Hello Ruby: Visualising a celebration of computing by creative agency Kokoro & Moi

A celebration of computing, Ruby is a small girl with a big imagination. Her animal friends help her navigate through a seemingly irrational world. In some ways, she’s like Calvin from Calvin & Hobbes, in others she’s like Pippi Longstockings. Ruby’s world has rules and reason, repetition and rhythm, ridicules and riddles and one can build something out of nothing.

Hello Ruby started in 2009 as an art project by Linda Liukas, programmer, storyteller and illustrator from Helsinki, but was boosted by a widely popular Kickstarter campaign in 2014. That was the opening shot, not only for the computing book the Kickstarter campaign was about, but for a comprehensive children’s computing brand with a goal to create the world's most whimsical way for youngsters to learn about technology, computing and coding.

Speaking of their work, Kokoro & Moi said: "The visual identity highlights the importance of playfulness and curiosity, when learning about coding. The colour palette is vivid and wide. The logo is built of colourful building blocks, characters playfully rotating the full circle. Friendly Maax Rounded as a primary font is accompanied by Maax Mono, monospaced font, in this case referring to the early computers.

"With scissors we cut paper pieces to create Hello Ruby Cutout, a custom-made font, to add more playfulness, fun and DIY attitude to the identity. Paper pieces are also used as building blocks for the pictograms, illustrations and animations. The stories and exercises are told through the cute and imaginative illustrations drawn by Linda. The identity system forms a playful and structured setting for these drawings, and adds layer of functionality to the storytelling."