Redefining the Calendar

I was in the “all I can stomach is McDonald’s” part of pregnancy with my second kid when I came across Laurel Wessman. She was a full-time dermatologist with three kids. But unlike me, she didn’t spend her spare time analyzing Mormon Wives. She was building a family calendar app. I thought, if anyone knows about organization, it’s Laurel. And then we started working on her brand.

Behind the Project

Laurel was already down the path of building a family calendar app. She had a development firm, the beginnings of a prototype, and a couple brilliant women working at her side. But we realized quickly that what they lacked most was a brand, a name and a strategy.

I got to know Laurel and her ambitions first. It was clear she was not your average tech company founder. She didn’t have a VC firm and a board of backers setting the agenda. She knew a lot about entrepreneurial moms and their gripes, but was not mired in advertising and tech acronyms like me.

But best of all, Laurel did not want to create a milquetoast brand that aimed to follow the herd. She spoke fiercely about how society had abandoned working women, how home was often ignored by technological innovations, and how stereotypes filtered out countless perspectives and held women back.

Positioning Idly

I started by conducting a broad audit of the family calendar category. Beautiful wall-mounted screens, passionate Reddit communities, Costco retail partnerships, quizzes about mental load—there was a lot going on. What I noticed after careful examination is that these apps portrayed a certain Parent Hierarchy of Needs, with control at the bottom, independence in the middle and joy at the top. As much as I personally love fun and joy, I lacked conviction that this was the be-all, end-all goal for families. What about the freedom to pursue your purpose?

Brand Strategy

We realized that Idly’s unique role in the category was providing freedom. Freeing families from organizational friction, and freeing them to live their way.

Name, Tagline and Central Metaphor

Before we explored names, we asked the age-old question. Is Idly a product, or a company? Ultimately, it became clear that Idly was a product. With this in mind, we explored a wide range of names, and landed on ElevenEleven for the holding company behind Idly, capturing the idea of looking at your phone during that one magic time of day you get to make a wish.

For the calendar, Idly rose to the forefront. It captured the rebellious mentality of the brand, which positioned against productivity apps, aiming to focus on life’s idle moments, where you have time to focus on your purpose. The central metaphor of the brand, which went on to inspire its logo, is the idea of the imperfect art of balancing everything that matters to you.

Its tagline, “Free Your Time” is a call to action that encourages people to liberate themselves from planning culture so that you can pursue your real purpose.

manifesto

Free Your Time

Organizing your calendar shouldn’t be another part of your life that holds you back. Instead, it should open schedules, possibilities, and minds. Idly helps you balance every realm of your life and reclaim your precious time. Together, we can empower families that are done chasing someone else’s definition of how they should live. So let’s stop worrying about ideal, and celebrate real life and all its Idly pleasures.

Making It Real

Design Director Jenny Barr took this brand foundation and created a Visual Identity system that built on it, complete with a set of shapes meant to evoke the wabi sabi beautify of balancing a family’s priorities.

One of the main goals of Idly is to represent all kinds of families—chosen families, LGBTQIA+ families, diverse families, divorced families, and more.

The Product Experience

Once we had a complete brand platform, including a voice & tone and design system, we reapplied it to the working product. We also crisped up the brand’s value propositions and differentiators, so we could articulate just why were were different.

The Idly Website

You can view the culmination of the Idly brand and messaging on its website, and even sign up to use the product!

What’s next?

Stay tuned!

Despite all the family calendar apps out there, our biggest competition is still a good old-fashioned whiteboard and paper planner. We hope to spread the art of using Idly to all kinds of families through storytelling, campaigns and content. Meanwhile, I now have two kids to chase around, and get all my pro tips for being a sane and creative mom from my good friend Laurel.

Follow Idly on social media and email for some big new updates to come soon!

Meet the Team

  • Laurel Wessman

    Founder and CEO

  • Dinesh Bande

    Chief Strategy Officer & COO

  • Jenny Barr

    DESIGN DIRECTOR

  • Kristen Fabin

    Project and Brand Manager

  • Erin Mackaman

    Content Strategist

  • Valor Gorans

    Customer Service

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