← Back to the first tellme round

tellme, but friendly.

Why the last round felt dystopian, the rules that fix it, and five characters built on those rules.

Why it felt dystopian
  • A mic for a head is a listening device with a body. For a product that hears your meetings, that draws surveillance.
  • Black, featureless heads with white dot eyes read as masks or robots.
  • The collar band, the antenna and the sharp triangle body read as hardware and uniforms.
The rules now
  • Warm colours: orange, cream, butter and lilac. Soft ink only for outlines and eyes.
  • Face first: eyes with highlights, rosy cheeks, a smile. Objects are props it holds, not body parts.
  • Soft, round shapes. No triangles, collars or antennas.
  • Listening shown as friendly: a speech bubble, a pen behind the ear.

My pick: 1, the bubble buddy

The bubble buddy is the one: a warm orange speech bubble with a happy face, whose little tail is a pen nib. It says "talk to me, I'll write it" without any device in sight, it is instantly friendly to a public audience, and it is simple enough to be the app icon at 16 pixels.

Use 5, the letter face as the quiet version for places that need to look grown-up (invoices, the pitch deck footer), and 2, the notepad pal as the mascot for onboarding and social.