ESTUDI-IMAGE turns radar grids and storm data into NADO’s crypto brand

The Brand Identity: NADO is a decentralised exchange built by the team behind Kraken, named as a playful spin on ‘tornado.’ That decision set up the brief faced by ESTUDI-IMAGE: build an identity for a high-stakes financial product around the imagery of weather systems, without letting the metaphor become overly decorative.

The result is a brand grounded in radar grids, calibration marks, storm data and dither that feels as calm and precise. “There was a moment early on where we explored pulling away from it, and we presented a system or two leaning more into security or adaptability,” ESTUDI-IMAGE tells us, before settling back on weather because it offered more graphic material to work with and stayed truer to the brand’s origin.

From there, the references narrowed to how meteorology represents data through things like wind fields, pressure maps and satellite atmospherics, and the visual logic was tested against social templates that paired data graphics with messaging. If the two layers could hold up cohesively and independently, which they did, the system was proven to be scalable. The wordmark and supporting typography are set in Lineto’s LL Replica, chosen for the qualities a less disciplined brief might have seen as drawbacks. “Grid-built, clinical and anti-expressive. That’s exactly why,” the studio tells us.

The data visualisations were always going to do most of the visual lifting, so the typography needed to live inside the grid rather than compete with it; LL Replica’s machine-log quality gives the layouts a utilitarian baseline that comes alive in motion. The choice was also a read on the finance category. “Most players in fintech and crypto are using a light serif to feel human, or a clean sans serif to signal trust. A lot of that is designed to onboard people, to make a complex, intimidating space feel approachable. NADO’s audience is different,” the studio explains.

The trader using the platform does not need warming up. The layout system revolves around corner dots and modular blocks – a strict framework with deliberate room to move inside it, applied across headers, secondary headlines, body copy and imagery cropped into a frame or full bleed. Templates were supplied at every aspect ratio with an adaptable grid, and the in-house team have continued to push at its edges since launch.

“Some things are unexpected, a few things bend the rules a bit, but everything still feels unmistakably NADO,” the studio notes. The generative dither engine was developed to bring photography, such as storm imagery and team portraits, into the brand world. ESTUDI-IMAGE began with point clouds, working in Houdini alongside the meteorological simulations, but found the result too overtly CGI for an identity already trafficking in 3D space and z-depth. They wanted something flatter.

Article truncated for readability. Read the full piece →

The article discusses a unique branding strategy for a decentralized exchange, which is significant for the fintech industry and offers fresh insights into design inspired by meteorological themes, making it highly relevant for brand strategy professionals.