Braze

Name: Focus Lab
Price range: $

Braze, a leader in the marketing engagement space, approached us with an interesting challenge. They were a global company with over 200 employees on 2 continents, undergoing a rename from Appboy to Braze—and they needed us to bring that new name to life.

The company had outgrown their startup brand and needed to level up the sophistication to match their powerful customer engagement platform.

We chose to derive inspiration from the new company name: To braze is to join by soldering metals with an alloy of copper and zinc at high temperature. The brazing process introduces a new element, or alloy, into the relationship that chemically bonds the pieces together—a vivid analogy for the way Braze’s platform creates a bond that unites brands with their customers. The creative energy and offbeat originality of Braze’s company culture was something we knew was important to highlight too — we were branding a team that lives and breathes branding, and the possibilities for creative execution were limitless.

After a rename, we were tasked with bringing “Braze” to life through a dynamic brand.

Brand Strategy

Through strategy we discovered how the new brand should communicate that power of transformative unity, both in visual and verbal identity. Visuals evoked precious metals liquidized and swirling forth to create new bonds at high temperatures, while the brand voice and tone created a unifying, collaborative energy stripped of jargon and tech-speak.

Visual Identity

Their new short brand name lent itself to a unique, ownable logotype with brand visuals and supporting elements that were approachable, elemental, and clean—showcasing the platform & company in a way that feels both universally inspirational and highly personal.

Companies like Braze with global audiences require deep international research during the brand strategy phase, to make sure every piece of the identity is clear and compelling to all markets. We spent time, for instance, researching the prominence of the cursive “z” in all of Braze’s international markets.

Mascot

One of the hardest challenges with the company’s re-name was giving up their previous mascot. Unfortunately, though beloved by many, the Appboy mascot simply didn’t align with the more sophisticated vibe of the new brand. We set out to create an all-new mascot that the team at Braze could rally behind—Torchy, the fiery spirit of Braze. While Torchy does not play a major role in the consumer facing implementation of the brand, he is a vital piece of the internal Braze culture. Torchy shows up to party on stickers, internal slack emojis, apparel—anywhere he can spark joy for employees. He’s a popular guy.

Interactive

When Braze approached us to redesign their blog, Perspectives, the main goal was to increase customer engagement with their robust library of content. The previous blog architecture was fragmented and poorly organized, which left users confused about its utility as a content hub. Our approach involved consolidating the blog’s architecture so as to increase the ease of navigation and shareability. We also created a flexible design that allowed Braze to house and showcase very different pieces of content: written articles, video, podcasts, events, and infographics. Our final design also allowed for the ability to house sponsored pieces of content (webinars, guides, special events) among the rest of the content.