Propel Labs, an accelerator/agency placing, above all, the responsible use of AI and digital tech. In other words, AI in service of the human need ; contra to human needs being aligned to technologies.

From the outset, Woody wanted to make his clients & collaborators feel unique while also maintaining that each is a part of the greater whole of Propel Labs. To achieve this, he was really inspired by generative systems within branding.

The exploration phase first involved getting Woody’s alignments along the various poles of existing branding paradigms.

Because of the unique generative nature of the brand, we also scoured the internet for similar projects (the most famous one being MIT Media Lab’s generative logo system) and broke them down into the various typologies which a generative system might express. For example, is the generative system computed or is it bespoke? Does it have millions of unique expressions, or in the hundreds?

Before determining the generative aspect, we agreed that Propel as a brand would still need to be recognizable, so we set out to first finalize with Woody a direction for the brand language and logo.

From the logo itself, we determined the “parameters” for the generative system : the grid, alphabet and color

With the webpage, Woody’s vision was to infuse AI in a meaningful manner - and for anyone visiting the webpage to understand that Propel’s operative core is to establish a communication loop without hierarchies amongst client, collaborator or employee.

On the wall, one can see contributions from everyone - testimonials from clients, Propel’s blog posts, thoughts about AI from website visitors - all content side by side - blurring the lines between user generated content and Propel's own.

Generative logos are used at various places in the Propel ecosystem. Each propel employee gets their own “talisman”. Anyone who contributes to the wall also gets their own talisman. The talisman appears in various places throughout the website