The Need:

Sundial is a time tracking startup that runs a web app for freelancers and small businesses to help them do their best work. In July of 2018, they were ready to head out into the world with a great app but needed a bold new brand to take them out into this competitive space. They wanted a crisp, sophisticated identity that could be applied in a huge variety of digital environments and would inform their design decisions for years down the line. I jumped at the opportunity to work with a company offering such a helpful product and immediately got down to business.

The Remedy:

From the outset, I knew that the identity needed to have both an insignia and a typography component for use around various parts of their website and app UI. Given that we would naturally be talking about sizes ranging from large desktop backgrounds and t-shirts to app icons and menu bars I knew the designs would need to be succinct and clean to hold up at all sizes. So I began with a bonafide flurry of concepts playing with different sundial and solar themes. Some were quite literal and on the nose, others played with abstraction to a fairly high level. I sent these all over to their team for review.

In the end, after rounds of refinement, simplicity won out as it so often does. The team at Sundial went for a bold geometric stylization of the sun not make things overly pedantic. In its standard coloring the insignia would sit in a warm orange next to a modern condensed typeface to complete the image of a stylish, modern group. This combination and design proved quickly to be a very versatile identity moving seamlessly across media both digital and physical.

Great for informative branding up front and culture building for years down the line.

The Results:

From there it was straight off to the races. I packaged up a wide variety of logo files for use by their entire team for years to come. Since then the identity has worked its way across their website, app, and all their business materials. Today, Sundial is offering cutting edge time tracking to freelancers and entrepreneurs around the world.