Pxp Brownie | Branding

founder of | Making brands impossible to ignore

Building my design business in public.

[Pxp Brownie | Branding @pxpbrownie]

This is my story of how I got fired a year ago and then last month I launched my design studio.

Oftentimes we forget the real reason why we started doing something; for me, that was design.

I was never a creative person growing up. I never visualized or imagined that I would end up becoming a designer.

In 2022, when I was at IIT Madras during my short tenure as a student in their BS in Data Science degree, I was in charge of their website for the event called Margazhi, where students could look at different events and book tickets for them.

I met, now my very dear friend Dev Khatri, who was head of design for the same event. I got to know the side of design that got me hooked.

I was so inspired by the art and operation of turning something that a user wants into an experience. Right after that event, I took an internship to be a UX/UI designer. I was terrible at first, but I kept working on different aspects of product design, user psychology, and graphic design.

And finally, I felt for the first time in my life that yes, this is where I belong. My childhood buddy @__Raiders and I used to have frequent conversations about how and why design is something I belong to and why I fit into it.

I kept working and switching jobs from a design intern to becoming head of design for a product in the blockchain interoperability space. For many reasons, it was the real proof for me, though the product never ended up becoming a real product. During that time, I met my mentor and friend, @whatt4 . We worked together and collected over 180k users on the waitlist; the marketing and design efforts brought millions of eyeballs to that product even before launching.

We had top-of-the-industry collaborations and partners just because of the sheer numbers we were bringing to that product.

A seed was planted in my head that design is more than just experience; it impacts every single aspect of a product, from marketing to sales to reputation. I decided to switch roles with my new marketing experience and become a marketer.

So I did. The next role I took in a cross-border payments company was as a marketer. I was on my first international trip with my friends, and it was during that trip that I met the founders of this company in person for the first time. Sitting at a small bar in Ho Chi Minh City at 11 p.m., all three of us fought over what is right and what is wrong.

My 45 days of progress in making the marketing work and what is next: I was pitching my marketing plan, and that quickly turned into a fight over what can be done in tech and what can't be.

I woke up the next morning to find myself given a excuse of investors cutting funding and my role. Me being me, I pushed myself to fill the roles that were weak in the team, from marketing, to sales, to growth, and that lead me to be hammered with the excuse that I am not experienced enough to carry the load.

All of this in 45 days. I was confused and shocked and unable to understand, but that led me down the rabbit hole of thinking again about everything I thought I had figured out.

And one of the realisations that I boiled down to was, I really wanna design more.

I took the whole year to just do nothing but design. I didn't care about the money, I designed for free. If you are my friend and you are building something, you got yourself a free designer.

And now, after a year of being fired from my marketing role, I've launched my design business with just one core value to give - making brands impossible to ignore.

I am very excited to start this new chapter in my life. I am building this business in public and learning along the way what is working and what is not.

[Pxp Brownie | Branding @pxpbrownie]

as a designer who use figma for everything

this will save a lot of time

[Pxp Brownie | Branding @pxpbrownie]

@uidxny @AJ_brains @figma gem resource

[Pxp Brownie | Branding @pxpbrownie]

apple is gonna do it again

its gonna win with deisign

this foldable design not new, samsung did it first

but the attention to details including what can be done in animations and user experience on the digital level is exceptional

[Pxp Brownie | Branding @pxpbrownie]

@theroborourke thanks for sharing this, very valuable

[Pxp Brownie | Branding @pxpbrownie]

@prachiruns looks clean

[Pxp Brownie | Branding @pxpbrownie]

@nandiny77300 https://t.co/kDkqgK5Yba

[Pxp Brownie | Branding @pxpbrownie]

@Sakshi50038 thats a w challenge

[Pxp Brownie | Branding @pxpbrownie]

@NicoMuoio this is the proof of concept of i needed, thanks for sharing

[Pxp Brownie | Branding @pxpbrownie]

@NicholasDulait thats awesome man, keep growing

[Pxp Brownie | Branding @pxpbrownie]

@Dwriteway true af

[Pxp Brownie | Branding @pxpbrownie]

@Dylan_txa_ thats so clever

[Pxp Brownie | Branding @pxpbrownie]

@nandiny77300 it would be very fun, real silicon valley. someone should create it, i wish i was there i wouldve def worked on it

[Pxp Brownie | Branding @pxpbrownie]

@mightyking a good video can only get attention, it wont do the job if the product is not good

[Pxp Brownie | Branding @pxpbrownie]

I rebranded @TryOpenTag a @ycombinator backed startup as a creative exercise

@TryOpenTag is an agent agnostic coworker which lives in your team Slack.

It understands your conversation and has access to over 80+ AI models to accomplish a variety of tasks.

When you look at OpenTag’s current branding and logo you can see the startup is in a very nascent phase. The logo misses several of branding’s basic rules.

1. Contrast - the contrast of the eye element on the brand color is difficult to differentiate and for some people it may look like a six sided blob.

2. Even if you have nice eyes, when you zoom out the eyes are very small to be recognized as eyes. Example - favicon in browser.

