Odi

Your brand rollout is the first opportunity to share your new brand with the outside world, and accordingly, you’ll want to make the right impression. We've laid out five steps to get you started. ?? → Assemble your team → Get organized early → Get the timing right → Don't forget your internal audience → Release your brand Easy enough, right? Head to the full blog and get a peak behind the curtain of how Salesloft, a Focus Lab rebrand partner, successfully rolled out its new brand. ?? https://hubs.la/Q02Y59SV0

"At the early stages of any company, you either make foundational investments in brand or you don't." - Bob Moore, CEO + Co-Founder of Crossbeam Bob is a successful engineer, and a bit of a serial entrepreneur — on his third business, after having successfully sold his first and second. But in the not-so-distant past, Bob did not believe in the value of brand. After his first rebrand experience with our team over at Focus Lab, he became a believer. So much so that after his company was acquired, he co-founded Crossbeam and partnered with us again for a spectacular round two. This is a can't miss episode of The Debrief for any founders in the early-stages of their business as Bob and Bill Kenney ?? touch on: ???The difference between being lean and being cheap in a startup ???Challenges and rewards of a rebrand through the founder lens ???The true ROI of a strong brand Tune in now: https://hubs.la/Q02Y4Z3v0 --- #founder #startup #b2b #brandagency #ROI

New case study alert ?? Celebrating its 75th anniversary in 2022, Bernard Welding, a MIG (metal inert gas) welding innovator, has a significant legacy, and it was ready to step into the modern era with a brand refresh. ?? Under the Illinois Tool Works (ITW) umbrella of brands, Bernard and Tregakiss combine their proven experience and storied legacies to manufacture top-quality welding solutions. Bernard needed an identity refresh to modernize it alongside ITW’s other portfolio companies while retaining the spirit of its previous branding. We loved collaborating with the talented team at Bernard to: → Refresh the existing Bernard visual identity → Provide brand support for their rollout needs Get all the details in our latest case study: https://hubs.la/Q02YcxgD0

BRAND OPINION: Speechmatics ?? Speechmatics is a speech-to-text API engine that “exists to understand every voice.” It’s a bold claim considering the well-documented obstacles automatic speech recognition (ASR) has faced with accents and dialogues. But it’s a challenge Speechmatics leans into, particularly through brand voice. With a compelling line, their homepage touts, “The proof is in the pudding. Or budino. Or ?????.” Speechmatics' mission to "understand every voice" is as apparent as it is powerful. Their tone feels conversational, clever, and empathetic. We could do with fewer acronyms and more personality in other areas, but their audience seems to be enterprise-level professionals looking for a specific solution. The visual identity is light and airy with wispy soundwaves throughout, which add some dynamism. From demo modules to blog art, everything feels very consistent, which is half the branding battle. The logo’s a bit of an outlier: a much heavier icon with a bold, all-caps sans serif wordmark. But as we love to say, a brand is not a logo. ?? Here's the TL;DR on our Speechmatics brand opinion: ??TOTAL FUNDING: $56.7M ?? PROS: Brand copy that balances the emotional appeal and the technical specs. A light and airy visual identity that plays well with their voice and tone. ?? CONS: Logo feels heavy in comparison, and the logotype lacks the personality seen elsewhere. —- This was an excerpt from our new + improved Odi newsletter: The Up & Up. With a fresh focus on providing immediate value and fostering a vibrant community, we're here to support your journey every step of the way. ?? Subscribe to our newsletter for insights like this (and way more) sent to your inbox every month: https://hubs.la/Q02XPpMp0

We are thrilled to celebrate our partners at Speakeasy as they closed their $15M Series A funding round last week! ???? The talented team at Speakeasy is working hard to make it trivially easy for every developer to build great APIs. They're building a platform that handles the heavy lifting of API development to unburden developers to focus on refining the business logic. It was a pleasure collaborating with their team to differentiate the Speakeasy brand from the rest of the crowd—and it's been fantastic to see them continue to crush it ever since. ?? Learn more about their raise: https://hubs.la/Q02Wn9JB0 P.S. We hear they're hiring. ??

