Ideahub Design

As the Director of Design at Ideahub I am responsible to all design materials made in the company. during my first year I was the only designer there so I got the opportunity to design in many fields. I made the company's website, logo, branding and was part of a team to design the labs in China. 

My objective in this process is to create a clear visual language for Ideahub that are all about innovation in education through technological and creative tools. As a designer I do my best to grow and learn as much as I can about the different design trends, and aspire to make my designs as inclusive as possible.

When I first started working for the company my first design challenge was to make the company's website, but there was practically no graphic materials, no language or brand identity and had a logo I needed to work on.  I started by drawing many sketches, looking for inspiration in leading websites and going a lot of research in the field. Once I had something concrete I did the layouts using Inkscape and started a conversation with my client about the look and feel of the design and content. 

To build the website we used a Chinese company. The back and forth with them was very different from your usual designer-programer discussion with the language barrier being a big wall in our conceptual understanding. 

The site was made with stock photos because it was made before we had any materials of our own, and now I'm working with my design team on the next generation site. One that would have all original photos as well as a better fitted content, based on our growing experience working in schools around China.

In my second design challenge I needed to redesign Ideahub's logo. I had need given complete creative control. My objective was to create a logo that would be simple to read, relevant to education, technology, innovation and creativity.  

I decided to create the logo by hand, giving it a doodle feel, like something made in a school notebook. I have a fascination with hand lettering and I have been learning it in the time leading to the creation to the logo, so it all came together for me. I made many drafts and played with a few styles until I found what I felt to be the right one for this job. 

Next I moved the design to Inkscape and worked on in digitally until it was complete. I needed to add the name in Chinese and to make sure it was in working well with the roman characters. I use Inkscape in my work because I teach it in class and I like the concept behind programs such as this one. I love Adobe products and use them as well but since they are not free they are not accessible for my students and so we use Inkscape.