3. The six sided shape is very common and would be difficult to be memorable or associated to OpenTag

With the available public information, I set out to first fix the original logo mark by getting rid of the three identified issues:

1. Contrast
2. Scale test
3. Association

Keeping the core concept intact, I addressed these core issues by using a hand drawn shape, making the shape now unique, then by making the eyes bigger to pass the zoom out test, and settling on the following proposal for a more striking and unique logo mark.

I started drawing concepts using different ideas, from keeping the current logo concept alive to totally new ones.


Brand identity is deeply rooted in stories and perception. Logic almost never works if there's no story to back it up.

Since I haven't talked with the founders, I set out to expand the concept based on the available information, filling in the gaps myself with what could really work well for OpenTag.

Given the opportunity, I'd love to talk with the founders, explore more concepts, and really put the complete process in action.

One core thing from the action to even the name of OpenTag, is tagging. And it's specifically the @ tag that will be used to access the functionality of OpenTag. Hence, I took the concept of the @ sign and expanded it into a visible shape.

I kept the friendly avatar feeling by keeping the eyes. Another reason this shape fits is the negative space, which looks like a ghost or genie, paying homage to OpenTag’s old name, with which they got into YC - Gini (genie).

This makes it truly memorable, associative, expresses what opentag stands for, and incorporates a bit of story and history. This mark is simple and builds on top of the original logo concept of opentag.

To make it more personal, I also created a custom typeface for OpenTag called OpenTag Sans.

It is a geometric font based on the parkin sans font, and its clean, geometric skeleton gives the brand a modern, confident structure, while subtle humanist details in the letterforms keep it approachable and distinctly human.

I put a lot of thought into making this rebrand for OpenTag.

If you are on @TryOpenTag team, I would love to hear what you think. If you know them or the founders, please tag them so that this reaches them.

This work is part of my series called Making YC Brands Impossible to forget, where I brand a YC startup and maintain a value-first approach to give back to the community.

If you are a YC founder who wants to work with me, feel free to reach out.

[Pxp Brownie | Branding @pxpbrownie]

Also made this small logo animation of the rebrand concept for @TryOpenTag

[Pxp Brownie | Branding @pxpbrownie]

I rebranded @TryOpenTag as a creative exercise

@TryOpenTag is an agent agnostic coworker which lives in your team Slack.

It understands your conversation and has access to over 80+ AI models to accomplish a variety of tasks.

When you look at OpenTag’s current branding and logo you can see the startup is in a very nascent phase. The logo misses several of branding’s basic rules.

1. Contrast - the contrast of the eye element on the brand color is difficult to differentiate and for some people it may look like a six sided blob.

2. Even if you have nice eyes, when you zoom out the eyes are very small to be recognized as eyes. Example - favicon in browser.

3. The six sided shape is very common and would be difficult to be memorable or associated to OpenTag

With the available public information, I set out to first fix the original logo mark by getting rid of the three identified issues:

1. Contrast
2. Scale test
3. Association

Keeping the core concept intact, I addressed these core issues by using a hand drawn shape, making the shape now unique, then by making the eyes bigger to pass the zoom out test, and settling on the following proposal for a more striking and unique logo mark.

I started drawing concepts using different ideas, from keeping the current logo concept alive to totally new ones.


Brand identity is deeply rooted in stories and perception. Logic almost never works if there's no story to back it up.

Since I haven't talked with the founders, I set out to expand the concept based on the available information, filling in the gaps myself with what could really work well for OpenTag.

Given the opportunity, I'd love to talk with the founders, explore more concepts, and really put the complete process in action.

One core thing from the action to even the name of OpenTag, is tagging. And it's specifically the @ tag that will be used to access the functionality of OpenTag. Hence, I took the concept of the @ sign and expanded it into a visible shape.

I kept the friendly avatar feeling by keeping the eyes. Another reason this shape fits is the negative space, which looks like a ghost or genie, paying homage to OpenTag’s old name, with which they got into YC - Gini (genie).

This makes it truly memorable, associative, expresses what opentag stands for, and incorporates a bit of story and history. This mark is simple and builds on top of the original logo concept of opentag.

To make it more personal, I also created a custom typeface for OpenTag called OpenTag Sans.

It is a geometric font based on the parkin sans font, and its clean, geometric skeleton gives the brand a modern, confident structure, while subtle humanist details in the letterforms keep it approachable and distinctly human.

I put a lot of thought into making this rebrand for OpenTag.

If you are on @TryOpenTag team, I would love to hear what you think. If you know them or the founders, please tag them so that this reaches them.

This work is part of my series called Making YC Brands Impossible to forget, where I brand a YC startup and maintain a value-first approach to give back to the community.

If you are a YC founder who wants to work with me, feel free to reach out.

[Pxp Brownie | Branding @pxpbrownie]

@uidxny love the vids, keep em coming

[Pxp Brownie | Branding @pxpbrownie]

@whatt4 haha it is cute

[Pxp Brownie | Branding @pxpbrownie]

Day 2 of trying to be more creative

today i set out to use my ipad which i have used for everything else but sketching and drawing.

it was really fun drawing these simple objects and converting them into digital art through a simple poster.

what should i do next ?