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Anshul Ramachandran knew theyd landed on something special when engineers started having opinions about color palettes. Probably one of my favorite moments was when we showed other people at the company the brand book for the first time and I heard the audible wows and ahs, the cofounder and head of product and strategy at Windsurf says. If you can get a bunch of engineers in a room to do that about colors and lines, you probably did something that works.Windsurf, formerly known as Codeium, is an AI-based development environment that was bought last month by Open AI for $3 billion30 times its valuation. Ramachandrans clients are mainly engineers, and so any redesign needed to speak directly to them. So Windsurf enlisted Vancouver design agency Metalab to create a visual identity that looks more like athletic gear than business software. The result breaks every rule about how tech companies are supposed to look. [Image: courtesy Metalab]Back to the humanWindsurf builds AI tools for more than a million software engineers, helping them accelerate their coding workflows through what the company calls seamless AI collaboration. But their previous brand identitya black background with teal accentsfelt limiting for a product that was expanding beyond basic code generation.The previous branding iteration. [Image: Windsurf]Theres sort of a very grayscale, kind of boring treatment to a lot of [technology] products, says Allison Butula, marketing director at Metalab. The standard tech aesthetic had become a liability for a company positioning itself at the intersection of human creativity and machine intelligence. When machines seem to be taking over our world, it makes sense that a brand should work to make technology feel more human.[Image: courtesy Metalab]The timing of the redesign aligned with broader changes at Windsurf. The company released the Windsurf Editor in November, which generated such momentum that users began identifying the company by its product name rather than its corporate name. The company officially renamed to Windsurf in April. It was a natural time as we were also changing the name of the company, Ramachandran says.[Image: courtesy Metalab]The big creative riskYash Mittal, lead designer at Windsurf who oversaw the project internally, tells me the team was deliberate about taking creative risks. At the end of this process, where do we want to be? And were like, we want to take this big risk. And even if it fails, were okay with that because we dont want to end up with a brand that looks just like any other tech brand, he says.[Image: courtesy Metalab]Metalab has helped to turn technical products into emotionally resonant brands in the past (including Slack). Jordan Darbishire, brand director at Metalab, anchored the visual identity in a core emotional concept. It was the idea of feeling this unlimited potential. So its all about flow state. Its all about doing your best work and the tool affording you time, which is obviously a very precious resource, she says.[Image: courtesy Metalab]The brand flows indeed. The flat white logomark is a stylized W that makes it look like waves in the ocean. Its smooth thickness variations give it a hand-drawn quality, but at the same time it is precise, recalling an engineers calligraphy on a blueprint. The variable width typographyhow the W letterform grows wider, then thinner, then wider again, creating visual rhythm that suggests energy and movementtransmits a flow state, Mittal says. The logomark also visually echoes the wordmark: The Ws curves literally repeat the delicate thin ligatures of the brands typeface, Tomato Grotesk, adding to the repetition and the flow Mittal speaks aout.[Image: courtesy Metalab]The design process required balancing seemingly contradictory elements, Darbishire says. We want to really meld the natural and the technical, she says. To achieve that, the team created wavelike gradients that guide the eye through compositions while incorporating blueprint elements that communicate technical sophistication, which are at the same time a big contrast to the flat nature of the Windsurf brand and, at the same time, extend its human nature.Early design concepts and inspiration [Image: courtesy Metalab]Surfing UX AIThese pretty gradients are a key part of the brand book. Metalab developed a comprehensive gradient system with dotted line language and dash patterns that Windsurfs designers could use to build new shapes and applications. The color palette drew inspiration from actual windsurfing sails. A lot of them utilize these bright neon colors so you can see them on the water. Its also sort of the design language of that sport, Darbishire says. It looks like it could be a windsurf, like a windsurfing athletic company. And we really want to lean into that because its just so unique.[Image: courtesy Metalab]It wasnt the most aggressively sporty option, however. The team explored directions that felt too fashion-forward, too technical, or too vibrant before finding the balance point. We arrived at the sweet spot where we were very creative and expressive, but also we communicated our product values extremely clearly, Mittal notes. The gradients and colors will be an element that permeates the entire UX.[Image: courtesy Metalab]Luke Des Cotes, CEO of Metalab, says his company has had a front row seat of these kinds of waves in technologythe big boom of crypto companies that all come forward. And now its been AI companies that have kind of come forward. Creating a unique brand is key during a gold rush, he adds. There is going to be like this real renaissance of value put towards brand as being a core differentiator, he says.While Windsurf launched its new logo in mid-April, testing market reception before the full brand rollout, the complete rebranding across the site and all materials happens today (a day before International Surf Day). The logo has been a success so far, Ramachandran says. Almost all of our customers, especially on the enterprise side, theyre like, okay, yeah, thats great. You see the W, I see the wave, I see the flow. It makes a lot of sense.
