iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Mike Smith @mikesmith.bsky.social · 23/09/2025

Three brand new museum brands on the Parkway in Philly. How we feeling? PMA Rodin Calder Gardens

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Mike Smith @mikesmith.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

The one Summer worked on was a more delicate version of the selected direction but leaned into small town architecture as a brand element. Overall, it ended up feeling a little too lux for the client but it was still very beautiful. @alexanderson001.bsky.social also made a dope monogram.

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Mike Smith @mikesmith.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

The killed directions were also something really special. When was the last time you saw a ligature bridging over a letter?? Rest easy wonky wordmark you were too weird.

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Mike Smith @mikesmith.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

When building out the brand elements we wanted to nod towards the visual language of tax forms. Little notches, tabs, checker patterns, monospaced type, rules, X's, boxes, etc. So we build out a little library of bits and bobs that can show up all throughout the brand.

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Mike Smith @mikesmith.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

With a four letter wordmark we knew we needed to make it sing. Dayan belabored every single curve of this thing to make sure it could be blown up on a billboard and also scaled down to be a footnote and still have a presence.

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Mike Smith @mikesmith.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

As a small biz finding a good accountant is ROUGH. You know it & I know it. Town.com is looking to change that & make doing your taxes a lot less stressful. Fully custom wordmark by Dayan D'Aniello & @alexanderson001.bsky.social. Also, Alex killed it on these really fun posters.

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Mike Smith @mikesmith.bsky.social · 31/08/2025

This Friday I'm joining some of my favorite designers to talk about what everyone fears the most...your favorite logo dying. I'm sharing a little behind-the-scenes look at our killed work for The George. It's a free event, all you have to do is RSVP here partiful.com/e/0lp8ysu3Zd...

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Mike Smith @mikesmith.bsky.social · 27/08/2025

Some killed logos and trinkets from a project about data. Collab with @alexanderson001.bsky.social on those fun posters.

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Mike Smith @mikesmith.bsky.social · 05/08/2025

Screw it, here's all of the google fonts that are actually good categorized by "vibe". Enjoy. www.figma.com/design/lWrI1...

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Mike Smith @mikesmith.bsky.social · 14/07/2025

Two years ago on this exact day we presented a brand that changed our studio forever. Shout out to Henry Modisett & Phi Hoang for trusting the vision on round one. I've seen very few people roll out a brand as fast as them. Thanks for giving us a shot. <3

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Mike Smith @mikesmith.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

Weird request here but where are we finding 80's script type like this these days? Dafont? Do I have to paint it by hand?

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Mike Smith @mikesmith.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

Working on something about butterflies. JK it's about AI. Collab with my boy Tully Ryan.

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Mike Smith @mikesmith.bsky.social · 27/05/2025

Uh oh they are giving me a microphone again! I'm so excited to talk about a new project that we've been working on for awhile now. The case study is already 20-mins long so I know no one is actually going to read it. No worries—I'll just walk you through it live!! Link to tickets in thread below.

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Mike Smith @mikesmith.bsky.social · 25/05/2025

Came into the office this weekend to build a new standing desk for Tully. Left with an admiration for how far we’ve come. Hyped on this every day.

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Mike Smith @mikesmith.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

Today is the day! We’re speaking about the wild west of collaborative brand design on the main stage at 2pm PT (5pm ET). If you’d like to live stream it for free you just need to sign up at the link below! We promise it will be fun. reg.config.figma.com/flow/figma/c...

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Mike Smith @mikesmith.bsky.social · 05/05/2025

The team had so much fun designing their own stamps and when we got them we could NOT stop stamping. Shout out to Scott McClelland at Paper Meets Press for his never ending attention to detail and getting these things just right.

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Mike Smith @mikesmith.bsky.social · 05/05/2025

I'm so so excited that these new cards got finished just in time for @figma's Config!! I wanted to have cards that showed the entire teams different personalities so we got a beveled, foiled letterpressed fronts & then blank backs so everyone could stamp on their own custom designs.

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Mike Smith @mikesmith.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

☁️ HEAD IN THE CLOUDS ☁️ ❤️ HEART ON MY SLEEVE ❤️ New studio poster for @buildingbok’s open studios this FRIDAY (5/2 from 5-9)!!!! Pop up to the fifth floor and we’re smack dab in the middle of the building. We’ll be selling all kinds of posters, pennants, and whatnots.

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Mike Smith @mikesmith.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

Some more bits from our work with Gamma. Logo by: Summer McClure

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Mike Smith @mikesmith.bsky.social · 29/04/2025

Oh my god look at theseeeeeeeeee stamps. This is just a piece of a special thing we’re making for config. Stay tuned!

