I was approached by Inkling's people and culture team to create a series of "mementos". These were going to be something like enamel pins, buttons, or stickers employees could sport on their clothing and accessories. A series was desired to represent the different social clubs we have at the company. The details of the project were nailed down as the designs were being developed and tested in different ways.
The process began by deciding what directions we wanted to see: abstract, mascot, metaphor, literal, etc. We also wondered what kind of colors, rendering, and depth to use in the illustrations.
Sketches were helpful in exploring some of these ideas, and how approachable they'd be when doing iterations.
With early sketching we came to an idea where all the stickers could be notched together. We thought of this working a few ways this could work with hexagons fitting into a strict pattern, or creating limbs with cupeling notches at the ends. None of these ideas held up once we realized how the printing requirements would impose a white border around the sticker. Additionally, if employees were to put these stickers on their laptops there was no certainty if they'd have enough room to arrange them all in a definite pattern.
Here's three examples of how different concepts were tested and narrowed and were then pushed towards a polished image.
There were 12 stickers designs in all, printed in various quantities for our employees to use however they wish!
The end result was a set of stickers which represented popular and active social clubs at our company. We used these stickers as a way to increase excitement and interest for our clubs to bring employees together. Many have put stickers on their laptops, water bottles, and notebooks as a way to proudly represent Inkling but with a bonus of relevant personal interest.
