Trueform Brand

Back in 2017, I inherited the Montserrat font family when I first started. Stylistically it was similar to the original CEO's selection of Avenir. Unfortunately, the Avenir additional license prevented Truefrom from adopting it as a font selection when I started.

Now it was Summer 2019, we were using Acumin Pro (selected by a former VP per my recommendations), but it never felt right within our brand. I gave Jojo an opportunity with a fresh, young perspective. He prefers the font selection to be clean, readable, and feel modern. I pointed out it needs to have several font weights to accommodate all design scenarios.

After reviewing Jojo's selections, we ended up with the old stand by of Proxima Nova. I initially used it back in 2007 as a young designer at PopCap Games. It was like putting on a favorite jacket in today's world. Though I've used it before and is quite popular with other brands, I decided it satisfied the need to move onto the next section.

Establishing the color selects was one of the first design activities I completed during the first week of the job. The original palette has survived the various subjective opinions that have come through the company. However, I enjoyed the collaboration and process of what Jojo ended up with, so I passed it over to see what he could create. We discussed what we want Trueform color mood to be.

“We wanted colors to be bright and engaging, playful, but still professional.”

Jojo S., UX Design Intern; Trueform.io

Jojo transformed the original color palette to align with our newer, stated goals. The result was much more colorful, then it was before and settled into a state of bright, engaging, youthful, and clean color palette.

As a 2019 design trend, gradients align with our color goals. Jojo had a pleasant creative flow going. I suggested him to flesh out both monochromatic and multicolored gradient recommendations.

During our guideline research, we noticed a design pattern of how brands utilized elements of their logo/wordmark to determine the precise spacing as it relates to its surroundings. Conditionally as a designer, I account for negative space in my designs. However, it was pleasing to see Jojo take it a step further to ensure the proper level of spacing was easily determined based on the element itself.

During my first days at Trueform, my first "ah-ha" moment was when I placed the golden ratio on top of the mark. The "tf" aligned perfectly. For a moment, I felt like Robert Langdon cracking the DaVinci code. Books like The Geometry of Design, by Kimberly Elam , provided a wealth of inspiration for us to create and wove it into Trueform's Brand Story.

Jojo and I experimented with the trueform logo. I suggested focusing on the icon and enlarged the size to see how it feels within a canvas. From a physical standpoint, there's promising negative space to exploit when extended off the page. During the process, we noted the few ways to do it correctly – justifying a page of improper usage.

Jojo enjoyed defining what not to do with his unusual combinations, as things became odd and awkward looking (in the right way).

Naturally, we came into this as we completed the Branding Guidelines. I could tell Jojo's confidence was growing. I admired his passion and urged him to take ownership of Trueform's Voice & Tone guide.

Trueform has always been at the intersection of communicating with customers and product makers. Our strategy was to ensure it was casual and engaging with customers in an approachable, modern, tech startup style. However, striking a balance with companies in a partnering approach with humility.

As Jojo's supervisor, I continued to guide him through the ambiguous creative process. Along the way, I shared the experiences that I've learned in my career and to trust the process I suggested. One of them was to remember to think of the end goal if he ever felt lost at any part of the process. The creative process, combined with technology and business feasibility, can get messy, but there is always a way for an innovative solution.

I suggested conducting meetings with the sales lead, the most tenured employee, and our current store manager to have a better understanding of how each of them communicated with the clients, team members, and customers. From my observations, Jojo was able to synthesize these conversations and establish a suitable B2B tone.

Jojo's strategy was to ask each person how they felt Trueform embodied as a value. We were able to distill these notes into the core values of Trueform voice and tone. The tone itself had revealed itself naturally by asking – "What is the content? And "Who is the content for?". This simple framework established a fitting tone for all situations.