Problem
At 15 years in, Zendesk was fighting for distinction in a sea of competitors within the CX space. Various companies had "adopted" several aspects of our unique brand language, which diluted its impact over time. Transformational change within the company and the broader CX industry signaled it was long time to refresh our brand positioning, messaging and visual look and feel. In order to effectively reach our audience and grow the business, a new mature and confident brand expression would decisively increase our brand distinction and demonstrate market leadership.
Primary objectives
- Shift perception of Zendesk from SMB-focused to a mature and frictionless enterprise-friendly solution
- Develop an ownable, distinct visual expression and voice that positions Zendesk as a leader in the CX space
- Steward the brand for a larger market presence and increased engagement
- Signal maturity, sophistication, quality and relevance
- Create a scalable and accessible design system
Project scope:
Art direction, branded imagery, tone of voice, website, systematized asset templates, motion & animation, sonic branding, brand guidelines
Brand workshop sessions
Our creative team embarked on collaborative, cross-functional brand workshop sessions independently organized by myself and other teammates. The primary objective of these workshops was to audit where our current branding was falling short, and also gather inspirational examples of peer and competitive brand executions. These initial workshops succeeded in aligning the entire team on the key objectives and touchpoint requirements of the brand, and also contributed to a wealth of initial inspiration for the upcoming concept and design phases to follow.
Defining new brand attributes and establishing foundational elements
To kickstart creative direction, we defined new brand attributes: distilled, confident, generous, and fresh. These attributes became the lens through which we judged our work. Our team iterated, shifted, and evolved our design experiments to align with these attributes. The result is an integrated, harmonious brand expression that is true to the Zendesk brand. Distilling our color palette made way for vibrant and expressive new imagery, while incorporating a serif typeface (Feature) into our type stack immediately elevated our newly matured and confident voice and tone. Minimalism and restraint played an enormous role in our design approach to layouts, as well as a concern for representation and inclusion within our imagery system.
Once we had our typefaces in place, I also worked closely with our digital team to adapt our brand fonts for our web type scale. We used 6 and 8 pt increments between most sizes depending on the breakpoint. In addition, I worked closely with our digital designers to implement various type styles and tracking for optimized hierarchy within different web elements, such as CTAs and text links. These visuals are pulled from Greenhouse, the digital design system within Zendesk.
Motion and animation kit
I collaborated with our amazing Film team on updating our baseline animation kit. My role in this kit was establishing typographic and layout guidance for how our new brand would be stylistically applied in video. Careful attention to easing, subtle transitions, ample negative space and pace helped to bring a cinematic feel even to our most stylistically restrained videos, which was ideal for things like product demos and tutorials at the bottom of the marketing funnel. The restrained look and feel was intentionally spare to maintain focus on product and photographic imagery.
This 18-month initiative resulted in an evocative brand identity foundation, as well as where we’re headed. Our voice and tone has been refined to prioritize clarity of message, through a caring yet opinionated lens. The resulting visual brand expression draws from the quiet confidence and minimalism of editorial design, portraying a timeless sense of place while elevating stories with simplicity and creativity. Our color palette harnesses jewel tones that effortlessly differentiate our brand, and our uniquely handcrafted house illustration style provides organic, humanistic warmth for additional distinction within this space. Our photography documents moments that speak directly to our audience by capturing both the ideal and realistic state of CX. Our motion and storytelling approach enables Zendesk to present technical, complex subject matter in a way that is both elegant and easy to understand, delivering on our brand promise to simplify the complex. We set the stage for a brand system that will be easy and engaging to extend upon, which set up our team and company for success moving forward.
I was lucky to partner with incredibly talented in-house team members who came together across the globe to make this happen. We even netted an RGD Branding Award and a Silver World Brand Design Society award for this project, which means we did something right.
Awards
World Brand Design Society
Identity: Brand Redesign - SILVER
Illustration: Identity - SILVER
Typography: Graphic Design - COMMENDED
Registration of Graphic Designers
Integrated Awards: Branding Identity - Rebrand/Refresh
Credits
VP of Creative: Erin Pinkley
ECDs: Betsy (Filson) Field, Olivia Kingsley
ACD: Tim Lampe
Sr Designers: Faustine Gheno, Rachel Frankel, Clark Hubert Guy
Illustration Lead: Olenka Malarecka
Photo Lead: Marta Dymek
Principal Copywriter: Diana Wynne
Sr Copywriters: Raven Wright, Julia Oller, Kendrick Hammond
Brand Systems: Cristina Mendoza Magari, Arienne Gagui
Producers: Caty Chung, Renae Vespremi, Kevin Tsukii, Anna Cirera, MacKenzie Covington, Jordyn Fields, Beryl Baker
Digital: Kristina Alford, Adam Chung, Silvana Yaneva
Motion/Video: Mary Vertulfo, Victor Hugo Duran, Colin Thomas, Tori Cincotta, Monica Yap, Sara Farnsworth
Iconography: Laura Bohill
