MEET THE DESIGNERS
When we started working for Sandbox more than half a year ago, we knew two things: One, we wanted to create an environment where young talents from all over the world could come together to exchange ideas, get inspired and maybe collaborate. And two, we desperately needed a good corporate design.
So we approached our good friend and graphic designer Thierry Blancpain. Thierry is a graphic design student at the Bern University of Arts in Switzerland, and we had worked with him several times on previous occasions. When we told him about Sandbox, Thierry had a great idea: He would mirror our aim to connect young talents globally with the design process. He contacted graphic designers Louis Beaudoin from Montreal, Canada, and Anthony Sheret from Brighton, UK, both of whom he had met in an online design forum, and asked them if they wanted to collaborate with him on the Sandbox corporate identity.
Well, I wouldn’t be writing this post if those two hadn’t agreed, and what you see on this site right now is part of the beautiful corporate design they have come up with for Sandbox. “Collaborating with people from all over the globe was a great learning experience”, says Louis in Montreal.
“The challenge of the job was to come up with a design that would relate to the vision of Sandbox without being too literal”, says Thierry. “Also, we wanted it to be simple and flexible at the same time - meaning that it changes from application to application.” That the corporate design can not only be easily adapted to new environments, but also consists of “small parts” that can be arranged in different ways is also a representation of the Sandbox vision. As Thierry says: “I think the design is very truthful to the idea and the vision of Sandbox. It doesn’t try to be a cool web 2.0 logo, it doesn’t need to be - because Sandbox is so much more than just another social network.” - There’s nothing that we could possibly add to this beautiful statement; except, of course, that we’re very happy with the design - thank you, guys!
On the 15. April 2008 at 11:24 o'Clock
I love the design of Sandbox and I agree that it reflects the fact that Sandbox doesn’t try to be “yet another social network”.
The vision of connecting lots of overly ambitious young people sounds great by the way!
On the 15. April 2008 at 14:37 o'Clock
I think the idea behind sandbox is good ! The design, ok, it is sober like those arty websites from the 2000. Whatever, it looks a bit retro (and so means to be avant-garde) but looks quite good !
What I don’t really understand is what’s the aim of all this. Ok have a place to meet… without being a social network (??) but only a blog ?? Don’t you have any tools ? Or something less boring than just a blog ? Something that helps people interact ? Or did I miss something ?
On the 15. April 2008 at 15:03 o'Clock
@Sarah: On behalf of the Sandbox team and especially the designers: Thank you! Btw, your new site looks good too!
@Alex: Thanks for your feedback. While I don’t think that a blog has to be boring ;-), you are of course absolutely right that this is not enough. The main tool of Sandbox will be a yearly conference, where our members meet. The first conference will take place at the end of 2008, more informations to follow here soon. In the meantime, this blog will help us to keep you updated about our project and to identify interesting people and projects for the Sandbox community.
On the 17. April 2008 at 20:46 o'Clock
Hello Nico:)
well, you guys do sound enthousiastic for sure!
Is this conference to be a virtual one, or people meeting physically in the same place? What’s the plan? Lectures? Workshops? I cannot quite get the idea of the conference or the platform - maybe I’m just slow. Do you have funding to support people with great ideas? Do you have a code of ethics, clarifying what you would support and what not? How will those very ambitious people from, say, Ecuador, afford to travel to the meeting, unless you have it in Quito of course:)
Boring questions. Anyway, I’ll watch this space and maybe all will become clear. I wish you success and all the best,
lots of love
Britta
On the 20. April 2008 at 12:53 o'Clock
@Britta: Sorry, your comment was for some reason held up in the spam queue - just saw it.
Regarding the conference: Yes, it will be a “real” conference where people meet physically. There will be presentations, mostly from our members, about their projects, ideas and experiences, plus some workshops and guest speakers.
We’re not planning to fund the ideas themselves, but we hope that we will be able to give financial support to those members who otherwise could not afford to attend the conference.
And, of course, none of your questions are boring; in fact, they are very relevant to the project…
On the 14. May 2008 at 09:31 o'Clock
[...] went to New York, where we met Melissa Sconyers, to whom we had been introduced by our designer, Thierry Blancpain. We spent a whole day discussing new ideas with Melissa, who was also very interested in becoming [...]
On the 25. June 2008 at 14:06 o'Clock
[...] look like a Sandbox at all). I let our designers explain about the logo some time back here; now it’s time to tell you the story behind the name [...]