Candrly

Genuine friendships, deep connections, love, passion, empathy, and understanding are all things that every human deserves but are not always easy to obtain, uncover, or discover. This unfortunate truth is something we at Segern feel should be different, and so, Candrly was created to facilitate the bringing of people together, the sharing of thoughts and stories, the shattering of boundaries, and ultimately inspire people to develop deeper connections.

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Candrly was initially created early two thousand eighteen as a pet project. Our founder, André, has always been an advocate for deeper, more meaningful interactions as opposed to those that come from small talk. This reason sparked the idea of creating a platform that championed these deeper connections and made it easy to partake in them. The goal was to make it accessible so that it could be accessed from any digital device with an internet connection vs. traditional physical means — although this is planned for the future to extend the experience beyond the digital realm.

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To revamp a project that had been put aside for a while, we dove in, tackling everything from field interviews and research — to concept exploration and lifespan mapping — to design explorations that included branding, verbal and visual design, as well as language foundation.

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Our strategy was aimed at crafting a responsive environment that was welcoming, minimalistic, and simple to use. These key attributes would be the starting point for everything to follow.

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With a north star defined, we began to explore direction for the visual identity of the new Candrly. We didn't want to abandon the original DNA of version one entirely, so we retained the color palette comprised of a vibrant, playful tone of blue, paired with white and a deep gray. However, to make it feel more connected to the Segern brand, we adjusted the palette color usages to be seventy percent white and black. This new palette broke down to fifty percent white, twenty percent black, and thirty percent accent colors with the primary being the original vibrant blue.

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Having a clear map for colors and visual treatments, by extension, we shifted focus to brand identity. The original logotype was a clean geometric sanserif typeface led by a period. This execution was a product of convenience and priority constraints. This time around, we wanted to give the concept and brand the respect all brands deserve with a proper logomark and type combination to be versatile and adaptable.

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We landed on a motif that spoke to us in design and metaphor after about thirty to forty explorations. The mark would be a bold stroked vertical standing rectangle split into four quadrants that would come to resemble a window. The metaphor would come to hold firm meaning as a nod to the saying, "when a door closes, a window opens." In addition to that of "our eyes are the windows to our souls," and how windows, in general, are viewports to take in all the beauty that lay beyond them.

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We paired this with an updated logotype from the original but set in title cap and dropped the lead period. The outcome was a strong, bold, and minimal identity that was uniquely identifiable, appropriate, and flexible.

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An important aspect that we kept in mind throughout every choice we made was that Candrly is to serve as a vessel for diverse experiences and ways of thinking to come together and grow. This idea led us to coin the slogan, "where beautiful minds share unique perspectives." A fitting sentiment and precise position of what Candrly is meant to be, a place for just that.

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Leading with the now defined identity, we moved on to platform design and development. The key focus here was to tell the story of Candrly through sharp verbal and visual design. The aim was to spark thought and engage users. To do this, we kept things minimal and sprinkled in a bit of fun through micro interactions and playful animations. This process was seamless as we exclusively utilize Webflow to build digital assets such as this.

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The result was clean, straight forward, and concise. We maintained an aura of sophistication with the use of primarily white and black down to the creative direction of photography and videography — while adding in a more light-hearted vibe through the use of fun color and interactions, as mentioned previously.

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But there was more. We wanted to think ahead with the revamping of Candrly by conceptualizing what a physical version of the product may look like, and how we could extend it to other physical items. This exploration allowed us to test the versatility of the identity in numerous use cases, from packaging to note pads, drinkware, and pop-sockets — to apparel and books. Through this phase, we tested many possibilities, some of which are on going — others slated for production in the coming future.

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What began as a passion-project was reborn into a product that can bring people together and promote shared empathy and understanding. In the spirit of connection and inclusivity, we've opened up submissions for anyone to contribute to the conversation and play a part in going deeper, connecting more, together. We're excited to see where we can take Candrly and hope you'll join us on the journey.

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Thank you for reading another case by Segern. If you like this content, consider sharing it on social media and subscribing to our newsletter for more. If you have a project in mind, don't hesitate to reach out; we'd love to see how we could help you. That's all for now, and until next time, love, peace, and creativity.