Designing Curiosity: A Conversation with Hypandra’s Logo Designer, Anthony Tran

I wanted to make something modern that still felt human.

— Anthony Tran

When we set out to create Hypandra’s visual identity, we turned to designer Anthony Tran, a UX design graduate from the Lake Washington Institute of technology and current business student at the University of Washington. Anthony captured what Hypandra stands for—curiosity, clarity, and human-centered thinking.

I asked Hypandra: "Anthony designed the logo for my website and now I'm interviewing him for a blog post about it. What questions should I ask him?" —and then sat down with Anthony to talk through the creative process. We didn't have time to get through every question, and some of the questions Hypandra came up with were quite deep!

I think I did over ten different sketches. At first, my first few sketches—maybe one to three—were just me having fun and seeing what I could make out of the reference images you gave me. From there, more ideas started coming, and I kept sketching and refining one after another. That’s how I ended up with the four final sketches that I decided to present to you.

One big thing was making sure the logo was accessible—both in color and design. Starting with the design, I had to make sure it was simple enough to scale well, from really small screen sizes all the way up to something like a billboard. That meant keeping the torch from being too detailed.

I also needed to make sure the colors worked across different modes—light, dark, and grayscale—because unlike print media, you’re dealing with multiple environments on web and mobile. So accessibility and scalability were my two biggest constraints.

With Hypandra, I had to balance two worlds: AI and education. When I read your “About” page, it sounded like your main audience included students, teachers, and creators—but you’re also an AI tech product. So I started by looking at AI companies like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's Gemini, and then education brands like Duolingo or Khan Academy.

AI logos tend to be geometric, futuristic, and clean. Education logos are more playful and colorful. I wanted Hypandra’s logo to sit right between those two—so I made the torch symmetrical and geometric, but used bright colors to give it some playfulness.

I think communication was the key. I kept you updated throughout every phase—sending sketches, color updates, and progress almost every day or every other day. When I got feedback, I’d apply it, compare it side-by-side with what I already had, and decide which version worked better.

As a designer, my main goal is to make the client happy, but I also want to be proud of what I put out there. That’s why I only showed you four sketches out of the ten I made—I wanted to make sure you were happy, but that I also felt good about the work.

The torch has always symbolized guidance and discovery. I wanted to make it look new and modern, so I started by deconstructing it. The base is very sleek and geometric—that’s what makes it feel current. Then I thought about what Hypandra represents: curiosity and guidance.

That’s when I got the idea to shape the flame into a subtle hand—something that symbolizes Hypandra guiding people as they explore their own curiosity. It’s not obvious right away, but once you see it, you can’t unsee it.

First, accessibility—the logo needs to work across all backgrounds, sizes, and formats. Second, research—knowing that the design came from studying what’s already out there and ensuring I created something distinctive.

If I were to do anything differently, I would show the logo to the target audience and get their reactions before finalizing it. I asked some of my friends who are students, and they liked it, but they might have been biased. Still, I think we landed on something that represents Hypandra well.

Right now, I’m studying business at the University of Washington Bothell. I originally planned to pursue a career in design after earning my associate’s degree in UX, but given how competitive the job market is, I felt it would be better to continue my education in business. However, being hired for this logo redesign project changed my outlook and reminded me how much I enjoy creating for others. It made me realize that I still want to design and explore more opportunities in that field, while also continuing to study business to better understand other areas of product development and learn how to advocate for users not only in design but in all stages of development.