A fellow brand designer reached out to me, requesting an icon that is “intellectual, polished, scientific, mature, serious, passionate, proactive, futuristic, information driven, compassionate, genuine, and deep” for a client who offers revolutionary stem cell therapies. The name of said client’s clinic starts with an “A”.

The result? An icon informed and inspired by the cell regeneration process. While implying the shape of an “A”, this 3-part form reaps the benefits of The Rule of Three, a design principle and technique employed to create a “just right” composition.

At the same time, is gently reminiscent of a fetus in the womb, nodding to embryonic stem cells (pluripotent stem cells), the most useful type of stem cells due to their versatility.

The form was, then, coupled with a custom DNA-inspired pattern brush, which can be abstracted by increasing the scale of the stroke. This pattern can be paired with the logo and/or employed as a custom design element across branded assets.