Here is our new branding! We put everything in order.

Pepsi has changed its branding eleven times, Apple three times, and Starbucks four times. We hope that we won't need to do it again😅

After 8 years of Order Group, we looked at our visual (mis)communication and saw the need for a major overhaul in this area. We needed a brand reset, a new, up-to-date visual identity for better communication in a rapidly developing digital world.

Why did we decide to rebrand?

While building new products we put a lot of effort into finding "The look & feel" that will resonate with our customers and their user base. The tech market is changing fast, almost too fast. So do our customers and our competition. Our legacy branding got too old, it was almost craving for a refactor. We've recognized that need a long time ago, but as it usually goes - you prioritize the work for your customers, waiting for a design holiday season that never comes 😅

Suddenly after a couple of years of postponing, the stars aligned perfectly and we've managed to jump into the design process. Every designer knows that branding yourself is one of the toughest tasks, but we had it covered - we decided to approach our branding in a very analytical and entirely process-driven way.

Our Rebranding Design Process

1. We interviewed our customers (our main Buyer/Customer Personas) and former employees (our main Employee Personas). Asked them about our current branding, our strengths & weaknesses, we asked them about the market & our competitors that they considered while picking a software house
2. We briefed our team: noted down what works, what doesn't work with our current branding from a practical standpoint (brand elements used across all media formats)
3. We went through our brand strategy workshops results, specified the needs & challenges that our new branding will need to face & overcome
4. Based on all the above we specified some major design assumptions as a foundation for the brand concept and created mood boards
5. We executed 3 concepts (presented as brand boards containing a logo, visual concept explanation, a hero unit of our website, and social media templates)
6. We showcased the concepts and did a face-to-face survey with our Buyer & Employee Personas and our OG Board Members
7. We picked the branding purely based on the survey results

Rebranding Result & Takeaways

Set some solid foundations for the design that you can validate in 5 seconds, by testing with your recipients (buyer & employee personas). After a solid briefing we set 4 major design must-haves:

1. A symbol containing O & G
   O stands for Order and G stands for Group, and OG stands for... 🔫 💵 🐐
2. A symbol containing a reference to an IT software or hardware related item/symbol
   One of the most essential areas that we are focusing on is the Internet of Things market. We work with hardware and devices running our firmware & software. So we landed switcher shape (a tilted ON/OFF 1/0 button) because it is an integral part of almost all electronic devices.
3. Key visuals with a reference to technology/programming
   The idea came from the search for something that is recognizable, simple, and used in our projects. We picked "image/face recognition", which is such a visually characteristic script. The face or an object is recognized, marked by a frame, interpreted & labeled in real-time. Using this leitmotiv is a good way to include or highlight additional context & information in the picture. This simple "thingy" allowed us to build a whole visual language that utilizes photos, graphics, icons, etc.
4. A typeface that will fit a tech entourage
   For the base of the logotype, we used a modified version of Space Grotesk. This typeface is also used for all headlines in all branding materials along with Work Sans for the body text.

We've also listed some secondary design requirements like:

• A distinctive, minimalistic, and recognizable symbol, that can be used as an icon
• Color palette closely related to the tech theme
• Brand voice coherent with our values ("We put everything in order.")
• Dark Mode!

About 95% of IT companies are rocking light mode, so we found that dark mode will distinguish our brand from this overcrowded space:)

Also, dark mode is usually the first and the most requested feature from the users of recent projects that we developed.

And yes this is proven - the dark mode reduces eye fatigue and it's good for the environment. It saves energy, and the battery actually gets a breather after running a dark theme. And it better exposes the intense colors of our advertising visuals.

Audience analysis and interviews are a must

Have you ever asked a customer about your branding reception? Well, you should... This was an eye-opener that allowed us to come to various relevant and funny (!) conclusions, which we didn't expect at all.

We've learned (after some time) that one of our customers first impressions was, that we were a company selling medals and awards (we had a medal and the word "order" in the logo;) This was one out of many hints that reminded us that we need this rebranding ASAP.

How to avoid a biased and emotional attitude during the rebranding?

We wanted to execute a rebranding based on research and data, not emotions. We specifically interviewed our board at the far end to avoid making a decision that is biased by the sentiment that we share for something that we have identified with for over 8 years. This approach gave us a different (3rd person) perspective on our company, and thanks to that picking the branding was easier because it enabled a transparent but at the same time controlled decision-making process.

What's next OG?

Our goal was to create an identity that will evolve as fast as the tech market. For now, the "face recognition" key visuals that we picked refer to one of the most popular Python scripts, but the main concept for our branding allows the key visuals to evolve with time, as soon as a new tech will emerge in the mainstream. For now, we think that we are good... We just need to update over twenty presentations and a hundred subpages, so it's going to be an exciting month 😭 🙌