Brand Design, Motion design

Rebranding The Tech Interactive

A creative team of three takes on the challenge of rapidly updating The Tech Interactive’s brand

In 2019, The Tech Museum of Innovation announced its new 20-year vision: to develop problem-solvers locally, nationally and globally, with the ambitious goal of reaching 100 million people a year by 2039. And with this new vision arrived a new name: The Tech Interactive. It had been 20 years since The Tech had opened its doors in Downtown San Jose, and a brand refresh felt right to accompany this huge announcement.

→ Check out the logo I designed for The Tech’s 20th anniversary

The Task

With the help of Portland-based creative studio Nelson Cash, The Tech’s Creative Services team tackled transforming the brand from outdated to optimistic.

The Outcome

Over many lunch meetings with Krista and Eloisa, we rewrote the rules for a new design system that would encompass not only The Tech Interactive, but also its subprograms like Membership. From gallery signage and admission tickets, to employee uniforms and the website, I assisted in redesigning all of the institution’s visitor-facing branded materials in just three months.

Bringing the logo to life

The Tech Interactive’s mission is to inspire the innovator in everyone, by fostering STEAM skills through hands-on activities. To evoke learning through play and playfulness, I transitioned a bouncing ball into the “Double T’s” that then reveal the full logo. I made multiple versions of the animation for various functions, from announcing The Tech Interactive’s rebrand on social media to ornamenting the website header.

My favorite piece from the rebranding era is perhaps the custom Slack emoji, which was enthusiastically received by my colleagues. Today, it continues to be the most popular emoji used to react to internal news.

YEAR

2019

Thanks to

Eloisa and Krista