Rebranding

The decision to rebrand wasn’t only about correcting our previous identity or improving our branding. What was more important to us was to effectively change the way in which we present ourselves, and in doing so, also change the way others see sophilabs. Our new logo is intended to convey professionalism, and to be different but accessible (meaning that we’re not superstars, we’re just regular people).

We eagerly started our search to renew our identity with lots of sketches of new forms for the imagotipos, new fonts, and new colors but nothing was working. While they were all ideas that could have worked for the company, full of content, with nice forms, fonts, and colors, none of them were even close to transmitting what we wanted.

Nothing was fitting, and we were getting frustrated. It was time to change our perspective and take a good look at what we really had in our company that could be used on a conceptual level as well as a graphic level. After lots of brainstorming, we came up with five main principles and landed on the phrase:

“Aim high - And encourage everyone else to stand out above the average.”

Inspired, we made a slight tweak to make it more direct:

“Be bold - And encourage everyone else to outstand above the average.”

While checking out our competitors web pages, we realized that they all looked very similar and seemed to follow the same patterns and trends. In a world where everyone’s the same, it’s important to find a way to stand out from the rest. So, we decided that we were going to be different.

These two points became the guideposts of our journey. Be bold and be different both happened to be part the premise of our initial redesign (be professional and be different). From that moment on, everything became much easier. We decided that our new identity should be based on our value principles, and should demonstrate them as explicitly as possible. Using these concepts, we were able to construct graphic elements to define our brand.

Graphic brand and logo

A great logo should be simple, its strength comes from its ability to trigger a plethora of ideas and complex feelings, not in the complexity of the symbol itself. This idea formed part of the main premise in our search for a new logo.

The new logo is modern and friendly, while also having a strong presence, being solid, clear, and direct. The simplicity of its form makes it lasting and easy to combine with other styles and backgrounds. The fact that the ‘i’ is lowercase and the rest of the word is uppercase makes the symbol more friendly and pleasant to look at. It doesn’t look as harsh as a word written in all caps, and adds a bit of playfulness to the logo.

Quasimode Black is used as a base font, a modern typeface that combines the geometry of sans-serif with the classic proportions of the grotesque 19th century. Only a few minimal changes to the form and spacing are necessary in order to optimize reduction and amplification.

The terminals of the “S” and the counter of the “A” had to be modified. In the first case, straight terminals didn’t work well when amplified, but it was important to conserve the same form without it looking pointy so we rounded out the form. With the ‘A’, the counter was modified since the ink trap didn’t work well in amplification, which is why the inside space was reduced.

Typography Palette

We’ve defined our new typography pallette which will be used in all forms of sophilabs communication, and as a result has become a key part of our new identity. Both typographies are are current and can be combined in many different ways making them very versatile.

Domine is a transitional, humanist serif with straight serifs. Despite being created for small sizes on-screen, it works very well for big titles like h1 online or large titles in brochures and presentations.

Raleway is an elegant typography with all the simplicity of a sans-serif. An extensive and versatile family that can be used in many cases, from subtitles and downloads to texts and buttons.

Color Palette

The primary palette is made up entirely of the color Almost Black and a bold and confident red. The red is used in small details to add a splash of color to the otherwise gray color range of the palette.

The secondary palette is used much less frequently and for specific purposes, reserved more than anything for illustrations and a few messages.

Illustrations

The illustrations that are used seek to complement and communicate their message directly, whether it be one of our principles or a header on the webpage. All of them are bold, unique, and colorful.