Branding as UX: HAN:DLE
Handle developed an integrated email and task management portal with the goal of making people more efficient and, therefore, happier.
Handle’s first logo looked like this:
And my initial product wireframes/designs looked like this:
Handle was scheduled to be introduced at TechCrunch 2013 as part of the “Startup Battlefield” competition. We needed, at the very least, a logo that would look good on a t-shirt. I designed this:
I like my logos to tell stories. HAN:DLE included an old school smiley (the : D ) which reflected the product promise. Better still, it was the first logo I ever designed that could also be reproduced in live type (e.g. HAN:DLE) and content!
The HAN:DLE logo and design language was the foundation for final product designs:
In hindsight, it’s perhaps a bit on the garish side. But it looked like nothing else out there at the time.
We came in second in the Startup Battlefield competition, beating out Zendesk!* But most importantly, we won the t-shirt war.
The HAN:DLE logo looked like a tie when one of our t-shirts was worn under a sport coat. Attendees loved it, asked for a shirt, and vowed to copy the idea with their own logos.
*Which says something about the relationship between a TechCrunch endorsement and a company’s future success…
