Mabel Kasunic
The white TechTank logo and wordmark over a calm, misty sea

techtank [Playful to Professional]

Date
2026
Location
Toronto
Services
Brand Identity
Design Systems
Graphic Design
Collaborator
Victoria Sze

The Brief

Overview

TechTank is a volunteer-run nonprofit in Toronto hosting inclusive, in-person tech events and build sessions. Their "no-gatekeeping" mission aims to create a welcoming space for all skill levels, featuring dedicated programming for women, gender-diverse, and queer individuals to ensure genuine inclusivity.

Challenge

TechTank needed a brand refresh to build credibility with sponsors while remaining warm and community-driven. The existing identity—featuring a wave-styled font and a bright, cartoonish fish mascot—felt slightly immature, resembling a kids' program. The challenge was to retain the recognized equity of their fish icon and teal/yellow palette while designing a sophisticated, scalable system that works across everything from a 16px favicon to oversized merchandise.

Solution

I evolved the identity by replacing the novelty lettering with a clean, lowercase sans-serif wordmark, establishing a more grounded and professional tech aesthetic. I refined the fish icon by keeping its sharp silhouette but stripping away the cartoonish face, resulting in a confident, technical mark. The new system scales perfectly across digital and physical touchpoints, giving the brand a polished look that appeals to funders without losing its grassroots character.

Original TechTank logo: a cartoon teal fish with a smiling face beside chunky navy TECH TANK lettering
Polished TechTank logo: a simplified white fish mark beside a lowercase techtank wordmark on navy
Two floating phones showing the new TechTank logo: white on a blue gradient screen and navy on a light grey screen
A pile of TechTank stickers on a wooden table: navy fish marks, yellow starbursts, white wordmark labels and blue banners reading “tech is really cool!”

Design Intent

Retaining the angel fish silhouette stays true to TechTank’s grassroots origins, preserving the community’s established recognition. For the new wordmark, the geometric letterforms were intentionally selected because they subtly mimic the posture of people seated at a table, building and collaborating together.

TechTank logo construction: the white fish mark and wordmark on navy, laid over a grid with 1x clear-space corners and a 2.5x height
Cream and navy cap with the TechTank fish mark and wordmark embroidered in navy
TechTank app icon: navy fish mark and wordmark on a yellow rounded square
How the mark was built: scattered dots, then a rounded triangle, then the final connected fish mark
Navy tote bag printed with the white TechTank fish mark and wordmark

Intentional Evolution

We kept the iconic angel fish to honor TechTank’s roots and maintain brand equity. The shift in typography introduces a hidden layer of meaning: the rounded, lowercase letterforms subtly mirror the posture of individuals sitting side-by-side, actively working and creating as a community.

An embossed navy business card with the TechTank logo, beside the white logo on navy with its clear-space guides Typography spread for All Round Gothic Demi: an alphabet grid over a photo of hands typing on a laptop, beside a navy panel with the typeface name, a large Aa and the full character set

Form & Community

The evolved angel fish symbol stays true to the organization’s origins while shedding its juvenile aesthetic. Complementing this, the new typeface was chosen for its structural warmth—the letterforms are designed to resemble people seated together at a workbench, reflecting the core mission of collaborative building.

Colour palette

  • #FFFFFFAbsolute White
  • #242E52Navy Blue
  • #1756BCSapphire Blue
  • #F8BE41Mango
  • #000000True Black
Absolute White colour card: misty white mountain ridges
Making tech thrive in Toronto all year round.