General 5 — Jordan St.Claire

Tough Problems Solved Visually.

Uncharted is a research and software development company that harnesses visual analytics to transform complex data into profound findings, tackling problems such as human-trafficking, drought, famine, and COVID-19.

When I began, Uncharted had a logo, a business card, and a presentation deck, but no brand design system. They wanted to take their brand and make it consistent, not only in their parent brand, but also in their products and research sub-brands.

Client: Uncharted Software
Art Director: Jordan St.Claire Snyder
Senior Designer: Karol Borrero
Product Designer: Derrek Pennock
Junior Designer: Fiona Woo

Brand Architecture

Brand Architecture Before

Our first step was doing a brand audit. We reviewed where the Uncharted brand was currently at, and asked if it is having the desired effect in representing their brand cohesively.

Below is a map of the brand architecture featuring all the different logos at Uncharted before the re-design.

Brand Architecture After

Uncharted had a goal of creating a look for their suite of products that could be easily recognised as belonging to Uncharted Software. This method of uniform branding would assist in their efforts to increase their product sales by 30%.

The logo adjustments below are the result of implementing my research and new design architecture.

Updated Brand Guide

After

We deployed a grid system across all research and product brands to unify the family. Colour is now used as an identifier with unique icons for individual products and research projects.

Previously, Uncharted had many ways of approaching imagery and icons with little consistency.

Based on the needs of the different product and marketing teams, we broke down our imagery into product icons used for UX/UI, marketing icons for simple explanations, and illustrations for more abstract ideas.

We used unifying elements inspired by the Uncharted icon. The new style reflected Uncharted as professional but approachable.