// Index — 29 pages — Seattle

01 Work

02 Writing

03 Me

04 Contact

// 01 — Thesis — Seattle

Ryan
Hofmann

I study why people notice, trust and remember a brand, and build brands to test it.

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Read Week 01See the experiments

Brands built
12
Homepages scored
100
Letters
6

// 02 — Experiments

Twelve brands, built to test

In October I built twelve brands at Alterra Studio from a blank page, to test what makes people notice one. Four are below.

// S-01 — Brand identity, product, motion

Mote — a brand for one personal AI that lives in four small robots and wakes up in whichever one you need

Mote is one personal AI that lives in four small robots and moves between them. We built it from scratch: the name, a studio world of chalk-white bodies, the dotted-M logo and its construction film, the phone app that moves Mote between bodies, the face on each body, and the launch on posters, a metro lightbox, a bus, a launch stage, boxes, a bag and a tee.

The case study on alterra.studio
Mote key art: four chalk-white robots on plinths, only the keycap awake with white pixel eyes
Mote key art: four chalk-white robots on plinths, only the keycap awake with white pixel eyes
The Dock screen of the Mote homepage on a phone: Dock's face shows the 7:00 alarm
The Dock screen of the Mote homepage on a phone: Dock's face shows the 7:00 alarm

// S-02 — Brand identity, product, 3D

Texel — a brand for an API that turns a typed material into the four texture maps a game artist needs

Texel is a material API for game and film studios. We built it from scratch: the name, a world where one test object wears a different material in every piece, the editor panel, a logo that grows moss, and the launch on posters, a street hoarding, an artist's jacket and a box of material samples.

The case study on alterra.studio
The same shader ball in eight materials: river clay, verdigris copper, ice, terracotta, rattan, ink in glass, lava and chrome voxels
The same shader ball in eight materials: river clay, verdigris copper, ice, terracotta, rattan, ink in glass, lava and chrome voxels
Poster: tiling PBR materials from a text prompt, over a shader ball in clear ice
Poster: tiling PBR materials from a text prompt, over a shader ball in clear ice

// S-03 — Brand identity, product, 3D

Membrane — a brand for carbon removal that shows each buyer their tonnes turning to stone

Membrane is a carbon removal company that turns CO2 into stone: dissolved in water and injected into basalt deep underground, most of it mineralises within two years. We built it from scratch: the name, a world of rock at three scales from a basalt ridge to a single pore, the logo, the passport, a scale-dive film, and the launch on posters, an airport lightbox, a core crate and a field jacket.

The case study on alterra.studio
A black basalt ridge whose lower slopes have turned to white crystal, a small ultramarine wellhead at its foot
A black basalt ridge whose lower slopes have turned to white crystal, a small ultramarine wellhead at its foot
Poster: gas in, stone out
Poster: gas in, stone out

// S-04 — Brand identity, product, motion

Amoeba — a brand for an AI that reads biopsy slides and boxes the cells a pathologist should see first

Amoeba is AI that reads every biopsy slide, tile by tile, and boxes the cells a pathologist should look at first. We built it from scratch: the name, a world where the slide is cut into tiles and a red reticle reads them in turn, the case view that counts the read, the hand-drawn lockup, and the brand on cassettes, slide labels, scrubs, a lightbox and a tee.

The case study on alterra.studio
Serial sections of coral tissue on glass panes, one pane violet, a red line dropping at it
Serial sections of coral tissue on glass panes, one pane violet, a red line dropping at it
A gloved hand holds a glass slide with an Amoeba label and a red ring around a violet cluster
A gloved hand holds a glass slide with an Amoeba label and a red ring around a violet cluster

// 03 — Findings

Findings so far

What the research has turned up, each with the letter that explains it.

  1. // F-01 — Noticed

    21%

    of 100 funded startup homepages tell a stranger what the product does within five seconds on a phone. On desktop, 35%.

    Read No. 002
  2. // F-02 — Trusted

    53%

    show no customer logos, testimonials or case studies at all. Only 6% got full marks for proof.

    Read No. 002
  3. // F-03 — Remembered

    88

    chairs rated in one design study: the moderately novel ones were the most beautiful, ahead of the most typical and the strangest.

    Read Week 01

// 04 — Method

The method

Four rules every brand I build is tested against.

  1. ● P-01

    Coherence over consistency

    Consistent brands repeat their rules. Coherent ones feel like every piece came from the same world, so even quick decisions look intentional.

  2. ● P-02

    Write the code before the interface

    Before the copy, visuals or process, decide what the world is: what it believes, what it rejects, what it remembers.

  3. ● P-03

    Refuse to fake depth

    Build the system, scaffolding and structure first. Polish comes last, on top of something real.

  4. ● P-04

    A cinematic point of view

    Treat each project as worldbuilding, with a story behind it and a reason for every frame.

The principles in full

// 05 — Origin

From games at 10 to a studio

The full story

  1. 01 // Age 10

    Brainfreeze

    I started writing code at 10. My first project was Brainfreeze: small games I built and sold to kids in my class.

  2. 02 // Teens

    Esports and first ads

    In my teens I moved from code into design and social media, making graphics for esports organizations including Cyclone Esports, Version1 and Minnesota ROKKR.

  3. 03 // Age 19

    SMOK3

    At 19 I moved across the country to Florida to join SMOK3, a startup building go-to-market and creator programs.

  4. 04 // 2024

    Alterra Studio

    In 2024 I founded Alterra Studio in Seattle. We design brand identities, websites, product UI and launch films for funded startups.

// 06 — Lab notes — Weekly

Still reading?

Then you'll like the lab notes: one letter a week on what I'm testing and what I find, written by me. Reply to any of them.

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What's in a letter

// Contact

Get in touch

Based in Seattle

SEATTLE, WASTUDIO // HQ

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Read Week 01