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Who doesn’t love a brand mascot?
For BD&R, the mascot came from the abbreviated letterforms we designed, but the idea and name itself came from the story of how the founders first met through business.
That’s why I never start a project thinking about what the logo should look like.
I ask questions. How did you meet? Why did you start? What makes you different? What stories have shaped the business?
Because without that context, you’re designing on assumptions. And assumptions usually lead to work that blends in.
My discovery process is personal to every founder we work with. The process might be similar, but what we uncover never is.
Sometimes the best ideas are already sitting inside the business. You just have to discover them.
Great work
Thanks 😃
Anchoring the mascot in the founders' origin story is also what makes it survivable — a mascot with no reason attached is the first thing a new marketing hire cuts in a refresh. Did you write rules for how far BD&R can be pushed, or leave that deliberately loose?
this is the cutest!
I love it more!
100% agree! The best concepts are usually already inside the business, you just have to know how to draw them out. That's what leads to work like this. Great job!
Love how simple & fun it looks, the animation execution is tasteful.
asking how they met is such a good move
Cute😍
Starting from the founders' story instead of the logo shape is such a different way in. Has there been a project where discovery turned up something the founders themselves had forgotten was part of their own origin story?
Great design
nice work
Awesome work👏🔥🔥
One of the best designs I’ve seen today. Really solid work 👏 Rooting the mascot concept directly in the founders' story adds so much authentic character.
Thank you :)
Simply adorable while remaining completely rooted in the brand. 👏
love the animation
Awesome!
Great work
nicely crafted project 👏
the eyes living in the R got me. was it always meant to animate?
looks fun and cute, great work man
Nice work and beautiful presentation
Love the intentionality of the animations. Really makes it feel alive. 👌
Love this Alex, You are the best!
I love how the mascot has a real story behind it. It makes the identity feel more personal and memorable, not just visually interesting. Great example of how the best ideas often come from asking the right questions early on.
Amazing work
The discovery-first approach is what separates a mascot from a sticker. The one tension I would name: the origin story is vivid to the founders but invisible to a first-time customer, so the real test is whether the form carries enough personality to land before anyone hears the...
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Client’s choice vs. Designer’s choice 👀
I’m currently working on a branding project for Massage & Mocktails — a concept built around couples learning massage together in a relaxed, social atmosphere.
These are two early, black & white directions from Stage 2 of my branding process, before moving into color, typography, and the full visual system.
The interesting part?
My client chose Concept 1. I chose Concept 2.
Now I’m curious what other creatives think.
Which direction would you choose — 1 or 2? And why?
Sometimes the most interesting part of branding is seeing how differently a client and a designer respond to the same brief.
21 voted
44%
27 voted
56%
48 votes
Closed
Concept 2 for me. That interlocking figure mark reads as two people meeting, which is the actual brief here, so it gives you more to build a system on. Concept 1 is the safer, more literal pick, which is usually why clients reach for it.
“We started with just a name and some vague ideas. They left us with a brand.” That’s how our client described their experience working with us on The Growth Fit.
There was no existing identity to refine. Our job was to take an early-stage idea, understand what the brand needed to stand for, and turn it into a visual system with enough clarity and character to grow with the business.
That meant exploring, challenging our own decisions, and going back to the drawing board when something wasn’t landing well. The result was a system built around one central idea: the right fit, carried consistently through the identity, motion and brand touchpoints.
The complete project is live. If you’d like to see how the idea developed into the full identity system, you can explore the case study here: The Growth Fit
I love the colors!
One idea, held all the way through: name, object, photography, palette, motion.
That's the whole pitch for how I work.
AQUILIFER — a brand I built around this: jewelry as something carried, not worn.
The name comes from Roman military rank. The aquilifer carried the standard, the one thing the legion couldn't afford to drop.