CASE STUDY

MATILLION
REBRAND

OVERVIEW

During the brand refresh at Matillion, we set out with a clear vision: to evolve our brand while retaining the elements that made it recognizable and trusted. Our goal was to align more closely with the competitive landscape and reflect Matillion’s growth, all while incorporating subtle nods to our origins. Through extensive research and collaboration across departments, we crafted a brand identity that both honors our past and positions us for future success. From the logo’s design evolution to refining our brand’s tone and aesthetic, this refresh represented a new chapter for Matillion, one rooted in resilience, innovation, and continued growth.

SCOPE

The Matillion brand refresh aimed to retain familiar elements while evolving the company’s identity to better compete in a rapidly growing market. We sought to create a brand that aligned with our expanding practitioner community, global footprint, and partner ecosystem. Our goal was to ensure the brand would reflect Matillion's core values while preparing it for future growth and innovation.

CHALLENGE

The challenge was balancing the need for brand evolution with maintaining the elements that Matillion’s audience had come to recognize and trust. As the company scaled globally and the demand for data transformation solutions grew, our brand needed to convey both stability and innovation. This had to be done remotely, which added complexity in communication and collaboration across teams.

APPROACH

We started with thorough internal research, gathering insights from employees across departments and leadership to understand the current brand’s strengths and areas for growth. We refined our brand model components and conducted a comprehensive market analysis, ensuring Matillion’s refreshed identity would stand out while maintaining its established reputation. Collaboration was key, as we explored new visual expressions while preserving core elements like the logo’s green color and familiar structure.

IMPACT

The result was a refreshed logo and brand identity that embodied Matillion’s origins and growth. The new design maintained familiar elements while incorporating a honeycomb pattern symbolizing resilience and the company's Manchester roots. The updated shades of green added vibrancy and energy, helping the brand stand out in competitive markets. Matillion’s refreshed identity now better represents its role in lifting customers’ experiences through data, with a visual language that aligns with its continued expansion and success.

STEP 1: DIG

The journey always starts with thorough research, and in this instance, it begins with a questionnaire that delves into our brand's past. To grasp the current state of affairs and gauge how our existing brand sets the stage for future endeavors, I engaged employees from various departments throughout the organization. This included individuals from product development, field operations, sales, developer relations, corporate marketing, HR, and, naturally, our executive leadership.

The findings were that in today's rapidly evolving digital landscape, data has become the lifeblood of businesses, enabling them to gain insights, make informed decisions, and drive innovation. As organizations strive to harness the power of data, the demand for robust and efficient data transformation solutions continues to grow. So we require a brand that can evolve alongside our geographical expansion, the growth of our practitioner community, the hiring across all functions, and the expansion of our partner ecosystem.

STEP 2: DEFINE

While many individuals associate a brand with its logo, color scheme, imagery, tagline, or audio jingle, it's crucial to understand that a brand encompasses much more than these superficial aspects. Essentially, a brand represents a commitment, a promise of an exceptional encounter.

A robust brand promise unifies your purpose, positioning, strategy, people, and customers, empowering you to cultivate a brand that stands out from the competition while fostering a deep emotional bond.

Consequently, we evaluated the existing components of our brand model, namely vision, mission, promise, and values, in light of extensive research findings. Whenever necessary, we refined existing elements or introduced entirely new ones. We conducted a comprehensive market analysis to ensure a distinct presence in the marketplace and diligently examined the factors contributing to the iconic status of SaaS tech brands.

After thorough collaboration, our collective decision was to undertake a brand refresh rather than a complete rework of our existing brand.

Here are some alternative logo and icon designs that didn't make the final cut.

STEP 3: DO

As a creative professional, I found the next phase particularly exhilarating. Our focus shifted towards exploring the visual identity, tone, and overall aesthetic of the brand. We delved into defining how the brand's architecture seamlessly integrates across all communication channels.

During our first review, I ensured a diverse range of stakeholders were invited to participate, each representing crucial aspects of our organization. Together, we carefully evaluated the options presented and successfully narrowed down our choices from ten to four for the next iteration.

During this pivotal moment, we wholeheartedly embraced the wisdom of Edward de Bono's quote, which emphasizes the essence of creativity: breaking free from conventional patterns to explore new perspectives.

Of course, during our exploration process, we ventured into various innovative directions for the logo, symbols, and wordmarks, however, after two rounds, Matthew Scullion, our CEO and the company Co-founder provided a clear directive to preserve as much of the original logo as possible. The objective was to maintain the familiar elements people have grown accustomed to and hold in high regard.

During that time, Mark Johnston, our CMO shared a valuable insight. He perceived the strokes in our logo as representative of a data pipeline, which sparked our imagination. We envisioned the remaining elements of the logo as a symbol of elevating or lifting our customers' experiences, symbolized by the "Λ" shape.

STEP 4: DETAILS

It became evident that we were favoring two distinct directions, which showed promise and aligned with our goals.

We had made significant progress, reaching approximately 70% completion. Considering our company's origins in Manchester, where the bee is a significant symbol, we aimed to incorporate a subtle reference to it. Our design concept involved integrating a honeycomb pattern around the data pipeline and lift, symbolizing resilience, stability, and the essence of the bee. This addition provided the logo with a sense of support and strength.

Naturally, Matillion's unwavering loyalty to the color green remains steadfast, so changing it was never a consideration. However, we have elevated the various shades of green to create a more vibrant version. This not only enables us to distinguish ourselves in competitive landscapes and events but also adds refreshing energy to our brand.

Big Reveal

We unveiled the new Matillion brand in a dynamic video premiere at the Data Unlocked conference. The video showcased the evolution of our logo and brand identity, highlighting the journey of resilience, innovation, and connectedness that shaped the refresh. It set the stage for the brand’s future, leaving a lasting impression on attendees as we introduced our vision for the next chapter of Matillion’s growth.