A Dynamic Logo for a Dynamic Company

This is a guest blog post by Aaditya Vaze, he designed the new the logo for Neera.

Neera’s logo

When I had my first discussion with Harsh, he asked me, “What if there was just one search bar for all your needs?” and I couldn’t stop thinking about it since. He explained how search is such a vital component of the internet and is yet to be solved. With Neera, he visions to revolutionize search. Be it web, code, your notes, or files on your PC, all you need is Neera. One can personalize based on their needs. For eg. a developer could have a completely different look and functionality than a designer or a scientist. Personalization of search is something I have never heard of. After learning all this, I was excited to create a brand identity for such an innovation.

The core values of Neera are fluidity and openness. We wanted a design system that depicts Neera’s values. Creating a brand identity is not about the logo itself, but how the logo can be expanded to depict the brand values. To start with, I spent an entire day figuring out the right key elements to represent from the discussions and various resources. 

There were a lot of insights I got from Harsh’s blog. I got a much deeper understanding of what Neera is aiming for, the culture and his ideas about building a search engine for everyone. I had also shared a design brief form with Harsh, where we gained more clarity on what we are looking for. Questions like, How do the users find out about the company? What are your long-term goals? helped me a lot to get a clear picture. After going through all of this, I decided on these 4 key elements that the logo must convey.

Seach, User-centric, Adaptive and Tech.

I aimed to incorporate the search and user-centric elements in the design. The adaptivity would be reflected through the openness in the space of the logo. I planned to use geometric and modern design language to give the logo an energetic tech startup look.

I worked on a lot of concepts based on the key elements and some of the other low-priority elements. Exploring variations in most of the designs, I realized considering the versatility, this one suited the best. 

The key elements are perceived in different priorities when we change angles, thickness, covering areas and other graphic design elements. To make sure we get it right, I kept the basic design as it is and then verified on adding and changing colours and other patterns to see if it works. Voila, this one works!

The challenge in designing any logo is in reducing the elements while adding meaning to it at the same time.

Why is it ideal for Neera?

The key of this design is in the simplicity. The challenge in designing any logo is in reducing the elements while adding meaning to it at the same time. In this case the 45 degrees rotation helps resemble a search icon, yet is different enough to be recognizable as a happy person. The constant stroke width also helps reduce the logo file size. The logo’s symmetry makes it a great building block to generate patterns depicting the brand values. The first pattern represents fluidity through the wave; water(Neera) formed by joining hands. The second patterns, depicts connected information and the customizability of neera to make search your own.

A dynamic logo for a dynamic company

The logo can be used to depict profiles and the personalization capability of neera. Search can be fine-tuned not only based on the work profile like developers or scientists but on a user basis as well.  The search icon of the logo can be used to depict various entities that can be searched like music, jobs, or even incorporating third-party back-end integrations. “Make Search your own.”