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The IDSEED blog · 20 years, shared
Twenty years in the field of art direction, branding and web design, distilled into concrete articles. Methods, benchmarks and behind-the-scenes to build a brand that lasts, and thrives in the age of AI.
CrownThief: designing a premium brand in the age of AI
CrownThief is a conceptual cosmetics and wellness-ritual brand built on a simple promise: lightening the weight of daily life. I designed…
Brand design trends in 2027
After two years of mass-generated content, 2027 will not be the year of a new graphic fashion. It will be the year of a reaction: brands…
How much does a visual identity (or a logo) cost?
It is the question everyone has before contacting a studio: how much does it cost? The honest answer is not a single number, it is a range…
Color psychology in branding: what your palette says about you
Color is the first thing a brain processes when facing a brand, before the name, before the logo. You just have to choose it for what it…
How to choose your brand's typography
Typography is the most underrated design decision. We think it secondary, when it carries a brand's tone on every word, every medium, every…
What a brand style guide is and what it is really for
A brand style guide is not a decorative document you file away after the logo is delivered. It is your brand's manual, the one that…
Logo file formats explained: vector, PNG, SVG, and when to use what
Receiving your logo is good. Knowing which file to send the printer, the developer or the community manager is what keeps your logo from…
The peak-end rule: we judge an experience by its peak and its end
We don't judge an experience by its average, but by two moments: its most intense point and its very end. This is the peak-end rule.
The Von Restorff effect: what stands out is what we remember
In a set of similar elements, the one that stands out is the one we notice and remember. This is the Von Restorff effect, also called the…
The Doherty threshold: under 400 ms, the user stays in the flow
Below a 400-millisecond response time, the user stays focused, engaged and productive. Above it, attention drops. This is the Doherty…
The law of proximity: what is close is perceived as related
Two elements placed close together are perceived as related, before their content is even read. It is one of perception's most powerful…
Occam's razor: between two solutions, the simplest wins
Between two solutions that work equally well, the simplest is almost always the best. This is Occam's razor applied to design.
The law of similarity: what looks alike is perceived as a group
Two elements that look alike are perceived as one family, therefore as having the same function. This is the law of similarity, the other…
Tesler's law: complexity never disappears, it only moves
Every application holds a share of complexity that cannot be removed. The only real question: who carries it, the user or the designer?…
The aesthetic-usability effect: when beautiful feels easier to use
A product we find beautiful, we also find easier to use. Even when that is not objectively true. This bias has a name: the…
Fitts's law: why the size and distance of your buttons matter
The bigger and closer a target, the faster it is to reach. Obvious when put that way, yet few interfaces truly apply it. Fitts's law puts a…
Hick's law: too many choices paralyze the user
The more options you offer, the longer the decision takes, and the higher the risk of abandonment. Hick's law puts words to an intuition…
The goal-gradient effect: the closer the goal, the faster we go
The closer we get to a goal, the lighter the effort feels and the stronger the motivation. Used well, this effect turns a tedious form into…
Why a white logo looks thicker than a black one
Take a logo, place its black version on a light background and its white version on a dark one. Same path, same weight. Yet the white…
Miller's law: working memory holds about 7 items
Psychologist George Miller observed that working memory holds about seven items at a time. But the real lesson is not the number: it is…
Jakob's law: your users want your site to work like the others
Your users spend almost all their time on sites other than yours. So they arrive with expectations already formed. Jakob's law says not to…
Parkinson's law: work expands to fill the time available
Give a week for a one-hour task, it will take a week. Parkinson's law says work expands to fill all the time allotted. A useful idea well…
The grid technique: designing a logo as a system
A logo is not a nice visual, it is a system. The grid is what turns an intuition into a stable, adaptable object that stays legible…
Stop approving logos on gut feel: the 5-point checklist
Approving a logo because you like it is the surest way to discover six months later that it does not work in embroidery. Here are the five…
Framed AI beats human creative on conversion: the Currys case
A real client case, measured over three months, shows AI-generated creative clearly outperforming human selection on conversion. The number…
What Unilever and PepsiCo forbid AI to do (and why it concerns you)
While the market pushes to automate everything, two of the world's largest advertisers do the opposite: they write down, in black and…
If your logo needs explaining, it isn't doing its job
I still see too many logos that tell a beautiful story in the presentation, and that nobody remembers three days later. A good logo is…
91% of designers use AI every week: what the 2026 study actually says
A serious survey of more than 900 designers across 60 countries puts numbers on what everyone sensed. And the most interesting result is…
I can do it with AI: the new I'll ask my grandson
The line is blunt, but it describes a reality. Twenty years ago, the nephew knocked up a logo in Word. Today it is a prompt. The outcome is…
Being the best AI user won't make you a good art director
AI is a useful tool: research, variations, time saved. It is not an idea, not a point of view, not a method. And confusing the two is the…
You don't need a slider, you need a clear path
When enquiries do not come in, the first reflex is to add: a slider, an animation, a section. It is almost always the opposite that is…
Margins and recurring revenue: the real business model of AI offers
AI does not just change how you produce, it changes a studio's revenue structure. The documented figures on agencies that made the move…
How much? Why I decided to publish my prices
It is the question everyone has before contacting me, and almost nobody dares ask first. I decided to answer it directly on my site.
