Brand Strategy

Enhancing Bluecore's Visual Impact with a Refreshed Brand Identity

The Project

Following a successful $35MM Series C fundraise in 2018, high-growth ecommerce start-up Bluecore needed to refresh the company's visual identity to stand out in a saturated market.
Bluecore’s pre-existing brand identity fell flat in usability, contrast, and overall market appeal. The color palette lacked accessibility and the 3-D logo proved challenging to work with. The website had a high bounce rate and did not offer a compelling or dynamic user experience. Multiple internal stakeholders with conflicting opinions created an additional layer of complexity in-house.
Using design thinking tools, I worked with internal stakeholders to develop an agile workflow that allowed for constructive and pointed criticism at appropriate times in the design process. I gathered stakeholder feedback using wireframes, prototypes and competitive analysis which helped guide the design process.
The result of the months long rebranding process included a new company logo, brand guidelines, business cards, email signatures, company swag, and 25+ rebranded marketing materials. Along with Bluecore’s updated branding, the launch of a redesigned company website quickly followed which resulted in a 8.1% decrease in bounce-rate YoY.
In 2019, Bluecore’s updated company brand won Silver in the Technology category of the International Visual Identity Awards.

My Role:
Design Lead & Creative
Director

During Bluecore’s brand refresh, I followed a five-stage design process: Research, Define, Ideate, Create, Test. Prior to my involvement in the project, a branding agency had started working on the refresh. Unhappy with the agency’s work, the Bluecore CEO fired the agency and put me in charge.

Over 4.5 months and under my leadership, the small and mighty Bluecore design team developed multiple logos and color schemes to facilitate conversations among the stakeholders. We always focused on our core values of Powerful, Thoughtful and Straightforward and considered how the updated elements aligned with these values.

Once the new design elements were agreed upon, the design team set about implementing them into templates, marketing materials, email campaigns, sales materials, and event collateral. I created Bluecore’s first ever Brand Guidelines which were distributed company-wide.