Coder Vox

Overview

Coder Vox is a coding school in Austin started by a group of software developers who shared the same passion for teaching people how to program in 2014. They’ve been helping people land their first jobs as a developer through bootcamps and online courses on Udemy.

As a startup, they were looking for a unique brand identity. I was fortunate enough to be designing the company logo.

This project was particularly dear to me because the company’s mission aligned with my passion for education. This was a great opportunity for me to utilize my creative skill to help the learning community.

I guided my client throughout the entire design journey from client interview, ideation, visual exploration, design review and iteration, to arriving at the finalized design.

Source: Coder Vox — *Source:* *Coder Vox*

Setting a Direction

A successful logo must communicate a message, whatever that may be. What message are we trying to communicate?

To answer that question, I conducted client interviews to understand the company mission, vision, and business.

I asked questions such as:

What’s the story behind the company name, “Coder Vox”?
What made you want to teach coding?
Who is your target customer?

“Vox” for “Voice”. Coder Vox believes that being able to understand technology and having a voice using technology is one of the most important life skills you can have in this digital world.

I audited one of the classes to gain a deeper understanding of the business and the dynamics between the students and the instructors.

Then, I did a simple mood board exercise with the CEO to nail down the direction for this new logo:

Simple, Modern, Trust

Modern & Simple

With a quick research looking back at how logos evolved over time, I noticed that they tend to grow toward simplicity. Let’s take a look at how the Starbucks logo evolved:

Source: Natalia Vorobyeva — *Source:* *Natalia Vorobyeva*

In a sense, simplicity seems to be associated with the idea of being modern, new, and relevant. Therefore, I started exploring logo forms derived from simple geometric shapes:

A Sense of Trust

Color influences perceptions and triggers different emotions in people. I picked the blue and green color scheme to convey a sense of "trust", "strength", and "knowledge".

Selecting a Concept

I sketched out a few different concepts to show my client, and the one that popped was the one that captured the company name, “Vox”, inside the logo mark.

Distinguishable

A successful logo should be distinguishable. The unique visual presence helps to prevent confusion from other players in the market and relives concerns over plagiarism. So, before diving deeper into design, I researched on the web to ensure that our logo did not mimic existing logos out there.

For example, here were some logos from the education and coding space that we wanted to avoid in terms of the look and feel:

Typography

I chose Proxima Nova as the typeface for its geometric appearance. Then, I experimented with the different font weights and letter casing combinations to see the different effects. Eventually, I settled with all caps as they were successful at bringing the authority that the institution needed.

Versatility

A successful logo must work in any setting, may it be a favicon in the browser, a logo on a website, business card, or billboard sign. It should stand the test of different contexts.

To ensure the logo was legible over a dark background, I experimented with various font weights:

Then, I did a stress-test with different text colors over dark background to see the effect on legibility:

I converted the logo to grayscale to ensure that the logo mark was still recognizable in case it was to be printed with black ink only.

Visual Explorations

Final Design

What I’ve Learned

This was my very first paid logo design project as a fresh college grad. I was excited, but mostly scared and nervous because I had no idea what a professional designer should be like, not to mention how to talk about money.

Through this journey, I learned to value my work as a designer and not to be afraid of asking for money. That was one huge step for me in my career as a professional designer!

Also, I learned how important it was to include your client along the design journey. The more you listen to their needs, the smoother the whole process would become.

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