Disruptive design is dead (and conversion killed it)
The race for conversion flattened everything: same grids, same buttons, same patterns, same experience. You get immediate results, and…
White-label work isn't disappearing
For more than ten years I have worked for agencies on projects I cannot show. It is not a fallback activity: it is a mode of collaboration…
Should you give your client the keys to their site's backend?
The title is deliberately extreme, but it hides a real question. A client handed the keys without a frame does not degrade their site out…
Editing my site live with Claude's MCP, without opening a file
My site is pure HTML and CSS: no CMS, no admin interface. For a long time, every fix was slow and tedious. MCP changed that one point,…
3 reasons to professionalize your brand image (and what changes)
Many companies still underestimate the strategic impact of their visual identity. But a logo knocked up with AI, or inconsistent…
Why I still teach after 15 years
People tell me I earn more freelancing, that it eats time, that it no longer fits my positioning. Except teaching is not a side activity:…
Why my site runs on neither WordPress, Webflow nor Framer
I build light, clear, fast sites for my clients. It would have been awkward for mine to be a heavy theme stuffed with plugins. Here is why…
Vertical specialization: escaping the price race
When a skill becomes a commodity, two paths open: cut your prices to the bone, or specialize enough to stop being comparable. The 2026…
The Context Engine: what comes after the design system
A design system documents what an interface looks like. But it does not say why those choices were made, nor how an AI should orchestrate…
The 3 pivots a design agency must make in the face of AI
AI does not kill design agencies, it sorts the ones that reposition. Three concrete pivots separate those moving up in value from those…
Visibility in AI: the 2026 numbers, between hype and reality
Ranking in generative AI is a real topic, but surrounded by a lot of agency marketing. Here are the verifiable figures, both ways, to talk…
Turning brand guidelines into a system AI can follow: the 3-phase method
Brand guidelines speak to humans with inspiring words like premium or bold. An AI, on the other hand, needs explicit, quantified rules.…
Agentic AI in prospecting: the fastest ROI, if you frame it well
In prospecting, agentic AI offers the fastest return on investment of any function. Yet most projects never reach production. The problem…
Inclusive Design: designing for seniors and disability
Accessibility is not a box to tick at the end of a project, it is a way of designing. Here is the WCAG framework and a testing method that…
Stitch, v0, Figma AI: which tool for which stage of the project
There is no universal best AI design tool. There is the right tool at the right moment. Here is a reading grid to choose, and above all to…
Figma Config 2026: Code Layers, WebGPU Shaders, and what it changes
Figma announced several features in late June 2026 that bring design even closer to code. Beyond the announcement effect, they say…
Midjourney and brand consistency: the Style Reference guardrail
Generating visuals with Midjourney is easy. Keeping brand consistency from one image to the next, much less so. The Style Reference…
The limits of no-code AI: cost, performance and business complexity
A no-code AI builder can ship a working app in three minutes. What is dazzling in a demo becomes a trap if you ignore where its limits are.…
Producing content with AI without losing your brand voice
Generating content with AI has become trivial. The real challenge is keeping a consistent brand voice as volume grows. Two converging…
The AI SDR isn't a replacement, it's a volume multiplier
A human SDR (Sales Development Representative) costs $100,000 to $150,000 a year. An AI SDR costs $12,000 to $60,000. The comparison looks…
Why selling raw AI volume is a strategic mistake for an agency
In 2026, 88% of organizations already use AI in at least one function, but only 5.5% get real economic benefit from it. That gap reveals…
v0, Lovable, Bolt: which AI tool to choose depending on the project stage
v0, Lovable, Bolt, Figma AI, Google Stitch: the market for AI web production tools has grown crowded fast in 2026. None is universally…
The three-file system for a brand voice usable by AI
Generating content with AI has become trivial. Keeping a consistent brand voice across dozens of generated pieces, on the other hand,…
DESIGN.md: the new standard for making a brand guideline readable by AI
