Flex
Flex is a new app by Do Something Different which promotes making small changes in your lifestyle and stepping out of your comfort zone. The brief was to design a logo which reflected the app's values and message, and to indicate a visual language which would be suitable for this project.
My initial sketches were just exploring the brand's themes and thinking about how I could best represent them.
I wanted to represent stepping out of your comfort zone visually. The logos below are some of the first drafts. I quite like the one on the left but it felt too formal because of the boxiness and reminded me of the X-files... The right design was meant to imitate the campy 50s/60s style but didn't really fit the theme or message of the brief.
This is the developed logo. The pill shape represents a comfort zone with the text neatly staying within it, and the swoosh on the X is meant to push the idea of slightly stepping out of your comfort zone. Flex isn't about radically flipping your lifestyle, but about making small changes to spice up your life a bit. The serif typeface is a little dynamic without being goofy or overly serious, it allows the X to be highlighted and stand out.
After peer feedback, I decided to change the colour to a more vibrant yellow, which I feel suited the logo more. Other than just looking nice, yellow is commonly associated with cowardice and so it makes sense to challenge the expectation when talking about stepping out of your comfort zone.
Additionally, some background accents were added to reinforce the visual style.
The final animation is an example of how motion could be utilised in the brand. This simple animation could be shown when loading the app or website, or in promotional material.
The motion on the swoosh appearing reinforces this idea of a small lifestyle change adding variety and motion to your life, whilst the "draining water" represents breaking free of your comfort zone and opening yourself up to new possibilities.
I really like how this project turned out. As a logo and piece of motion graphics, not only does it look visuall appealing, but it does a good job of visually representing the ideas which the brand is built upon. It can sometimes be hard to find a balance between solid concept and beautiful execution, and I feel that my use of colour, typography and motion has succeeded on this occasion.
