01 · case study
Oumi
Open Universal Machine Intelligence.
scope
Brand identity, logo system, brand guidelines, marketing site, component system, social templates, applications kit.
role
Lead designer at BABCO. Identity through launch.
client
Oumi PBC. A Seattle AI startup building the first unconditionally open foundation model platform.
outcome
$10M Seed led by Venrock and Obvious Ventures. Launched out of stealth, January 2025.
A brand and digital system for an AI infrastructure startup positioning itself as the “Linux moment” for foundation models. Designed at BABCO with the Oumi founding team, including ex-Google Cloud and ex-Apple ML engineers. Launched alongside the company's emergence from stealth.
Oumi stands for Open Universal Machine Intelligence. The name is a thesis. Open, not just open-weights, but open code, open data, open recipes. Universal, runs anywhere, from a laptop to a supercluster. Machine intelligence, a more precise term than AI. The brand had to live up to all three.
02 · identity
A system for engineers,
readable by humans.
Oumi's audience is unusual. Technical enough to know what reproducibility means. Broad enough to include policymakers, academics, and enterprise CTOs. The identity speaks both registers without losing either.
Lapis Blue, the only color the brand needs. Inria Sans for UI. Crimson Pro for editorial. Black and white round it out.
03 · brand guidelines
Eighteen pages,
built to be referenced.
The brand guide alternates between dark and light spreads. A structural rhythm that mirrors how the brand appears in the wild. Dark for engineering surfaces. Light for marketing and academic communication.
Each spread documents one decision. A designer or engineer can reference it quickly without reading end to end.
04 · website + components
Six breakpoints.
Every spec documented.
The marketing site had to function on every device a researcher, engineer, or VC might be using. From a 1920px workstation in a lab, to a 375px mobile.
Every component documented with pixel-perfect redlines. Button heights, spacing tokens, hover states, social icons. Implementable by an engineering team.
05 · applications
From inbox
to LinkedIn.
At launch, a startup doesn't exist as a logo. It exists as a banner on Twitter, a profile picture on LinkedIn, an email signature, a slide in a pitch deck.
Every surface is a first impression with a first audience. An investor. A researcher. A candidate. A journalist.
06 · in market
Launched out of stealth,
January 2025.
The marketing site had to function on every device a researcher, engineer, or VC might be using. From a 1920px workstation in a lab, to a 375px mobile.
Every component documented with pixel-perfect redlines. Button heights, spacing tokens, hover states, social icons. Implementable by an engineering team.
$10M
SEED ROUND LED BY VENROCK
13
UNIVERSITY PARTNERS
9k+
GITHUB STARS BY EARLY 2026
“There hasn't been enough focus on open experimentation to collectively push the boundaries of what AI can do. With an unconditionally open source platform, we won't cap our talent, we will foster experimentation, and society will reap the benefits.”
— GANESH SRINIVASAN · PARTNER, VENROCK
07 · reflection
Brand as engineering.
The strongest argument for Oumi's brand isn't a visual one. It's that the brand demonstrates the same values it argues for in the product. Transparency. Modularity. Reproducibility. Every spec documented. Every component reusable. Every decision explained in the guide.
Truly open frontier AI.