DESIGN.md is an open standard launched by Google Labs in 2026: a Markdown file placed at the root of a project, designed so AI coding…
The 40-60 word rule: writing to be extracted by an AI
AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) for small businesses rests on a simple but rarely applied principle: every content section needs to stand…
How to get cited by ChatGPT: 5 concrete actions
ChatGPT relies on the Bing index for its web search, a technical detail many overlook that directly changes the SEO strategy needed to have…
GEO: what academic research actually says (not agency marketing)
Most of what you find on GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) is agency marketing with no verifiable methodology. One study stands out: an…
The brief that changes everything: how to frame a design project before starting
On most projects that go wrong, the problem is almost never the creative phase. It comes from insufficient upfront framing, when no one…
Why I'm building a brand infrastructure for the age of AI
Anyone today can generate a logo or a visual in a few seconds with AI. That realization, rather than worrying me, sharpened the real value…
UX maturity as a competitive lever for small businesses
UX maturity isn't reserved for big tech platforms. It's a competitive lever accessible to small businesses, provided you understand where…
Becoming a partner rather than a vendor: what changed with Sémaphore Médias
Most design projects end at delivery. With Sémaphore Médias, an ad-placement specialist in the PACA region of France, the initial project…
Clarifying an offer before designing it: the method used for Pivot Groupe
On Pivot Groupe, a company specializing in web infrastructure, the work didn't start with a trend board. It started with a simple question,…
Why the brand platform has to come before the visual identity
The most common request I get is "I need a new logo." Nine times out of ten, what the business actually needs is to clarify what it is…
A website built to last: what sets a one-off project apart from a partnership
Most websites age poorly: three years after launch, they accumulate outdated content, unpatched plugins, an identity that has drifted from…
Web eco-design: what it actually changes on a site
Web eco-design is often presented as an abstract environmental commitment. It's also, very concretely, a set of technical choices that…
Why I build almost all my sites on WordPress, mobile first
Looking at my recent projects, one technical pattern shows up almost every time: WordPress, mobile first, SEO. It's not a lack of technical…
Analysis and continuous improvement: the Lean UX loop, day to day
A subscription platform looking to improve retention can't stop at a successful launch: it needs to track KPIs, formulate hypotheses,…
Beta testing: what a launch reveals that alpha doesn't
In an e-commerce pre-launch, exposing a broader panel to a new version reveals friction that an alpha test, run on a small, controlled…
SEO and UX Writing: writing for search engines without sacrificing readability
A B2B site with stagnant traffic rarely needs a full rebuild. Most often, it needs content and technical hygiene optimization, without…
Design-to-dev handoff: how to lose nothing between Figma and code
Faithfully translating mockups into HTML/CSS/JS while guaranteeing accessibility, performance and maintainability is an exercise where the…
Web accessibility: reaching WCAG AA compliance without breaking everything
A public administration site needs to be accessible to seniors and people with disabilities. WCAG 2.1 AA compliance isn't just a legal…
Alpha usability testing: the method before you code
Before launching an HR dashboard still in development, an alpha test helps catch major points of confusion and clarify vocabulary while…
Interaction Design: the five dimensions of a good interaction
A corporate messaging app that lacks fluidity in its key interactions, compose, send, open a thread, doesn't necessarily have a visual…
The 8pt grid and the fundamentals of a UI design system
A banking app that wants to modernize its interface while keeping a high level of accessibility needs to rely on solid fundamentals. The…
Ideation: the techniques that actually surface ideas
A citizen collective preparing a local services exchange platform needs to generate, sort and select genuinely actionable concepts. That's…
Gamification: motivating without manipulating
A sports app losing a lot of users after the first week needs to boost engagement without slipping into manipulation. Well-dosed…