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E-Commerce
If you value critical thinking, you may want to rethink your use of ChatGPT. As graduates proudly show off using ChatGPT for final projects, and with 89% of students admitting to using it for homework, have you ever wondered what effect this is having on our brains? A new study conducted by researchers at MIT split 54 participants (aged 18 to 39 from the Boston area) into three groups. Each was tasked with writing 20-minute essays based on SAT prompts using either OpenAIs ChatGPT, Googles comparatively more traditional search engine, or their own brains. Researchers then used electroencephalogram (or EEG) to record brain activity across 32 regions. Of the three groups, those assisted by ChatGPT engaged their brains the least and consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioral levels. The study found that using ChatGPT reduced activity in brain regions associated with memory and learning, as some human thinking and planning was offloaded to the LLM. Unsurprisingly, ChatGPT users felt less ownership over their essays compared to the other groups. They also struggled to recall or quote from their own essays shortly after submitting themshowing how reliance on the LLM bypassed deep memory processes. Over several months, those using ChatGPT became lazier with each essay. By the end of the study, their work amounted to little more than copy-and-paste. Two English teachers who assessed the essays called them largely soulless. The papers lead author, Nataliya Kosmyna, told Time: It was more like, Just give me the essay, refine this sentence, edit it, and Im done. By comparison, the group using their own brains showed the highest neural connectivity, were more engaged and curious, and expressed greater satisfaction with their essays. The Google Search group also showed high satisfaction and active brain function. Given how frequently ChatGPT is now used in educational settings, these findings give cause for concern. A February 2025 OpenAI report on ChatGPT use among college-aged users found that more than one-quarter of their ChatGPT conversations were education-related. The report also revealed that the top five uses for students were writing-centered: starting papers and projects (49%), summarizing long texts (48%), brainstorming creative projects (45%), exploring new topics (44%), and revising writing (44%). The MIT paper has not yet been peer-reviewed, and its sample size is relatively small. However, the authors believed it was important to release the findings to draw attention to the damaging long-term impact that use of large language models may have on our brainsas more and more people outsource everything from work tasks to texting. What really motivated me to put it out now before waiting for a full peer review is that I am afraid in 68 months, there will be some policymaker who decides, Lets do GPT kindergarten. I think that would be absolutely bad and detrimental, Kosmyna told Time. Developing brains are at the highest risk. Next time you are struggling with a writing task, stick with it. Your brain will thank you.
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E-Commerce
It seems Americans cant get enough of Olive Gardens never-ending soup or salad and breadsticks: The chains parent company reported quarterly results on Friday that buck a broader slump in dining out trends. Darden Restaurants reported stronger-than-expected sales and earnings growth in its most-recent quarter that slightly beat analysts estimates. The Orlando-based company reported that same-store sales increased 6.9% at Olive Garden and 6.7% at LongHorn Steakhouse, which both beat analysts expectations. Across the companys 11 brands, same-restaurant sales rose 4.6%. The company, not surprisingly, credits its model for its success. Rick Cardenas, Dardens president and CEO, said the company has been very prudent in keeping its price changes below inflation. What we believe is happening right now in the casual dining space is our consumers are figuring out that casual dining is a great value, he said Friday on a call with Wall Street analysts. Consumers want to go out and spend their hard-earned money, and we think were taking some wallet share from fast food and fast casual. Americans have soured on fast food lately, as both McDonalds and Chipotle reported declines in same-store sales during their first quarters, albeit for different timeframes than Darden. Traffic at U.S. quick-service restaurantswhich includes the likes of McDonalds and Chipotlehas been steadily declining, and fell again in May versus last year, according to figures from Revenue Management Solutions (RMS), which provides insights about the restaurant industry. Saving money is the main reason keeping people from heading out to eat, as 69% of Americans say theyre eating at home more often, according to KPMGs Consumer Pulse Summer 2025 report. And consumers surveyed said they expect to spend 7% less at restaurants each month this summer. Olive Garden’s Momentum Despite weakness elsewhere in the industry, Darden is forecasting solid growth in its 2026 fiscal year thats now underway. The company forecast total sales growth of 7% to 8% following gains of 6% in the 2025 fiscal year. One thing thats helped Olive Garden, Dardens biggest brand, is a delivery partnership with Uber Direct. In the most-recent quarter, Uber Direct accounted for about 3.5% of Olive Gardens total sales. And more broadly, Cardenas said that Darden is focusing on how to keep up its recent strength, particularly for Olive Garden. Were going to continue to find ways to keep that momentum going.
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E-Commerce
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