Veracode Rebrand
After I joined the Veracode team in 2016, the need for a refreshed brand was apparent. The company was growing at a rapid pace and surging to the forefront of application security technology, yet the brand did not reflect that innovation and leadership. Still, the logo itself was strong and we had a good amount of name recognition, but it needed a cohesive and strong identity to surround it; something to stand out from the growing competitive crowd.
After a lot of preliminary brainstorming and design experiments, I realized that we had a very strong mark in our logo itself that we were not using to its full potential - the 01. If I focused on that aspect of the logo, I could develop it into it's own brand and have it become it's own recognizable element, independent of the full logo.
A visual identity is more than eye-catching images. It should be the graphic representation of the company’s entire brand personality – something that is easily and uniquely associated with the company. Ideally, employees and stakeholders can become part of the visual identity in such a way they are invested in it.
The 01 had been part of Veracode’s DNA since its inception. It is in both the code we build as well as the code we test. It lives within Veracode and had always been visible in the Veracode logo. But as I began exploring the 01 concept further, I realized the 01 gave us an opportunity to show how we are embedded in the issues and themes most important to our market. The 01 lives inside DevOps, inside Software and Compliance.
The next step in the rebrand effort was the decision that the 01 could function as a creative canvas, placing a variety of photos, vectors, gradients and more into the shape itself. While the main logo would continue to follow the brand colors, the 01 could be used as a flexible element as long as it remained consistent with the design it was a part of. I also launched a webpage that allowed any employees to generate their own custom 01 by uploading any image into the graphic which helped create excitement internally regarding our new look.
The next step of the rebrand was to develop a typographic language that cohesively incorporates the 01. Similar to the logo, I started to use the form of the 01 as a part of words that were relevant and important to our industries. The 01 gave us an opportunity to show how we are embedded in the issues and themes most important to our market.
Once launched, the brand took off. You could find the Veracode brand and our 01 all over the world; at events and booths, on billboards, buses, cabs, a new website, wallpapers, posters, stickers, and more!
