Story In Progress
This story is in progress because I like to create in the open. If anything seems unfinished or doesn’t flow it’s probably not quite finished yet.
Intro
This is the story of One Quest and why it’s more than my personal brand or design portfolio . It’s different than a traditional portfolio, and that’s intentional. It just so happened that a lot of the questions and design explorations I had been working on for years (including my personal rebrand) ended up colliding into what you see here now. I think it’s really cool and pretty magical!
The One Quest story, brand, and experience will continue to evolve with me throughout my life. It’s a living experience that’s meant to represent me. Where I’ve been, where I’m at, and where I’m going. It’s messy, it’s curious, it’s exploratory. It’s a deeper look behind the curtain to try and share how I see, think, feel, and what I’m curious about. I hope you enjoy your experience here!
Part 1 of the story starts here and is all about what One Quest is and how I decided on the name and the brand aesthetic. The rest of the story will continue to materialize as I have space to work out the magic. ✨
What is One Quest?
One Quest is my personal brand but it’s more than that. It’s also my digital identity and the beginning of a redefined digital experience and system. I think it’s a really unique approach to digital identities, social media, and many of the digital systems that exist today. Although it’s difficult to share all the ideas, questions, and beautiful things in my head, I’m going to try. I hope things will start to connect as the story unfolds.
There’s a few guiding principles behind the One Quest brand and experience:
- A flexible system that evolves with me
- Personalized to my interests, values, and aesthetics
- Connected to onequest.me as much as possible
- Using open source tools and systems (like the Fediverse) as much as possible
One Quest isn’t a one and done thing because at it’s core it encapsulates the spirit of discovery, evolution, and change. Even now there’s so many other possibilities and questions I’m exploring and I’m just getting started! But why the name One Quest, and what does that even mean?
Intro
This is the second section of the One Quest story and it’s all about how the name “One Quest” came to be and some of the exploration I did for the brand look and feel.
If you haven’t read part 1 of the story, you might want to start here, and you can explore all sections of the story here.
Discovery: Brand Name
Why One Quest?
There’s 3 core parts of me that helped the One Quest brand come to life!
- My core value of minimalism (one)
- My deep love for fantasy, wizards (Gandalf ftw), and magic (quests)
- My core value of always asking more of life (questions)
I find it fascinating that both quests and questions share so many similarities and that they’re both tied to core parts of myself. I’ve noticed that all I need is to start with one question or one step on a “quest” in my life, and it always leads to more. It opens possibilities to re-frame or see things differently. I ask one question and pretty soon I’m asking another, and another and going on a beautiful adventure into so many unknown realms! You could say this is my brand slogan and I think it’s pretty clever. 👇
One Quest(ion)
leads to another
Quests and questions. Some of the things I love about both quests and questions are:
- They both start with a dream or a longing for something more
- They challenge what’s around them and break down barriers which might have seemed set in stone before
- They help people explore, achieve, and grow
I’ve been asking questions my whole life and I don’t plan to stop any time soon. There’s so much for individuals and society left to learn and change. If we get stuck in traditions and cultures that we think have to be maintained then how will we find even better cultures and societies? What beautiful things might we lose if we’re unwilling to evolve past what we currently know and understand about ourselves, society, the world, the universe, or anything else?
It’s been incredibly rewarding to weave quests, questions, and so many pieces of myself into an identity that I think is absolutely stellar and matches so much of my vibe. For right now I use the identifier “onequest” in lots of different places, but in the future I hope individuals can have more control of their digital identity and experience.
Hopefully the name is starting to make some sense, but what about the look and feel for the brand? It’s kinda whimsical and fun, but how did I make it and why does it make sense for me.
Discovery: Brand Look & Feel
How did I create the brand aesthetic?
Because of the deep roots of fantasy I plan to keep that as a constant pillar of the brand, but currently the aesthetic is a mesh of fantasy and vintage vibes (70’s ish) and my favorite color which is a super warm and cozy yellow.
But how did this interesting amalgamation of things come together? Fantasy and vintage aren’t exactly the most related topics. I sketched a lot, asked lots of questions, and explored tons of different ideas to land where I am now. I love how the logo itself even captures the feeling of vintage, whimsy, and for me even nostalgia. It’s happy, vibrant, and fun which are things I really value and always want in my life.
The fantasy part I already mentioned and I really want that love I have to be infused in my digital identity. Plus, with a name like “One Quest”, how could it not be?
The vintage part was fun to tie in and mostly is because right now I’m in a very nostalgic era. Remembering memories from the past can be very cozy. I also really like 70’s vibes right now, especially 70’s fashion. All the knit clothing with bright colors that were accented by a cozy off white or cream. It feels magical for some reason and I want to capture that magic. ✨
Here’s some of the concepts that I explored early on while working on the brand aesthetic and feeling as well as the logo.
It’s very fun to look back at everything I’ve explored and all the questions and ideas I’ve had.
My ultimate goal really is to create an entirely customizable and flexible digital system that matches both the aesthetics I like and the way I like things organized and structured. The more my environment is customized to match the way I live, the more I can live instead of getting stuck or blocked. And if that’s not magic, I dunno what is. 😁
Outro
I’ve already written the drafts for many more parts of the One Quest Story but they need to be refined more before they materialize in this dimension. The magic isn’t quite ready yet. 😉 But check back here for all sections of the story that are available.
I’ve really enjoyed creating something so meaningful and personalized, and also trying to figure out how to connect and hopefully support better tech. I believe that we can overcome the challenges, pitfalls and difficulties presented by the current tech landscape. I want to give people the chance to have greater control and power with their digital lives and identities and this project is the beginning of me trying to understand and start creating with that in mind. I hope you got something valuable out of it, but I’m open to all sorts of feedback and questions and want to hear it all!
