Creative Commons Certificates

Following a thinkathon with some colleagues from We Are Open Co-op, Creative Commons asked if I’d help them with the aesthetic of their certification programme, which was then in it’s infancy.

Dialogue

We arranged a session online with Creative Commons staff, and went sniffing for anything that looked like an idea. From abstract shape, to physical metaphor, we captured everything – believing that when played back to the stakeholders, they would recognise it when they saw it.

Here are a handful of the ideas:

We settled on the orbit idea as the best fit for the visual identity. The CC licencing programme consists of core modules, with differing combinations of optional modules required for each area of expertise – working in Government, working in Education, working in a Library.

Distill

The next step is to create a number of variations on the core idea. Here is some of the final artwork:

Make it move!

This was definately one I couldn’t leave alone. Those balls needed an orbit! In truth, I created a basic animation in order to create the 2D version of the logo, so taking it further using Adobe After Effects and making an animated gif wasn’t too much trouble.