A Tendency for Tangents, Turned Studio Tool

An ever growing discovery engine to hold all the incredible creations we come across as a virtual studio.

A Tendency for Tangents, Turned Studio Tool

Projects
a small studio
By 
September 12, 2022

It’s random, it’s funky, and we keep it fresh.

Squirrel! It’s what happens when a conversation takes an unexpected detour, or a company-wide Zoom call turns into a debate about the latest fashion trends. We call it out, and try to get back on track or we embrace the squirrel and see where it takes us. What could easily be seen as a distraction, we like to see as inspiration. So we took a whole week to let our squirrel flag fly and the result was SQURL; an ever growing discovery engine to hold all the incredible things we come across as a virtual studio, for anyone to browse.

SQURL is the second installment of our studio initiated Just Because Week; an internal week where we pause all client work to focus on fueling our creativity as a team! It’s a chance for us to get together to use our gifts on something for the greater good, something we’ve never done before, or literally just because.

Following the chaos we narrowed down a concept and went into 5th gear. Who wants to do what? Grab grab grab. Why did no one pick marketing? Delegate delegate delegate. Since squirrelling is our way of getting distracted, our exploration led us down all kinds of rabbit holes; from libraries to bingo balls to rolodexes to Tamagotchis! We landed on a concept of “in the clouds”. A wonderful place to be when looking for ideas, day dreaming and simply getting lost in the best way.

There’s two types of inspo pulls; one where you know what you’re looking for and one where you don’t. We were really captured by the power randomness can have over someone looking for inspiration and the fact that it enables them to find something that would never have entered their mind otherwise.

We wanted the experience to be as simple as possible, encouraging the user to click through the never-ending content, while allowing them to easily explore all the sources. After all, SQURL is all about sharing, promoting and spreading the word about incredible creatives so they can continue inspiring more people - pay it forward!

The layout was designed to highlight the content, with an image taking up the majority of the screen along with a brief description. We used the font Hornbill by Eko Bimantara because of it’s friendly and nostalgic feel, inspired by 1970’s typography. The oversized “SPIN!” button is a reference to slot machines and the excitement of never knowing what you’ll land on. But in this case, you always win! Of course we added a nod to the website’s namesake with a little animated acorn hanging out above the description.

SQURL has since received an honourable mentioned from Awwwards and has been featured on Admire The Web - but it’s far from over! We’ll be forever adding to it; keeping it spicy, funky and fresh.

”This is amazing! Thanks so much for including us and thinking about our work. This tool is super fun to use and I even discovered some new studios just in the few minutes I spent playing around. Thanks again and hats off to this!”

Chris Roan

Head of Strategic Initiatives at COLLINS

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Let’s talk strategy.

Schedule a call with our Identity Architect and see if it makes sense to work together.