Some folks will remember the first versions of Squared Eye
Getting to know Squared Eye
I started designing for the web in early 2006 with the hope of creating a website that would pay for a digital Canon Rebel XT, which at the time set a guy back about one thousand dollars. It was a scary first site, and I'm happy to report is no longer available on the web, not even from archive.org. The site accomplished enough for its new owner that she actually paid me, and so I swiftly went out and bought a camera and invented the crazy idea that I could support a family as a full-time web designer. Since then, I've had the incredible opportunity to design websites for The Gates Foundation, the United States Postal Service, Fox Television, and some of the best small businesses and nonprofits out there. What a wild ride.
It’s been nuts to take on the transition from freelance to something resembling real business over the last two years. During that shift I've been exposed to enough about branding to realize that the old Squared Eye was suffering from a lack of clear direction and focus, both as a business and as a brand. Clients would often ask what Squared Eye meant, and I couldn't give an answer that was less than a geekazoid trip to nerdville about the relationship between circles and squares in the universe and the multiple layers of meaning... blah blah blah. I walked away from those conversations wishing I really knew what Squared Eye was and what set us apart from the next guy.
A key element of "knowing thyself" is sorting out what's really important to you. Without a clear sense of your personal principles and priorities, it's almost impossible to bring the picture of your preferred future sharply into focus.
Jim Clemer Author of Growing the Distance
If Squared Eye was going to grow, and if I was going to design websites, web applications, and other fancy interfaces for the next umpteen years, then dang it, I needed to make waves! I needed to take the Squared Eye brand seriously. It was high time to define my preferred future.
What kind of designer hires out the creation of his own brand?? An insanely intelligent designer of the highest caliber! At least, that's what I think. When I started the rebranding process with Able design, many of my colleagues, and even some clients, were confused. Why would I hire someone to design the Squared Eye logo and help me think through an identity, when I am a perfectly capable designer?
The answer was clear; I've learned that, in my personal life, external counsel is the most effective way to get to know myself, so why would business be any different?
Step by Step Branding
The incredible process that defined Squared Eye
- Able interviewed Squared Eye.
They spoke with recent clients, friends, family, and colleagues to find out more about me. Knowing the present perception of Squared Eye, as articulated by those who have regular contact with me and my business, was a foundation of information from which I could react with care and direction. It's the equivalent of good user testing, but for identity rather than interaction. - Able researched Squared Eye.
We were taken through a comprehensive Q & A period that asked everything from what market and audience did we have and want, to what kind of car would we be? Able researched our current competition and the people and groups we aspired to compete with – our heroes. Their research was so thorough that by the end of our process, I knew more about Squared Eye than ever before. By simply listening well, Able helped us start to become what we wanted to be, not just ease into what daily business would make us. - Able helped us choose a mood.
Using the mood-board technique we spent several weeks with Able working out the particulars of the brand rationale and from there, the brand's visual presence and identity. As we worked with Able through this process I began to have more confidence in the product of design I was creating with our clients. As we worked through this process with ABLE, and each stage unfolded, I became more confident that I could clearly articulate to my clients just how Squared Eye was going to help them bring their sites to life – and give them products their users could really dive into! -
Able designed Levi.
Meet Levi, short for Leviathan. He perfectly represents the Squared Eye presence and everything we want to be. In Levi, Able helped us articulate our appetite for detail. Just as the Blue Whale chows down on 250,000 pounds of tiny krill a year, so Squared Eye thrives on the little nuances that change a simple interaction into an experience, and a regular user into a believer.
Please Welcome the New Squared Eye
Squared Eye Logotype
Every card is 2 sheets of 100lb stock glued back to back. It’s neatly topped with a high gloss foil stamp on top of Levi the whale 
Squared Eye Paper Whale Toy 
Download the PDF (2.2mb)
Why not have Twitter-specific business cards? We had 1000 free business cards from business-cards.com coming our way and so we just decided to have fun with it! 