Wireframes: choosing the right level of fidelity
A startup wanting to quickly prototype a customer dashboard, before investing in visual design, first needs to pick the right fidelity…
Empathy Map and Experience Map: mapping what you can't see
An express delivery service getting a lot of complaints needs to understand the friction, not just observe it. The Empathy Map and the…
Building a persona that actually helps you design
A home care booking app seeing usage drop after sign-up needs to understand who its users really are, beyond internal assumptions.…
The Double Diamond: structuring a UX project end to end
An e-commerce site suffering from a high checkout drop-off rate needs a structured framework to identify the real cause, prototype an…
Applied ergonomics: ISO 9241-11, Nielsen's heuristics and UX laws
Redesigning a long form that generates errors and drop-offs requires going back to ergonomics fundamentals. Three theoretical frameworks,…
ROAR: the method for framing a kickoff workshop without wasting time
During the kickoff of a mobile app project, setting a clear collaboration framework from the start avoids a lot of misunderstanding later…
When should you actually redo your logo?
"We're kind of tired of our logo" isn't a good enough reason to redo it. Here are the real signs that justify a redesign, drawn from…
Adapting a logo for textiles: the rules to follow
A logo that works perfectly on screen doesn't always survive the move to textile: screen printing, embroidery, heat transfer each impose…
The typographic logotype: betting everything on the brand name
Choosing a purely typographic logotype, with no accompanying symbol, is a bet: that the brand name alone, carried by flawless typography,…
Negative space in logo design: a technique, not a gimmick
Negative space is one of the most elegant techniques in logo design: using the emptiness between shapes to create a second image, without…
Custom typefaces: when it's worth the investment
Creating a custom typeface for a logo is one of the most committing investments a client can make in brand identity. It's not always the…
The modular logotype: why it's my default choice
Looking back through my projects, one pattern keeps recurring: the modular logotype. Aros, Machina, SNR, Sémaphore, Le Petit Chamarel. It's…
Pivot Groupe: clarifying a technical offer through design
Pivot Groupe specializes in building and managing web infrastructure. As is often the case in technical trades, the company was doing solid…
Sémaphore Médias: a lasting identity for a long-standing partner
Sémaphore Médias specializes in ad placement and creating tourism-related materials in the PACA region of France. The initial project led…
SNR: modernizing a local radio station's identity without losing its audience
SNR is a widely listened-to local radio station in Burgundy. Its iconic logo had been part of the station's identity for years. Evolving it…
Machina Concept: a brand identity for a fitness app
Machina Concept is a fitness app built around a triptych: mental, physical and nutrition. A three-dimensional positioning that had to come…
Le Petit Chamarel: building a brand from launch day
Le Petit Chamarel is a Mauritian restaurant and catering concept with click & collect, right in the heart of Marseille. Unlike the other…
CHARLI Boulangerie: a full redesign for an already-established brand
CHARLI is one of Brussels' best-known bakeries. Redesigning the identity of a brand with an already loyal customer base is a different…
Bernigaud Traiteur: repositioning a craft brand without losing its story
Vincent Bernigaud is a caterer at the heart of Burgundy. His craftsmanship needed no proof. His logo, though, had been made by his own hand…
Aros Technologies: a brand identity built for eco-design
AROS Technologies designs and manages web infrastructure. A technical trade, often invisible to the general public, that needed an identity…
How a VOD platform cut its sign-up drop-off by 22%
A 68% drop-off rate at sign-up is a painful thing to see in a dashboard. Here's how a simple UX hypothesis, tested with concrete actions,…
UX vs UI: the method to stop mixing them up on a real project
Understanding the difference between UX and UI in theory is one thing. Making it real within a team working together on an actual project…
UX, UI, IxD, CX: four disciplines people mix up all the time
A client regularly asks me to "redo the UX" of their site while actually pointing at the colors and the font. UX, UI, Interaction Design,…