we made this 7-seeded (nod towards the notes A,B,C,D,E,F,G) dandelion logo that feels as soft as the piano sounds.

We had a ton of fun with the restraint of this brand and we got to create things that felt almost like visual poetry.

Oregon Water Extremes

We got to close out the year with a quick feel good project for Oregon Water Extremes. We were asked to create an identity for a glacier and climate researcher starting a new institute at the University of Oregon. They needed to be able to slap a sticker on a crate of gear or send research reports to the government and feel like they should be taken seriously.

We landed on this Mountains + Glacier + Water logo that combines every area of their research into one tight symbol. We love that it could feel at home on letterhead, or on the side of a giant oceanliner.

Life outside of the studio.

In 2023, we won a Best of Philly award for Logo Design but they were holding off on the award ceremony until 2024 to celebrate their 50th anniversary. So Mom and Dad got dressed up and hung out with the Phanatic, Gritty, the Mummers, and literally the best chefs in Philly for one night at the gorgeous Art Museum. It was super fun and also extremely delicious. I hope we win more awards so we can eat more really nice snacks in pretty places.

S&D Shop

Every year Chara and I sit down and talk about what we want to be working on in the next year and last year I said to her, “I really just want to open a shop so I can make a bunch of posters and other dumb stuff.” This was the first year that we took that seriously. I sat down and cracked open Big Cartel and set up a shop in about an hour.

Just having the ability to sell dumb stuff inspired me to make a lot of dumb stuff, like our Worm Hat for example. I also made some posters about depression and tote bags about giving me a break.

Take a peak at our ever-evolving shop here.

Smith & Diction Nine Year Anniversary Poster

This was our NINE year anniversary so we put together a poster to commemorate the occasion. It showed off some of our most favorite logos and doodles we’ve come up with over the years, opening up to a large poster in the middle that says “Solid as a stone. Free as a river.” This was a metaphor that my therapist said to me once as I was dealing with some gnarly anxiety.

When you’re going through it and the pressure starts to stack up and anxiety creeps in, just close your eyes and imagine you’re a stone in a river. The stone doesn’t worry about the river washing over it, it just exists.

There are times in your life when you’re the stone — solid, rooted, unmoving. And there are times when you are the river — wild, free, and in constant motion.

A Brotherly Love Pennant

While we were working on the Welcome to Philly mural outside the Art Museum last year, we made this liberty bell badge that just begged to be put on a pennant. So this year, we hit up Oxford Pennant and did just that. We made some really high quality pennants to celebrate the best city in the world: Philadelphia.

Here’s the link to scoop one for yourself if you love Philly. Or if you hate Philly and want to burn it, you can purchase it here as well. No judgment. Go Birds. Dallas sux.

We made Creative Boom’s 25 most popular design studios list.

This one really took me by surprise. Honestly, it meant the world to me. Building a small studio exactly the way that I want is not the easiest thing to do. Every day I think, am I doing this all wrong? Should I be hiring more people and growing? Should I change my process? Is this the best way to make a brand? And truthfully I don’t think there will ever be a solid answer to any of those questions, but the fact that a bunch of people out there think we’re doing something right and are really into our work, that’s all that I need to keep going. A studio of five people being on the same list as Pentagram? As Collins? As Porta Rocha? As Wolff Olins? WHAT? That’s wild. So if you voted for us for this and you’re reading this, thanks for making my year. I really needed it and really appreciate it.

Low-key Legends Podcast

We don’t go on podcasts very often because honestly, who wants to hear from us? I’d rather just do the work. But apparently a lot of you DID want to hear from us haha. It was so fun talking to Britton about everything from AI workflows to how reading fiction books can make you a better designer.

We have a few more speaking gigs/podcasts lined up for 2025 and can’t wait to share more hot takes with you all in the future. There are also a few more projects that are dropping next year that we absolutely cannot wait to share with you all. Like, really really can’t wait.

Thanks for reading, looking, skimming, whatever-ing you did to get this far. I appreciate the support and hope to keep writing our really long winded case studies for a long time to come. If I ever fall off, it’s up to you to hold me accountable.

See ya in 2025.

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