Cubroid is a South Korean educational technology company with an international presence. Their physical products are integrated with powerful AI software that teaches kids and young people to code. Looking to break further into the U.S. market, Cubroid approached the Costa Mesa-based consulting agency Altos Business Group to assist with a rebrand. I was brought on to the project via Altos Branding Collective, a subset of the agency, to join the team’s efforts in creating a strategic and visual identity that would resonate with western consumers.

Photography by Cubroid.

After the ABC team determined a strategic direction for the rebrand known as “Poets of Technology,” I designed a logo and accompanying brand materials that spanned technology, education, creativity, coding, and language. To effectively represent the values and concepts behind the brand, the logo had to move from representation into abstraction. The logomark shifts perceptually between two and three dimensions, evoking a cube that can be peered into, or a sort of mobius strip that’s forever unfolding. The mark’s rounded corners and energetic colors introduce a playfulness to the visual identity.

The Cubroid logotype features custom typography that blends the creativity of children at play with the structure of coding. Despite all occupying the same height, certain glyphs are capitalized to introduce an element of play, while others are modeled after the typographic stylings of typefaces used in coding applications. Certain areas of the type are tapered to relate to the pinched corners of the logomark.

Photography by Cubroid.

The primary color palette uses sky, azure, chalk, and graphite to place Cubroid within the educational technology space. These colors communicate a sense of calm, professionalism, and a future perspective.

The secondary colors introduce a greater sense of energy and playfulness, and can be used to differentiate certain design elements within Cubroid’s brand materials. The gray tones can be applied to text, lines, and other graphic elements to pull focus and increase legibility within the brand's visual hierarchy.

All the colors are fine-tuned to balance with each other in terms of hue, saturation, and value. Sky, rose, dandelion, lime, and magenta have similar saturations and values so that no one color overshadows the others. Azure, chalk, and graphite contrast the other colors with their increased or decreased value to allow for greater legibility.

The Google typeface Noto Sans was chosen for its versatility, humanist proportions, and multilingual support.

Photography by Cubroid.

Photography by Cubroid.

Alternate versions of the logo explored the creativity and growth evident in handwriting, as well as a kid-friendly rendition of a line of code.