“What can I expect to receive in a 48 hour design cycle?”
This is a question we’ve gotten often as clients learn about Rally’s subscription pricing model. The answer is “A whole lot”.
At Rally, we prepare design deliveries in 48 hour cycles. We can’t produce entire end to end mobile app designs or fully fleshed out brand guidelines, but we do promise meaningful progress for every delivery and you would be surprised at how much work that can mean. Have a look at one of our latest projects to see what kind of ground we can cover.
Meeting the client
OurFarm mitigates food insecurity by deploying high-tech, high yield hydroponic farms in the Washington metropolitan region. The team came to us in need of a logo, typography treatment and a brand kit to use for their marketing materials.
Mike, the founder of OurFarm, had already done some work to understand his own vision and communicated that to Rally in the form of a brief word doc as well as a slide deck with the company mission and some images to react to.
For most design teams, this would not be enough to move forward, but for Rally there was enough to set a strong foundation for the OurFarm brand. We recognized three aspects that helped us maximize the design round.
Making a plan
The first cue for this branding project was the existing competitive landscape. This is a growing industry, but already had some incumbents who had built out their visual design systems. It’s important for OurFarm to standout, so designing with the competition in mind is important.
Secondly, the farming industry inherently has motifs that we could pick up on (the color green, natural curvy shapes etc). This is an advantage when getting started on design, but we were careful not to lean too heavily on overused aesthetics in order for OurFarm to be unique.
Lastly, we understood the surfaces that would need to be tested and designed for. The OurFarm identity would be displayed on small icon scales all the way up to being printed on the sides of their freight farm containers. Knowing which surfaces we are designing for and for what audiences helps us work more efficiently to serve those needs. There are a ton of directions to go with this. Check out some of our favorite resources we use to narrow things down.
Typography
https://www.freefaces.gallery/
https://www.fontshare.com/
Logo Inspiration
https://www.logo-archive.org/
The work
The resulting delivery consisted of 3 unique logo directions, 4 typography pairings and 3 mood boards. The amount of work is significant, and it's all clearly organized in a Figma presentation and voiced over in a loom video.
Clear communication at the end of every delivery is just as important as the work itself. With clear guides for feedback from the client, we can continue on to the next 48 hour design cycle with no problem.
Have a look at the work below, or see the full presentation.
