iSL Software · Work

Work · 2013–2015

iSL Software

iSL in Bad Homburg develops software for industries with their own ways of working, from distance-learning schools to logistics. We drew a mark made of hexagons that takes in every product. And a system around it that carries from the ballpoint pen to the website.

Services

Wordmark and symbol with rationale
Corporate identity style guide
Product logo system
Stationery and company sign
Company brochure
Website: structure, prototype, icons, illustrations

Year

2013–2015

Online

isl-software.de

Visualisation: open iSL folder with an empty pocket on pale concrete — The folder, in print. Visualisation.

The brief

iSL builds software for very different industries. Online shop or not, what counts in the end is the conversation, and the name behind it has to inspire trust from the first contact.

The brief: an identity that feels clear and tidy and stands apart from the competition. And still gives every single product its own stage.

Brand

The idea comes from chemistry, where molecules are drawn as hexagons, the smallest unit that bonds with others. That is exactly what iSL products do. Where the hexagons overlap, intersections appear, and in software they go by the name of interfaces.

The wordmark carries the motif on in miniature: the dot on the i is a hexagon. Even when the name stands alone, the symbol comes along.

01 / 04A picture from chemistry. This is how organic chemistry draws molecules: six lines, one ring, the smallest unit that bonds with others. Like good software.
02 / 04The line becomes a surface. A warm gradient fills the shape and gives it something no diagram has: charm.
03 / 04Less lab, more face to face. Rounded corners take the severity out of the shape, by exactly the same amount on every hexagon in the brand.
04 / 04Dotting the i. Small and dark, the hexagon becomes the dot on the i, exactly as wide as the stem, and the notch beneath follows its edges. That way the wordmark carries the symbol within it.

Deriving the symbol: structural formula of a molecule with a five-membered ring, next to it an arrow pointing to an orange hexagon with rounded corners

Style guide

Nothing about this mark is down to gut feeling. All five modules derive from the central hexagon, and the smallest one sets every spacing. That is why the brand looks the same on a ballpoint pen as on the company sign.

Three further colour worlds give the range room to grow.

01 / 06It all starts in the middle. The central hexagon, module 2, is the zero point. Every other measurement of the brand follows from its size.
02 / 06Four sizes, four calculations. The container is twice the size, and the smaller modules are fixed fractions of it. Measured in the final artwork: what the style guide says is exactly what you get.
03 / 06One container holds it all together. Module 2 in the middle, two module 3s out to the edge, plus one module 4. No part sticks out, none is there by chance.
04 / 06Even the overlap has a measure. Where the hexagons overlap, the strip is exactly as wide as the smallest module. Chance was not invited.
05 / 06Lettering and symbol, one measure. The wordmark works to the same measure, from cap height to the distance from the symbol. Name and mark look made for each other.
06 / 06Colour comes last. Only once the shape is right does the warm gradient arrive, in four levels of opacity. The overlaps then paint themselves.

Style guide page on corporate colours: the symbol in orange, blue, red and violet with CMYK, RGB and Pantone values and opacity steps

The style guide in print. Visualisation.

Products

Every product gets its logo from the same blueprint, only the colour changes. One glance tells you which product it is and who it comes from.

With facet, the system goes one step further: the logo takes on the colours of the client using it. The style guide shows this with ADAC and Kühne + Nagel.

01 / 04Every product, the same frame. Every product gets the same container, built like the parent brand. The family is there before a single name is.
02 / 04One colour per product. Eight products, eight colours. Distinct at first glance, related at second.
03 / 04The parent brand’s genes. Inside sit modules in the sizes of the parent brand. Only their arrangement changes from product to product, like a fingerprint.
04 / 04Independent, but related. The name sits beside it in the house typeface, and the structure stays. New products find their place without new rules.

On paper, the mark goes big: the hexagons run off the edges of letterhead, business card and folder, and the rest stays white. From ballpoint pen to company sign, everything speaks the same language.

In the company brochure, all the colour worlds meet, and every spread looks like iSL.

01 / 04At the top: the logo, as usual. On the letterhead it sits top right, small and neat, as is only proper.
02 / 04At the bottom: the same mark, 8.2 times larger. At the foot of the page the symbol returns, corner for corner in the same construction.
03 / 04The paper is the frame. Only what fits on the sheet gets printed: two points. The eye fills in the rest, and that is where the tension lies.
04 / 04Always different, always iSL. On the business card, the centre of the mark sits exactly on the edge. The folder shows the whole mark on the front and a rotated crop on the back.