AIDN Branding

A brand is not a logo, it's a promise to your customers. A promise of quality, consistency, competency, and reliability.

The original AIDN logo was created by the founders using clip art of the most prevalent illustration of AI. While functional, it didn't capture the essence of the product or the team's vision. The brand name itself is an acronym for Artificial Intelligence Defined Networking, which carries significant technical weight but needed visual representation that matched its innovation.

I believed that branding should be a true representation of the business and its products—a visual embodiment of the team's personality and values. My goal was to create a holistic and purposeful identity system that could grow with the company.

I performed extensive exploratory exercises at various levels of the brand system to understand what would resonate. This included:

• Logo Mark Evolution: Moving away from generic AI imagery to something more abstract and sophisticated
• Color Palette Development: Creating a system that felt technical yet approachable
• Typography & Visual Language: Establishing consistency across all touchpoints
• Brand Guidelines: Documenting usage patterns to maintain coherence as the product scaled

The result was a brand style guide that ensured consistency across all materials while providing flexibility for future expansion.

A critical insight came early: the product strategy itself required a flexible brand system. AIDN was designed to separate specific network functionality into focused, modular components that users could adopt independently.

I created a sub-brand system that would allow us to launch focused products under the AIDN umbrella while maintaining visual cohesion. Each module could have its own identity while clearly belonging to the larger ecosystem.

Exploring 3D & Animation

To expand the brand's versatility, I created a 3D version of the logo in Blender. While not intended for primary branding, it opened possibilities for marketing materials and product visualization. The founder even considered having it 3D printed as a physical artifact.

What came next was unexpected: my son Ethan, who was learning Blender, took on the challenge of animating the 3D logo. With minimal direction from me, he created an animated version that brought the brand to life. Seeing the design evolve through his contribution was a reminder that the best work often happens through collaboration.

This project reinforced that the strongest brands aren't just beautiful—they're functional systems designed to scale. The best solution I created wasn't the logo itself, but the framework that allowed the brand to evolve alongside the product and company. And sometimes, the most meaningful moments come from watching others contribute their skills to bringing a vision to life.