Aion (AION) is the digital asset of The Open Application Network (OAN), a public blockchain infrastructure project. The Aion brand was updated in November 2019 as part of a major rebrand that introduced The Open Application Network as the parent brand while retaining the Aion name for the network’s digital asset. The visual identity was created by the branding and design agency Conflict, which led the strategy, design, and execution of both brands. [1]
Design and History
The Aion project initially launched in July 2017, and the network’s mainnet was released in April 2018. [2] On November 4, 2019, the project launched The Open Application Network and an updated Aion brand, a milestone that included both a new strategic direction and a major brand update. [1]
According to the project’s own account, the Aion brand had established equity, especially with the coin-holder community, so the name was kept while the visual identity was updated to work seamlessly with The OAN master brand identity. Rather than creating a separate secondary mark that would double as a currency symbol, the symbol was integrated into the main wordmark for better comprehension and brand recall. [1]
Meaning and Symbolism
The capital “A” in the Aion logo is made up of the peaked frame of the uppercase “A,” which doubles as a chevron pointing upwards to symbolize prosperity. The crossbar was replaced by a circle the same size as the dot over the lowercase “i” to symbolize a coin. Like traditional currency symbols, the Aion symbol was designed to be simple enough to write with a pen using only strokes and dots. [1]
The branding for The Open Application Network was inspired by the Swiss Style used by IBM during the late 1960s and early 1970s, the dawn of the personal computing age. The project deliberately avoided the typical tech-company aesthetic of a two-syllable name set in a lowercase sans-serif typeface, instead embracing a simple, warm, utilitarian style with an aesthetic rooted in “a deep sense of purpose before beauty.” [1]
Typography and Design
The Open Application Network’s primary logo is set in the typeface Aeonik. The project noted that this typeface seemed “almost kismet” given that the official digital asset of The OAN is Aion. The wordmark’s accompanying icon is comprised of an “O,” an “A,” and a stylized lowercase “N” nested within one another. These three letter forms disassemble to work on their own as a secondary mark for The OAN, reflecting the idea of being able to work both separately and together, a core value of the network. The circle, triangle, and square work as simple shapes that represent the building blocks of the network infrastructure. [1]
The brand guidelines and logo assets were made publicly available by the project to guide community members and partners in creating on-brand content. [1]
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