work / project 1
split-flap identity
The o1tean logotype: one split-flap character that switches l and 1, with its motion and guidelines.
brief
One mark for someone who is a graphic designer and an IT developer, with both sides shown equally and neither one leading.
It had to read as o1tean at a glance, stay clear of OpenAI's o1, and survive a 16 px favicon, a single colour and a circle crop. It also had to be designed to move: an intro sting, an idle loop and a loader.
research
Four generated frames set the atmosphere: nocturnal, refractive, glyph-dense, tactile. The motif that kept coming back was a lens sitting on a grid of characters.
directions
Ten directions were generated and scored on one rubric (clarity counted twice, 40 points at most) by four AI reviewers: three Claude review agents, for brand strategy, type and craft, and motion, plus OpenAI Codex.
Two directions finished 0.8 apart: 02 "Baseline Flow" at 32.8 and 10 "l ↔ 1" at 32.0. The craft and motion reviewers picked 10, Codex picked 02, and the brand reviewer picked 07 with 10's footed 1 grafted on. With scores that close, the review recommended 10 on qualitative grounds, and I chose it.
Those grounds: 10 is the only mark that is not a typed "o1" in one colour, its 1 reads as a digit at every size, and its single flap performs the name. 02 was not dropped: its liquid rule became the fluid half of the system.
the mark
The name is drawn, never typeset. The l is a pink split-flap cell, as wide as the x-height and 1.6 times as tall, with a footed 1 knocked out of it: a 42° flag, and a foot that stands on the baseline. The cell's corner radius is the only radius in the system.
motion
One character changes, and it always changes back. The 1's flag sits on the top card and the stem and foot that l and 1 share sit on the bottom card, so one falling card turns o1tean into oltean and the next turns it back.
The sting spells the name the way it was born, oltean: the o arrives first, the l's stem pours a liquid rule under the rest of the word, and one flap lands on the 1. Every still frame rests on the 1.
system
The liquid rule is an orchid underline about a tenth of an em thick, with plain round ends. It spreads from where the pointer comes in and drains back, and the same rule is the progress bar and the loader.
The states device reuses the cell: filled means active or changed, hollow means idle. The section numbers on this site are built from it. Colours, the one radius, easings and durations ship as tokens, and this site uses them as they are.
outcome
The identity ships as a brand kit and as the guidelines at /brand/. It also runs this site: the nav logo, the intro sting on the home page and every section number.