First Star

First Star is a Cambridge, MA-based pre-seed fund, that backs visionary research-driven founders. As a core objective of this system, we wanted a visual language that felt computational while still being grounded in academia. Since serving researcher-founders and academics were a core part of First Star's narrative, we wanted visual system that could instantly speak to that audience.

After some experimentation, we landing on pen plotting: an artistic technique involving a physical robot that holds a pen or pencil and makes vertical and horizontal patterns on a physical paper based on an algorithm. This concept felt fresh and mature, and grounded First Star's brand into a blend of human and machine.

Strategy

Art Direction, Brand Strategy, Research

Visual Identity

Illustration, Conceptual UI, Procedural Motion, Sub-branding

Website

Website Design, Development, SEO

Color system inspired by ball-point pens

The core brand palette were pulled from red, green, and blue ball point pens. The extended colours brought in sharpness and contrast, and where inspired by highlighter shades. This was to evoke a sense of academia at first glance.

Procedural plotting

We illustrated a range of abstract and explicit brand assets powered by a range of mathematical algorithms. These patterns gave a sense of depth and dimension to the illustrations.

Stop motion

Exploring procedural motion was an exciting challenge to expand the system. In order to make it work, we individually pen plotted keyframes to create a moving illustrations.