Lineage brand identity
- Who
Design contributor for LineageOS, a popular Android derivative
- What
A brand identity to help solidify the project's next evolution
- How
Taking inspiration from the community, its legacy, and its future
- Impact
Project helped retain the OS' fanbase which has since earned 2M+ monthly web traffic, 5M+ active installs, with many more unregistered and across other OSS projects using LineageOS as its base
- Creative direction
- Art direction
- Graphic design
- Motion design
Brief
LineageOS is the community-led vision of Android. The project maintains dozens of devices with current features even after their obsolescence. Over 2 million active installs later, people trust its non-commercial approach to privacy and customization.
The collapse of Cyanogen, Inc. left its open-source community without a brand—literally. The startup owned the rights to the name, so they had to start fresh. The team approached me to help set a clear and confident position for the project. First we defined the community’s values in a list of brand pillars. I then visualized the new name, Lineage, into an identity that invites curiosity and champions open technology.
“Lineage” chose its name to reflect a wild past and hopeful future. This is etched directly in the mark’s design. It is a reminder to those at present of the project’s impact thus far, and all it will do for others to come.
Deconstructing the idea of a timeline, the mark is built with three points—nodes—and two elliptical connectors—bonds—whose froszen movement represents the past, present, and future of the project. Its Lineage. At a higher level, the mark represents a connectivity that technology and community are inspired by.
Paired with the mark are the project name set in Intelo Bold. Chosen for its strong capitals and subtle curves, Intelo connected visually to the mark's curves and balanced motifs of retro-future inspiration with a little more wonder, curiosity, and positivity. Teal was chosen to be the primary hue as it sits between Android’s green and CyanogenMod’s cyan. The final swatch was inspired by the Sweden-maintained Natural Colour System, injecting the identity with a confident, accessible demeanor next to its space-age mystique.
The identity’s style blends the interstellar with the earth-bound. Technical and human. Open but focused. Like the project’s work, it stands in contrast to the saturated swagger of today’s tech brands.
Working with the team, we implemented the logo in a variety of places around the system, produced a new icon set for the operating system, providing guidance for a basic website, and creating a custom boot animation which plays while a phone with Lineage installed starts up. The animation alludes back to the idea of a timeline, using an orbital motion and scale that eventually builds the mark and introduces the type at the loop’s end.
As of 2024, Lineage has been installed on millions of devices, from smartphones to set-top boxes, around the world. It has become a defining standard for Android bring-up and is a primary source for other Google-alternative projects for mobile, gaming, and development.
