Máuhan
Branding
IA&UX design
UI design

Branding
A visionary Journey

Our collaboration with M started with late night talks, hundreds of messages with scattered, crazy ideas, courageous thoughts, and many, many post-its. Even if it was a new approach for us, we embraced his fluid thought process, to see where it would lead us.

After exploring many alternatives, we agreed that we had to create an identity that’s unforgettable in its brilliant simplicity (just like M’s ideas). We wanted the logo to be so simple that M could have written it on a napkin or a post-it, his ideation instruments of choice.

After the idea was there, we started refining and crafting, and creating the perfect balance of shapes took time. The smiling/blinking 'U' isn’t just quirky; the rotation of the square/eye also symbolizes M’s orthogonal thinking, his seeing things from a different perspective, and his ability of seeing beyond. It captures the concept of coming up with groundbreaking ideas, while always staying lighthearted.

Website Design 
The concept

While working on the brand’s strategy, we ideated a lot around the concept identity, of relinquishing it, and of creating real, human connections with people in the digital space that may – or may not – actually be real. Co-ideating with M, we knew that his website should be one of his conceptual projects, a space where people could land and feel like they were immediately connecting with him. Or were they?

As people land on the website, they think they are landing on a video call. As they see M walking in the room and staring at the screen distracted by something else on his desktop (it looks like he forgot to exit a meeting and left the camera on), their primary reaction is probably one of surprise and disorientation. Only later it may occur to them that it’s all meticulously staged, and that M is not, in fact, there. This feeling of connection/presence/identity is meant to surprise people and make them think, two of M’s signature effects.

mauhan.com

Designing the experience
UI & micro-interactions

To ensure we achieved the desired effect, we carefully designed every element of the landing page (including a custom set of animated emojis) so that it looks like a video meeting platform, while also conveying M’s unique and refined look and feel. As users interact with an interface they are familiar with, their actions surprisingly take them to additional pages on the website. These pages adopt M’s look and feel in full, embracing minimalistic layouts, pastel tones, and utilitarian typography. Overall, the website is an immersive experience, and a home to M's innovative thinking.