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Establishing the Design Direction

brand identity
design strategy

Kickstand was engaged by Keywell’s founder at the very beginning of the startup’s journey, to design the Keywell brand and a minimum viable product, or MVP app.

Branding is of course the most logical place to start when building something from scratch as it gives us the opportunity to set tone before building out detail. In short, it sets a design direction for the work to follow.

We held an initial workshop to discuss the company values and style preferences. We then designed three logo concepts and accompanying mood boards for discussion before refining further to show colour palettes, home screen icons and sample webpage application. The purpose of this exercise is to give a sense of how the brand concepts will extend across different mediums. Based on these concept designs, Keywell’s founder could make a more informed choice on the company’s visual direction.

Throughout this project, we were mindful that users will typically be interacting with the Keywell app during or after highly emotional and stressful moments. The goal for the design of this app was to achieve a sense of calm and simplicity.

The final design had a playful and distinctive style, portraying the optimism that Keywell's founder hoped to offer their customers. The full stop at the end of Keywell's logo was designed with a number of interchangeable shapes designed to celebrate diversity.

“Kickstand was instrumental in helping move Keywell from an idea in my head to a working prototype that we could test with users. Having the combined power of Sophie behind the user research and Amanda’s creative vision, we were able to move through the process in an agile manner. Thanks Kickstand!”
Diana Silva
Founder, Keywell