Background
As a freelance designer, I led the concept and execution of the Simby.ai logo, collaborating with the founder to balance their vision with professional design expertise. Simby is an AI learning platform for students, and the logo needed a playful, adaptable mascot that could engage users across subjects and serve as a flexible, recognizable brand element.
Role
• Creative Lead, Logo Design
• Brand Design Consultant
• Brand Design Consultant
Goals
• Develop a full logo package
Benchmark Brand
Duolingo is a benchmark for this project, pairing a distinctive mascot with a strong logotype.
Landing Page Audit
The interface embraces a playful, youth-oriented tone through pastel color blocking and emoji iconography.
Retro-inspired elements (rounded corners, pronounced shadows) establish a clear visual personality.
The current typographic logo blends into the interface rather than anchoring it, limiting brand recognition and scalability.
Conclusion
While the interface establishes a clear aesthetic direction, the brand mark does not fully capitalize on this personality. This revealed an opportunity to create a logo that feels both retro-inspired and distinctly ownable.
Existing Visual System
Initial Sketches and Exploration
The founder expressed a preference for a robot-inspired mascot, which guided the early concept development. I explored simplified, rounded forms to create a soft, retro personality that felt approachable and distinctive.
Each iteration focused on reducing the design to essential shapes and clean lines, ensuring clarity and scalability. The selected direction (highlighted in green) stood out for its rounded rectangular form, evoking nostalgic cues – reminiscent of vintage televisions and early digital iconography –while maintaining a playful, modern feel.
Symbol and Wordmark Integration
To further connect the symbol and wordmark, I explored manipulating the tittle of the lowercase “i” in Simby.
The diamond form subtly echoed the top of a graduation cap, reinforcing the education theme, while the circular option exaggerated the original dot for a softer, more playful feel.
Ultimately, I chose not to pursue this direction. Binding the symbol and typography too tightly reduced flexibility and limited scalability across touchpoints, where the mascot needed to function independently.
Character Development
After separating the symbol and wordmark, I focused on defining the mascot as a standalone asset. Expanding beyond the head, I balanced the logo’s geometric simplicity with personality and movement by adding an organic, fluid tail. I also tested versions with and without an outline –removing it simplified the design and improved scalability across digital touchpoints.
Final Package
The final logo system combines the playful mascot with the wordmark, creating a cohesive and flexible identity for Simby.ai. Additional icon versions provide versatility across digital and print applications, ensuring the brand remains recognizable and engaging in a variety of contexts.
Given the website's background is a pastel almond, introducing a seperate color for the logo would only compete with eachother. For this reason, I decided to keep the logo black with negative space so that the colors connect nicely.