Charactir was rebranded soon after I had refreshed my own vision of what I wanted to be as a creative. I wanted the new insights I had picked up freelancing to be in it, along with what I expected of my own work going forward. What steered the design choices were the humanistic qualities (sincerity, transparency, empathy), and alongside them individuality, depth, subtlety and refinement.
The character in the logo is meant to be inviting, friendly, intelligent and introspective. It was important that he look directly at the viewer, so that the first thing the mark does is meet you with openness; the rounded features and the smile keep that from becoming an interrogation. The textures suggest there is a complexity of character underneath, and the shadow gives the head depth: the inner thoughts and the insights. He is built as two views at once: a side profile that gestures and invites you in, and a split front view that shows transparency on the left and sincerity on the right.
The font was chosen for refinement, character and individuality. The flowing letters of the script reinforce all three by alluding to penmanship and to people’s signatures, which is where the humanistic side comes back in, because a signature is the most individual mark a person makes.
The name came from the idea of a character in the media sense: comics, television, film, books. I wanted to design and illustrate around the idea of treating a project or an identity as a character. A well fleshed-out character leaves an impression and is memorable, but more than that, it is something you can associate with or feel something towards.
The spelling substitutes an i for the e in character. That is a personal adjustment, and it does two things at once: it puts the focus on the individual (the I) and on the thing every character is built from, the identity that defines them.
