Smith & Diction

Last week we presented a bunch of logos to a team of researchers doing the important work of studying glaciers, coastlines, and climate change out in Oregon. It was so fun to imagine what these might look like on the side of a ship. Great work by Tully Ryan & Dayan D'Aniello on this one.

🍃 A delicate identity for a delicate sound 🍃 Last year we worked with Sam Tellman who is building Sotto. He’s reinventing how the piano sounds, creating a new kind of softer spoken acoustic instrument. The name sotto comes from sotto voce in music which means in a low voice or barely audible. So we tried our best to channel this sentiment into the identity. Giving everything a lot of space to breathe and float as if it were taken away in the wind. The logo is a dandelion meant as a nod towards the lightness & softness of the instrument. For typography we paired a classic looking GT Alpina with one of my all time favorite fonts, Agrandir, to create a classic but quirky feeling. The colors lean extra moody & very soft. Nothing extravagant or flashy.

Wow, okay I'm genuinely flattered. Smith & Diction has been my baby for 9 years and it feels like we're just getting started. To be on this list with literally everyone I look up to is just wowwow. Thanks for voting for us and thanks for including us Creative Boom. I'm just shocked. Couldn't do it without the dream team: Chara Smith, Dayan D'Aniello, Summer McClure. Check out the full list here https://lnkd.in/erEfaABv

WORM HATS ARE BACK I said I'd never bring them back but I just had to! Designed for the designer/space nerd in your life. This hat will make a perfect gift for that person who knows way too much about NASA and lets you know at every possible moment. https://lnkd.in/e7hDr7JX

Got our new designer Tully Ryan to make this incredible reel thing for our Solana work. Hoping to develop a new kind of title card system like this for all of our work on insta so you can quickly and clearly see bigger projects at a quick glance. Hyped to build on this.

👀 N E W 👀 W O R K 👀 So proud to show off the initial core identity we created for Solana Labs/Solana Mobile's new phone the S E E K E R. We worked hand-in-hand with the Solana team to create an identity for their mobile division that felt like a breath of fresh air in the crypto scene. The Solana folks wanted to use this opportunity to create a brand that pushed the crypto vibe into the not-so-neon future. Their main goal was to get normal folks excited about this device and break down the barrier to crypto through rewards and a more accessible ~vibe~ We created this branded gradient to feel like the delicate in-between where atmosphere becomes space. The moment that you escape the tether of Earth's gravity and venture into the unknown of endless possibility. One major part of the identity process was creating a new color palette that felt new and fresh but also tied to the original Solana brand palette. This was a tricky line to walk but we just kept saying, this needs to feel like a grown up Solana. We also developed a brand new wordmark for the Solana Mobile division as a whole. They wanted something that felt a little more considered & techy without being too CrYpTo ViBeY. Shout out to Dayan D'Aniello for his wordmark work. And to Justin Lawes for his 3D glass work, as always. Major shout out to Andrew Littmann & Ross Cohen for letting us work on this project with your extremely thoughtful team. Cheers to Heyo for taking this brand and extending it into all of the rollout applications like web, icons, keynotes, events, etc. Great job team.

To put it bluntly, without Chara Smith there is no Smith & Diction. She runs the entire studio AND does all of the creative work. We'd be nothing without her. She was recently interviewed by The Subtext about what makes our studio tick. https://lnkd.in/gy-j-KfZ

There are times in your life when you're the stone—solid, rooted, unmoving. And there are times when you're the river—wild, free, and in constant motion. I made this poster to celebrate 9 years of Smith & Diction and show off some of our favorite marks we've created to date. Scoop one for yourself here ↓ https://lnkd.in/efx96r3A

We've been trying to make this episode happen for 4 or 5 months now and I'm so glad we finally sat down to chat. Thanks to Britton Stipetic for having such a good chat and stoking the coals of the fire when the takes started getting hot haha. This is a longgg video so if you're TL:DW'ing it mostly comes down to this: 1. Read more fiction. 2. Concept will always be king. 3. Plan time to brainstorm away from the computer. 4. Use AI to carry the weight not steal the show. 5. Build brands that you actually want to be a part of. 6. Iterate, iterate, iterate. You'll find the beauty in the process because like Britton said, today's experiments are tomorrows projects. If you do watch the whole thing, let me know what ya think. I always love talking about process and where things are headed.

Coming on Thursday an epic conversation with the founding team of Smith & Diction Chara Smith and Mike Smith Be there at 8AM EST https://lnkd.in/eyuw6mRN