My attempt to translate an abstraction into a solid identity.

I used to loath designing logos.

Once upon a time, I had to create 50+ logo options for any given client, simply because the Creative Director demanded it. Few appreciate (or remember) the mental effort and creative time it takes to make just one, polished concept. So producing pages and pages of logo variations required weeks of work… Meaning that nearly all of my billable time was devoted to 49 throw-away-ideas for the sake charging the client 80 hours and maybe winning a trophy. From my perspective, it was traumatic, tedious, and totally unnecessary.

But times have changed, and so has my role.

Today, there’s no fussy CD looming behind my desk dictating changes. Being both the Maker and the Boss, I instead work directly with my clients on the Content Services team, or elsewhere at Mozilla. This affords me the freedom to explore several, distinct ideas, instead of dozens.

So when the team asked me to create a logo for Zenko, I actually looked forward to the assignment.

+++++

Zenko is a reporting system used by Content Services at Mozilla for analyzing Directory or Suggested Site campaign data running in Firefox.

Developed by Data Scientist Matthew Ruttley, Zenko reports only aggregate numbers for several key user interactions. This data provides our team the information they need to assess the performance of a campaign, without using personal data. (Because the data is aggregated, it’s therefore anonymous.)

It’s simple. It’s helpful. It’s brilliant.

But how does one communicate any of these salient points through a logo?

1.

The name itself provided the inspiration for this first option. According to Matthew, Zenko means “helpful fox” in Japanese (

http://autodidacticdesigner.com/2015/09/26/experience-director-vs-logo-design/