"Brand is a game of perception, but that does not mean being fake." — Bill Kenney ?? When you're in the early years of your business, a strong brand can help you: ? Earn customer trust and loyalty ? Stand out (authentically) in an established market ? Fundraise with confidence ? Attract and retain top talent Go subscribe to our YouTube channel for more video content on all things brand. ?? https://hubs.la/Q02WNMjt0

Across social media, crypto, domains, and app stores, Doppel provides extensive coverage of every digital channel through state-of-the-art AI (high-signal, low-noise reporting) and by tracking enforcements with an auto-generated audit trail. Doppel partnered with Odi to develop a brand that is: → Differentiated from their competitors → Professional and sophisticated → Aligned with a North American user base → Flexible enough to expand and appeal to multiple target audience It was a pleasure collaborating with the team on the new Doppel brand last year, and we've loved watching them grow and crush it ever since. ?? Full case study → https://hubs.ly/Q02WnD9p0

Our partners at Speakeasy are accelerating innovation by making it easy for developers to create or consume any API. ?? Speakeasy allows a single builder to harness the talent and work of hundreds in a couple lines of code with support through high-quality software development kits, API tooling, and developer tools. But with their previous visual identity, Speakeasy was severely limited. → There were inconsistencies between their tone and visuals → The brand was built on a bright and playful color palette that didn't really match who they are and what they offer → Brand elements were well-designed, but they lacked strategy, or at least a consistent conceptual narrative Speakeasy need-ed to com-bat pre-con-ceived notions about machine-gen-er-at-ed code and its lim-i-ta-tions through their competitors. Dif-fer-en-ti-a-tion was very impor-tant, which meant explor-ing beyond the blues, pur-ples, blacks, and blue-greens of the land-scape. The Sin-gle Most Impor-tant Thing (aka SMIT) for this rebrand was to con-vey “Craft-ed by Design.” ?? Our friends at Speakeasy are growing fast + hiring! Head to their careers page and check out their open roles >> https://hubs.la/Q02VHWz70 #API #rebrand #b2b

Every visual decision made for your brand should be informed by brand strategy. Even for an early-stage company, it's imperative that you have a strategic "north star" to refer back to when working through your brand project. For example?? When we approached the updated logo with our partners at Cascade Debt, we began by reflecting on the brand attributes identified in our initial project exercises: → Specialized → Discipline → Catalyst Building on those attributes, we landed on a mark that serves as the central hub for interconnected clarity and empowering insight. To accompany the new mark, the team landed on a logotype that reflects Cascade's commitment to simplifying debt financing with repeatable, geometric curves that exist within each letterform. It was a pleasure working alongside the Cascade team to bring their brand to the next level—we can't wait to see them continue to crush it. ??

BRAND OPINION: Ursa Major???? In this case, it is rocket science. Ursa Major manufactures rocket propulsion systems utilizing 3D printing.? Their visual identity is well executed—a simple color palette of a striking orange with charcoals and white is bold, but a palette we’ve seen before. Ursa Major is the bear constellation, so the bear logo feels like an easy choice. The logotype is very stylish, if a bit illegible. They use vintage space photographs on occasion that evoke the nostalgic hope and excitement of space exploration.? In such a niche industrial space, their attention to brand feels surprising. We’d guess organizations in the market to buy rocket engines probably care most about efficiency, safety, and cost – less about brand values or an emotional connection. However, the Ursa Major website and messaging give a hint to their brand goals: recruitment and internal culture. There’s an entire page dedicated to their culture, featuring a very cute dog and the powerful statement, “Our culture is the one thing we take as much pride in as our engines.” The careers page kicks off with “Do something to be able to tell your grandchildren, ‘And I helped us get there.’” Chills!? A well-produced video on the homepage does a great job explaining who Ursa Major is and what they do for prospective employees, ranging from the non-technical to aerospace engineers. TL;DR Ursa Major’s visual identity is cool enough to rep on a T-shirt, but their messaging is where the brand really shines. ??TOTAL FUNDING: $271.8M ?? PROS: Powerful messaging and intentionality that highlight Ursa Major’s company culture and appeal to potential employees. ?? CONS: Cool visual identity, but lacks the ownability of their copywriting. Logotype difficult to read. —- This was an excerpt from our new + improved Odi newsletter: The Up & Up. With a fresh focus on providing immediate value and fostering a vibrant community, we're here to support your journey every step of the way. ?? Subscribe to our newsletter for insights like this (and way more) sent to your inbox every month: https://hubs.la/Q02Vbtvp0