The Brand Identity – Home of the Greatest in Graphic & Brand Design

Vizcom is an AI-powered design platform for product and industrial designers, built to turn a rough sketch into a full-fidelity 3D render and take an idea all the way through to production. Its users are industrial design teams at companies from Ford to New Balance, so the identity has to hold its own in front of enterprise design departments while appealing to individual creatives. To create it, Vizcom turned to Minnesota and Wales-based design studio Outland.

Rather than begin with the polished render at the end of that journey, Outland shaped the identity around the process that produces it – a territory they named ‘The Messy Canvas.’ It results in a brand world drawn from the organised chaos of making, where sketches, prototypes, material samples, happy accidents and constant iteration are as much a part of the identity as the finished render they lead to. “AI and many design tools are super focused on just the output, a single, high-fidelity image,” explains Vizcom’s Head of Marketing, Emily Lonetto. “Vizcom helps designers get to that final output, but celebrates the iteration, imperfections and accidental discoveries that come along the way in the creative process.”

“Early on, we ruled out building a brand that would feel linear or static,” Outland’s Founder & Design Director Jordan Jenkins tells us, “for the simple reason that creativity isn’t. It’s iterative, exploratory and full of unexpected moments.” The same system had to stand in front of enterprise teams as confidently as it invited play. “One of the most valuable conversations we had with the client centred on where the identity needed more restraint,” Jenkins recalls. “We kept coming back to the idea of a billboard in the Financial District or a poster in a creative studio. It became a simple way of judging the work.” Enterprise communications lean on restrained typography, photography and refined layouts, while the more expressive elements are used sparingly. “The biggest thing we wanted to make sure was that we didn’t lose the power of Vizcom with a brand that was too playful,” notes Lonetto.

At the centre of all that movement sits a deliberately steady wordmark. “Understated meant confidence through restraint,” Jenkins explains. “The logotype needed to feel composed amongst the creative chaos. The more expressive the surrounding system became, the more important it was for the logotype to remain timeless, dependable and recognisable.” Doing the expanding is a symbol that started from a pencil tip and works as a container, a motif, an illustration and an environmental detail at once. “Reducing it to a simple geometric silhouette gave us a foundation that could be continually reinterpreted while still feeling unmistakably Vizcom,” Jenkins reveals, “a symbol that could be equally powerful and playful.” From there it recurs throughout the identity as graphic elements, illustrations, patterns and objects, each one drawn from the same core shape.

The type system divides the balance between two typefaces. Structure comes from Displaay’s Matter – a warm grotesque that gives Vizcom the plain confidence an enterprise platform needs. Expression comes from Tomboy LP, Garrett Boge’s informal, handwritten typeface for LetterPerfect, held back for words about making, imagination and possibility. “We wanted Tomboy to feel earned,” Jenkins adds. “By reserving it for moments of creative optimism, every appearance feels intentional and carries more impact.”

From the wordmark and type, Outland extended the identity into a wider world drawn from the tools, materials and environments of making. Loose, expressive drawings by illustrator Harri Owain show people sketching, crafting and experimenting, while the pattern and decorative system draws on blueprint grids, cutting mats, recycled plastics, woven textiles, stitching and wood grains. “The pattern library was designed to be used both collectively and selectively,” Jenkins details. “Collectively, it reflects the diversity of Vizcom’s community and the industries they work across. Selectively, it allows the team to pull on material references that are familiar to a particular audience, making the communication feel more relevant.” A shared visual language keeps the range coherent, and the palette takes the same cue, named after the raw materials of making: Blueprint Blue, Cutting Mat Green, Clay Orange, Post-It Peach and Ink Black.

“The identity treats sketch and render as two moments in the same creative process, rather than two separate visual languages,” Jenkins notes of the move between flat 2D sketches and refined 3D renders, the product’s own journey from idea to output. “Playful marks, colour and irregular forms are balanced by disciplined typography, generous whitespace and a consistent compositional system. That structure gives the brand enough stability to move freely between loose 2D iteration and refined 3D outcomes without losing its character.” The pencil-tip symbol recurs across it all, morphing from the loose to the refined. “Enterprises and studios alike have really resonated with the little details and easter eggs within the brand,” Lonetto concludes.