Branding as UX: ACME Technologies

ACME TECHNOLOGIES

ACME is a SaaS platform providing unified event planning and resource management services, including B2C online ticket sales and B2B business administration services for venues such as museums, theaters, cruise lines, and the like. “ACME” was never intended to be the company name—a “real” name was supposed to be chosen when the company moved out of stealth mode. As a result, the company’s first logo looked like this:

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But there was a problem. The CEO was planning to go to New York to pitch to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the New Museum, and the Jewish Museum but we had not yet chosen a “real” name. We still needed, at minimum, to look like a real company and have a logo that would look on business cards (t-shirts were less of a priority as they are frowned on for New York business trips). I designed this:

I put together a design brief to sell the logo to the team:

Copy of Copy of Keep the name?

What are the associations with the name, “ACME”? Are they correct for the company?

Copy of Copy of Who are we appealing to?

ACME supports a wide variety of customers, from consumers who buy tickets directly from venues, the venues themselves, and resellers.

Copy of Copy of Trust and excitement

“ACME”, with the right visual treatment, can convey trust (a connection with the past) and excitement.

Copy of Copy of Logo options

If “ACME” is the right name, what is the company logo? Given the wide variety of venues, it seemed logical to create a logotype, rather than a symbol.

Using that design language, I was able to design a white-label point-of-sale application which represented what we thought ACME was all about:

ACME white-label point-of-sale app for iOS.