When most teams talk about their brand or product design, they focus on consistency. At Hex, we care about that too — but we’ve also learned that a healthy, resonant brand isn’t static. The best brands flex. They know when to play it safe and polished, and when to get a little… weird.
That’s where our Chic-to-Freak Spectrum comes in.
The chic-to-freak spectrum is a framework we use to visualize how our brand and product might be perceived by an audience — and in what context. It gives us a common language for deciding when something should feel refined and minimal (chic) versus bold, playful, and unexpected (freak).
It’s not a fixed formula. It’s a living, evolving framework that keeps our brand fresh, cohesive, and resonant.
Before you can decide how far to lean chic or freak, you need to know who you’re designing for.
At Hex, our users range from highly technical daily practitioners to non-technical buyers who may only log in for procurement or budgeting. Each audience comes with different expectations, and different tolerance for experimentation.
Daily users might welcome playful micro-moments or unconventional UI patterns. Buyers might prefer a more polished, “boardroom-ready” look. Mapping this helps us decide where to place each touchpoint on the spectrum.
Next, we map our core brand values across the spectrum. This isn’t about changing the values themselves — it’s about exploring how each one might show up in different tonalities.
For example:
We’ve found it’s easier to align stakeholders when you can show what you mean. We borrow from cultural figures who flex their own chic-to-freak range — Lady Gaga’s discography, for example, spans from the classic elegance of Cheek to Cheek to the maximalist, alien-fantasy energy of Chromatica.