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Mike Smith @mikesmith.bsky.social · 28/04/2025

✨ Meet our newest S&D designer Tully Ryan ✨ Tully actually joined us about a year ago as a contractor & then impressed us so much with his skill & amazing attitude that we knew he would be an incredible addition to our extremely tight-knit team. Also a great bowler.

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Mike Smith @mikesmith.bsky.social · 27/04/2025

⭐️ No one rides alone ⭐️

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Mike Smith @mikesmith.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

Killed slides about sharing your work on the internet.

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Mike Smith @mikesmith.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

Just printed the dumbest thing in the world.

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Mike Smith @mikesmith.bsky.social · 15/04/2025

New one for Gamma Logo by Summer McClure Thanks to Grant Lee & Melissae Elhajj for jamming with us on this one. Get your ideas out there at gamma.app

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Mike Smith @mikesmith.bsky.social · 07/04/2025

Should designers skateboard? Absolutely.

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Mike Smith @mikesmith.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

Prepping my slides for config. I think they are going to love this one.

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Mike Smith @mikesmith.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

Been on the hunt for this cutie for awhile. Happy to have it nicely framed so I can smile at it every day.

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Mike Smith @mikesmith.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

🌉 WE’RE SPEAKING AT CONFIG 🌁 So excited to announce that Smith & Diction is taking the stage to talk all about how Figma is the best tool for brand designers. We’ll be giving a look behind the curtain to show what our insanely collaborative process looks like.

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Mike Smith @mikesmith.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

TFW you save the best overlapped masterpiece of a chip until the end. Pure bliss in a bite.

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Mike Smith @mikesmith.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

OH MY GOD THIS CASE STUDY IS COMING SO SOON. Two years in the making. Justin Lawes crushed this 3D so hard it turned into stone.

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Mike Smith @mikesmith.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

Ladies and gentleman we have a winner.

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Mike Smith @mikesmith.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

🤠 Yeehaw 🤠 Just presented R1 of a sprint-ish thing for a hotel in West Yellowstone. Full team went absolutely wild again. Turns out we love hotel projects. Here's the figma file so you can see the whole thing. www.figma.com/design/ZUmA9...

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Mike Smith @mikesmith.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

Since we're writing love letters to Philly...last week Smith & Diction was featured on @creativeboom.com. I spewed my guts on why I love being from here & how it's made us into the studio we are today. Philly forever! Give it a read below www.creativeboom.com/inspiration/...

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Mike Smith @mikesmith.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

It’s time to buy some dope fonts baby.

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Mike Smith @mikesmith.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

Working on something so incredibly exciting.

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Mike Smith @mikesmith.bsky.social · 30/01/2025

I freakin love the beginnings of projects. What do you mean I get to try literally ANYTHING?! Anyone that complains about being a designer has lost the plot.

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Mike Smith @mikesmith.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

Sometimes we make goofy things too. Made this mascot for an AI company that sadly got killed. I'm always blown away with all the expressions you can make just with mouth position or pupil placement. Maybe in a past life I just made cartoons??

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Mike Smith @mikesmith.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

TRUST NOTHING BUT THE PROCESS We're constantly evolving our process doc as we grow as a studio — so I wanted to share the 2025 version with you all. Also with Figma slides you can finally view it on your phone which is great, so we rebuilt it in there. www.figma.com/deck/UfBTdnz...

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Mike Smith @mikesmith.bsky.social · 14/01/2025

We got a new wordmark by @simonwalker.bsky.social for our upcoming 10 year anniversary at Smith & Diction. And I am absoluteeeeeeeelllyyyy going to be printing this on every possible thing I can imagine. Thanks to Simon as always for making the dopest letters in America.

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Mike Smith @mikesmith.bsky.social · 08/01/2025

I recently got a sony A 7C II to shoot some product work and stuff around the studio. Messed around this morning and shot some new headshots for Chara.

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Mike Smith @mikesmith.bsky.social · 07/01/2025

Sometimes you see a typeface and you just buy it immediately without letting any rational thought creep in. Crake by Narrow Type (narrowtype.com/fonts/crake/)

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Mike Smith @mikesmith.bsky.social · 03/01/2025

Made a new thing for an old friend.

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Mike Smith @mikesmith.bsky.social · 31/12/2024

Yeah I've got the google ones covered. Lots of really great options here.

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Mike Smith @mikesmith.bsky.social · 17/12/2024

The 2024 S&D year in review is here! What a whacky year am I rite? I think its important to do these recaps & look back at everything because honestly a year is a long time & its so easy to forget the endless things you created and the progress you've made. medium.com/smith-dictio...

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