Let’s go, VADO!

VADO is an Arduino-derived micro-controller.

From name to logo and brand design, I worked on the entire concept from scratch.

The brand itself is tiny and portable. It’s for all the makers, builders, and hobbyists who want to hit the ground running with their latest innovative ideas. It is geared for simplicity and excited urgency for ideas to become a reality without hinderance. The goal is to create a word and an image for thus emotion.

VADO means “I Go”: in Italian. It is a combination of the owner’s language, the roll-off-your-tongue-word, and international romance root word for “go” – “va…”.

The logo had to evoke not just movement but building blocks that can be put together in various patterns and shapes and still work together to create words and/or art out of the shape.

VADO Sample Brand Guidelines

View logo conception

Logo Inspiration

The idea of the brand was about technology but also the craftsmanship behind it. It’s about building things, searching for a solution to a problem, and embracing the possibility. I had gone to see the Italian Futurisism exhibit at the Guggenheim about a year ago and was really inspired by this movement’s notion of technology, seeing things in different perspective, and really playing with type.

I was also watching Poirot (since Netflix had all the episodes up) and the opening sequence to the show is all Futurism design. This was much of my inspiration for VADO.

Drawing the Logo

I made several sketches of the logo with the basic idea that the shapes could be reusable. This idea stems from the concept of a “buildable” pattern.

Selecting Colors

While designing the logo, I was also looking for colors. I found this site, The Color of Motions, which gave color breakdown of some famous movies frame by frame. Blade Runner, a great sci-fi film, was the perfect inspiration for technology. I selected colors from the show based on colors the client liked, which was along the olive and blue tone.

Designing the Logo and Text

After bringing the drawings to the computer, I played with several ideas while staying true to the futurist movement. Thus, each abstract piece is a stylized letter combined and molded to create a shape.

As for the text, I wanted a simple text with very square shapes with sharp edges. So the shapes of the letters mimic the shape of the logo itself.

In closing, the logo is placed on top of a pattern created by the logo, which gives it a hieroglyphic feel. It’s about building blocks into something else, which is the true nature of the product.