Upshot is an content service which helps organizations to capture authentic customer stories to enable sales teams and earn buyer trust. It is a sub-brand and service offered by Influitive.
At the time of this rebrand, I was part of the 3-person team running Upshot. Small but mighty. As is my tradition, I took one look at the existing branding and started sketching.
In our early conversations about re-branding, there was some push and pull on how far away from the Influitive brand we would really be able to take it. Being part of the Upshot team and proud of what we were able to do as a company within a company, I decided to just go ahead and put some time into finding out what the brand could be all on its own.
Keeping it simple, I concentrated on what we wanted Upshot to represent. A strong, focused, current brand identity would be key to showcasing the modern solutions we offered. I still kept the Influitive identity in mind, using some of the current Influitive colour palettes, typefaces, and messaging. But this whole process was meant to help Upshot stand a little more apart.
I still believe the rebrand could have helped elevate the Upshot brand. However, during the collaboration process to decide where we could begin making live-changes, it was decided internally that Upshot was going to be further integrated into the Influitive brand. Instead of being given a changed voice, it would become part of the symphony of Influitive products and services.
The end result may not have been what I’d hoped for, but I’m still happy I invested my time in exploring the possibilities.
The old brand felt like it was built with launch speed as opposed to clarity of purpose in mind. It had some strong individual elements but needed some focus and consolidation.
The purple brand colour exuded feelings of creativity and wisdom, while the gold provided an emphasis on warmth and energy. This wasn’t a bad place to start.
The logo was something put together on a whim because the brand needed something. I wasn’t able to find much in the way of conversations about the logo or how it came about.
With a range of drawing, writing, and “content” based shapes to play with, it became clear pens and pencil shapes were the way to go.
The fountain pen shape, featured heavily on the left, drew me in for a long time. But, since they just didn’t scale well, I had to move away from them.
The pencil was the perfect solution as it could be combined into both the U and P shapes, allowing for a unique “UP” standalone logo. Watermarking, merch, white labelling—the possibilities with such a simple standalone were endless.
Once the logo was locked in, we built variations for the wide variety of applications likely to be used. A logomark for general use, “stamp” logos for smaller packaging, and a wordmark lockup for larger digital and print items.
Like with all logo and brand identity constructions, a brand guideline was the next key item. Building further on the brand voice and values we’d already built, a colour palette, typography choices, imagery rules, and general composition guidelines.
This would allow the team to begin the next step—building the physical assets they needed in the real world.
We learned a lot while building this brand. With any small client, the key to helping them build a strong, personal brand is to ensure you know the client. Getting into the depths of what they want out of their organization, their brand, and their efforts. As a designer, it’s about fleshing out what is best for your client, and what is best for their future as an organization.
With this client, I think we did just that.
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