Accelerating the airship brand
The lovable, light-hearted airship evolved from its first literal representation at launch to a more rounded, cartoonish blimp when the logo was updated in early 2013. But by 2015, as the company continued to pivot toward enterprise sales and gained market leadership, it wanted to slim down and speed up the airship to reflect its modern, streamlined software.
Heidi Tretheway led the branding effort for Urban Airship, which included in-depth stakeholder surveys, competitive research and a design symposium. In partnership with Liquid agency, the branding team created a more aerodynamic logo, new color palette, a custom logo typeface and updated brand typography, and all-new photography and video.
Heidi managed the internal branding team and agency partner. The full project was delivered, on time and on budget, in June 2015.
Modernizing an iconic open source project
The original OpenStack logo had all the bells and whistles of 2010-era design — such as gradients drop shadows — making it virtually impossible to reliably replicate across sponsor websites, contributor swag and event banners.
Yet the logo was an essential component of the OpenStack Foundations funding, as member organizations would pay $25,000 to $1 million for the right to use this logo on their website as part of their sales pitch. Established brands are always evolving toward simplicity, so rebranding was an opportunity to refine, simplify and make the mark globally applicable.
We brought the logo into the modern era with a bold, crisp open O and stronger, slightly wider typeface with its unique open K. Now, regardless of reproduction method or even without color, the mark reads loud and clear.
