Tessera: Concept Identity Project

Tessera is a concept identity for a multidisciplinary creative studio covering brand, campaign, digital and motion. I wanted to test one idea: can a whole brand grow out of a single module?

A tessera is one tile in a mosaic. On its own it's small and precise. Set next to others, it becomes a picture. That became both the studio's story and the rule behind every design decision.

Pieces into patterns. Tessera breaks every brief into parts, then puts them together until a pattern shows. Its three values are modular, precise and warm. The voice works like a good creative director's: clear, specific and short. It shows the system first, then explains why.

The mark: four tiles, each with a quarter-circle. Put together, they leave a star in the negative space. The star is never drawn, only revealed. There are two rules: the radius equals the tile width, and the gap is 1/15 of a tile.

Patterns: rotating the same tile in 90° steps produces stars, blooms and waves. Each client project could have its own pattern while staying inside the system.

Colour: Paper and Night as the main neutrals, Ink for type, and coral kept rare for the quarter and calls to action.

Type: Epilogue for headlines, with one italic word that "turns". DM Sans for body and UI, and DM Mono for labels.

Motion: tiles turn instead of fading. Each turn takes 240 ms with ease-out, and gaps hold even mid-move.

Applications: lockups, one-colour and avatar versions, misuse rules, plus Instagram post, story and carousel templates built from the same tile.

Figma for the mark, components, the tile and pattern system, and the 15-page guidelines

Claude for brand strategy, naming logic, voice and guideline copy

Kittl for mockups and applied visuals