Yung Studio bring bold bubbliness to the identity for AIGA SF’s Women in Leadership & Design

The San Francisco division of AIGA has created ‘Women in Leadership & Design,’ a California-based community of women and non-binary design professionals. The initiative, also known as WILD, was launched in order to amplify the power and visibility of women and non-binary designers. And through their events – such as workshops, meet-ups, and speaker series – they strive to mobilise and energise impact in design leadership. When it came to building its identity, the community were eager to work with a female-owned studio and as a result, approached California-based Yung Studio to bring WILD to life. 

The multidisciplinary design practice, led by Melody Yung, centred the visual language around ‘the power of strength in numbers’ – a concept which is captured through a bubbly design system. At its heart sits a variable wordmark, inspired by the shape of speech bubbles. “By expanding the quantity and volume of the dots,” Yung explains, “the intent was to emphasise the power of strength by collective conversations.” 

The accompanying typefaces harmonise the key brand elements and were both created or co-created by women designers. The clear Atlas Grotesk family brings optimism and functional legibility. Meanwhile, Marion Bisserier’s wonderfully loud, compact and bold display typeface Good Girl captures the ‘bubbly’ nature of the identity whilst delivering defiant playfulness. Likewise, a floating shape system includes ‘collective dots’ and harnesses the idea of a continuously growing and shifting collective. 

To reinforce this energised ethos, whilst avoiding any reductive or overtly gendered symbols, the team opted for a unique colour direction; mixing bright electric hues alongside warm and earthy tones. It was important to “make sure the brand is as gender neutral as possible since we are speaking to both women and nonbinary designers,” Yung reveals. Explaining the colour consideration further, she recalls, “we wanted to smash the duality of tech and human, a constant tension as a design consideration, especially in the San Francisco Bay Area.”

Yung Studio