From Startup to Scaleup: How Visual Identity Reflects Your Business Growth
The story of how a young brand within an international group of eCommerce companies grew from situational design approach to a full-fledged visual communication strategy
JoomPro is a tech enabled turnkey solution for B2B importing goods from China. It was launched in 2021 as an experimental platform within Joom and had no really defined brand identity. Its style was based mainly on two elements — the letter “J” as a homage to Joom and black colour. It was enough for the launch and also quite convenient, as we were able to quickly modify the visual style for different marketing campaigns, SMM purposes or client events across regions (Asia, Europe, Latin America).
Over time, the company matured and grew into an independent business, so this situational approach became rather a constraint than an advantage. Design concept is first and foremost about communication, and JoomPro values were absolutely not conveyed by this default black and blue colour scheme we used to have.
We’ve thus decided to rebrand to better transmit our core ideas and build a strong visual communication strategy applicable across all platforms and in any geography from China to Brazil.
So we turned to a branding agency to develop a full-fledged corporate style. We weren’t looking for big names, since our goal wasn’t to create a standard solution or advertise through a well-known design platform. Instead, we prioritized the work speed, team’s enthusiasm and willingness to create something truly catchy. Therefore, we hired a small yet bold and driven agency with relevant experience in international projects for B2B clients and a good understanding of eCommerce specificity.
Makarofmax, JoomPro design lead who took command of this project, told us the story behind the transition.
Key meanings
The main challenge was to create new style clear to everyone, i.e. for people from sometimes totally different cultures.
Large companies typically begin the rebranding process with conducting research. JoomPro was, after all, a startup, and we did not do a large-scale study at the outset, but moved on to it later, when we already got a result that all stakeholders liked.
Hence, we started by formulating the key meanings of the product, as no one believes in brands failing to connect emotionally with their clientele. These meanings became the point of reference for the design team.
JoomPro is a tech company, not just a carrier agent
Our business is based on innovative technologies. From the very beginning, the team strives to automate the process and use artificial intelligence to simplify the logistics process, speed up production and refine customer service as much as possible.
JoomPro works directly with China
One of the company’s offices is located in China, so our teams are able to resolve any customer issue on the spot. This also helps us work quickly and prevent potential problems with production and logistics. It was a deal for us to show this special connection with China.
JoomPro enables the conditions for business development and guaranteed supplies
JoomPro is a B2B company, so we were looking to emphasize not only its rigor and ability to innovate, but also its flexibility and personalized approach that let us create a seamless customer experience.
Design
Having put all the meanings together, the project team came up with a solution that included a non-standard font, isometric system illustrations, a block system and a new approach to colour coding.
Fonts
The font, combining strict, sharp shapes and softened corners, became an important part of the new design. It fully conveyed these technologies that allow us to go through processes straightforwardly and quickly while remaining flexible and highly adaptive. Special symbols built into the font added some human touch, showed our emotional side and won over the client.
Colours
We did not totally give up on black, as it was well retained by our clients. Alternatively, we decided to change the secondary colour to find a palette clients in any country where JoomPro is available will take well to in lieu of a generic combination of black and blue. This is how we came to a 165C Pantone Orange as an accent color. Our palette was complemented by blue, as a reference to the sky, sea and transportation, and brown, which referred to wood-colored pallets and cardboard boxes.
Illustrations
Previously, JoomPro had no consistent style for illustrations and there were a lot of cartoon drawings that the business had already outgrown. It was about time to create something more rigorous and systematic, so we started with two directions, including isometric illustrations and 3D. The former help to visualize anything in a convenient way to convey the general meaning, while 3D shows important details and reveals the main messages. All the elements are positioned from one point of view in order to combine styles that are quite distant from each other. Even when using photography and animation, the angle is always equal to 45 degrees.
Block system
The new style block system sets the rules for the arrangement of elements. The blocks were not chosen by chance, but refer to delivery (after all, any shipments will always be stacked in blocks). This system gives us flexibility and some room to play with contrasts, placement and composition.
