"Branding Ninja" - my new title

My father took on a new job a year or so ago. The job was with a startup called Raw Data and involved some pretty amazing goals that required equally amazing levels of development skills and talent, both of which my dad has plenty of! Well the company made some awesome progress over the last year and, unlike Matchplay in a previous post, they have continued to grow and flourish. I was approched by the CEO about coming on in a branding capacity. This isn't a regular job and I only earn equity in the company for my efforts but the opportunity is one that is pretty incredible for any designer this early in his/her career so I accepted. With the new side job I also got a new title... but its one I got to CHOOSE! So I am the 'Branding Ninja' for Raw Data in Salt Lake City, Utah.

My first move was to sneak up on and judo chop the logo. The logo was designed early on and while solid had some fundamental problems. Here is a comparison of the original and my modified version:

Original:

My first edit (top) and my second edit (bottom):

It was important to me to add some visual weight to the mark and also to tighten up kerning of the lettering. There is still some work that can be done on the kerning but this is pretty close. I also wanted to flip the divider/underline bar so that instead of dropping down and then to the left it dropped down and then swiped to the right. In the west we read left to right and have a sense that moving forward means to move to the right from the left. Having the line the way it was suggested, even subconsciously, that RawData was moving backwards and they are doing anything but that!

The website is also under construction. We started with a registered user section since the major reason for the site is to facilitate the dissemination of info to and to assist the registered users. After that it is to inform potential user. Here is the page that I've title 'Panelist'er' (since our registered users are actually members of a user panel):

The column on the left is a blog format panel that allows Raw Data to post information to and for the general population of the panel.

The column on the right is specific to the panelist and allows the user to see and manage their account, settings, see usage stats, and provides direct links to the panelist to communicate with Raw Data.











The second page, as mentioned, is an informational page designed to inform and inspire prospective panelists, a page I've titled 'Prospect'er':

Similar to the panelist page, I have use a three column layout with the column on the far left being a quick reference column and the two on the right being combined into one and used to provide the more detailed break down of what is required to be a panelist.













The project is based on a concept of washing away the old archaic way of doing things with a digital, streamlined, and more fluid solution. To visualize this I used a white wash idea of Raw Data and its process flowing down and over the old way of doing things, which is represented by the orange color filled with blurred and cluttered spread sheets, the current standard in the industry. The fluidity of RawData is conveyed to the viewer by the flowing liquid but the rigid three column and very geometric shapes of the body of each page shows the predictability of the data format that you can expect from RawData.


This in an ongoing project and changes will happen and more pages will be added, I hope to provide samples here as I complete pages.

-Jake