What does the future of design hold? Solute, a speculative design project, attempts to answer that question. After a series of in-class discussions about design trends and fast vs. slow design, it became clear that computer-generated design as a means of rapid creation might be a significant factor in future graphic design thinking. Also discussed was the newfound accessibility of design tools to the masses through services like Squarespace. With Solute, I attempted to unite generative design and accessibility by developing a logo generator that requires only minimal input and no design knowledge from the user.

Solute works by cross-referencing a list of categorized keywords for various industries (e.g. Education, Technology, Construction, Art & Design, Health, Food/Restaurants, etc.). The logo generation takes place in two steps—form and color—which allows for interesting composite designs (see end of video). The number of forms and their composition are determined randomly given the length of the Organization name, making each logo unique. Some typographic tools are also built in, shifting the baseline given the presence of an optional tagline and selecting from a small palette of typefaces. Each design is saved in the program's directory as a vector-ready file when the “submit” button is pressed. The fully-functional application can be downloaded here.

Selected logos displaying the range of forms Solute can create: