Phykos
If you’re the founders of Phykos, you leave Google X to launch a start-up natural systems, carbon sequestration venture, successfully complete the Y Combinator program and get featured in Fast Company. Passionate about a cure for climate change the Phykos mission is to provide massive carbon sequestration within years using existing technology, without requiring restructuring of economic systems and without causing harm to people or nature.
As they developed their software and hardware, in pursuit of seed funding, I led them through a naming workshop, logo and branding exploration, and venture capital presentation materials.
Scope
- Naming
- Logo
- Presentation Deck
- Brand Book
- Swag
Logo Solution
The sea horse holding a key with tabs symbolizing the chemical formula for carbon dioxide is still my favorite. However, given the technical background of the founders we settled on the letter P that resembles circuits on a board. The center line in green represents the kelp that does the carbon capture and the two white lines the oxygen the plants release back into the atmosphere.
The Phykos test boat in the workshop at the Autodesk Technology Center.
Phykos uses minimal energy and maximum data to guide the boat — letting the currents do most of the work of navigating the fleet from growing locations to sequestration locations.
Naming Workshop
As the tentative name for the business, KelpCarbon was a descriptive but uninspiring one. It was exciting taking two technically minded and well-read founders through a naming workshop. This helped them better understand the values behind the brand they wanted to project through the name and to feel a stronger sense of connection to the brand materials that would follow.
The collaborative process was such a success we continued the model to lay the groundwork for thinking through the brand position ahead of logo design.
Investor Pitch Deck
We put together a concise and compelling pitch deck to help Phykos court venture funding.
Early Logo Exploration
If the logo process moves too quickly to take advantage of the pencil-and-paper stage, it’s moving too quickly.
Phykos didn’t need a styling exercise. They needed an idea that would be sticky. Formalizing the ideas that resonated helped the founders imagine a mark that could represent their venture from board room to open ocean and everywhere in between.
An early naming favorite was Fathom. The arrow form suggests the physical process of sequestering carbon in the depths of the ocean. It also evokes a sense of pioneering adventure with a 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea vibe. The three shapes provide a subtle hint at the structure of C02.
Circuit P
Using three lines — one representing carbon in the form of the kelp that absorbs it and two lines representing oxygen to complete the P shape and evoke the idea of microprocessor circuitry.
Full Circle
Natural systems have an elegant full circle quality to them. Here that system is represented by an ocean blue circle punctuated by wave-like energy.
Success Story
Phykos went on to secure seed funding, is building out their vessels and tech, and testing off the coasts of California and Mexico.
“I was actually just hoping to get an opinion on those Sketchup graphics and the janky UI mock I built from Slides’ primitives. Your updates look amazing.”
Jeff Zerger
Founder, Phykos