Balanced

I began by considering the elements that made Cycle Labs stand out among other enterprise software companies:

• Expertise — Cycle Labs’ employees accrued years worth of experience in fields including quality assurance, warehouse operations, and software development prior to joining the company, informing our market strategy and feature set.
• Cheerfulness — While the organization was serious about delivering quality products and experiences, it was also dedicated to being a fun place to work. Teams were frequently invited to go-kart races, laser tag battles, and nights out on the town, which fostered cohesion and happiness.
• Authenticity — Workers were encouraged to be their ‘true selves’ — to share their passions, ideas, and critiques openly, as well as receive them from others gracefully.

Ultimately, Cycle Labs was an interesting place to work and I wanted to design a graphic that matched its energy while still highlighting the new brand. This meeting would also be the first time everyone would be in the same place at the same time following the onset of COVID-19. It was important to me that this shirt be light-hearted and enjoyable.

The only caveat was that I had one week to turn around a final graphic. Given I was already swamped on the Product team helping migrate Cycle’s front-end to custom Material UI components, I had to think and act fast.

I wanted to find a way to appreciate the new Cycle Labs mark while avoiding the corporate tendency to “slap it on the front and call it a day.”

When sketching, I looked for ways to integrate the mark into other forms or find objects that echoed its shape. Additionally, I wanted a strong thematic link to the company and its values.

Three ideas stood out as contenders:

• Dramatic button — Think of an action movie where the president has to authorize some sort of nuclear strike or the scientist prepares to power up their new machine, this is that button. Paired with the company tagline “Deploy with confidence” as the label, Cycle Labs could send a strong message about the impact of its work.
• Effect pedal — A pedal modifies an electric guitar’s signal the same way Cycle modifies the testing process. Considering most effects have names like supercharge, amplify, and overdrive, positively linking the two concepts was a breeze.
• Pancake stack — Recognizing the similarity between the new logo and a stack of artfully decorated pancakes allowed me to put the mark front and center, while hiding it in plain sight. From here, I developed a theme combining the classic food tagline “part of a complete breakfast” and the company’s desire to evenly distribute testing efforts across the lifecycle of a WMS implementation. In other words, make testing part of a balanced development process.

I dropped the Dramatic Button concept based on the its lack of ‘cheerfulness,’ and focused my efforts on vectorizing the other two ideas for my check-in with marketing. Much to my pleasure, pancakes won the day, though I was asked to keep the FX pedal idea in my back pocket for future use.

Marketing was pleased with my work and my timeliness, the project was ready well before deadline despite my other responsibilities.

The shirts were distributed along with stickers, snacks, and drinks as a welcome package for team members. Many people immediately changed into their new attire, while others asked if there were leftovers they could take home to their kids. This was the attitude I wished to embody with this project — I wanted us to be proud of our organization, come together to achieve a common goal, and enjoy ourselves in the process.