Artifact

For customer experience and product teams, qualitative data is where invaluable customer insights live. It’s full of trends and common pain points that can be leveraged to better understand consumers' wants and needs, and Artifact is one of the first technologies to harness the power of this data in a robust and accurate way.

As the first of its kind, Artifact needed to communicate not only what its company does, but how it does it better than anyone else. Within brand strategy, we identified the common audience need as the ability to proactively identify customer needs and take quick action to address them. Before Artifact such a task was daunting, as qualitative data analysis was clunky and monotonous. But with Artifact’s technology, insights emerge quickly, enabling customers to truly remain at the center of the experience.

From a strategic perspective, there was a compelling opportunity to rally around Artifact's would-be users, celebrating them for the success they'd already achieved and positioning Artifact as the key to unlocking new levels of growth and customer loyalty. Together, Focus Lab and Artifact crafted a brand positioning strategy that defined the brand as attentive (to customers' needs), attuned (to what matters most), and ahead (of would-be challenges and issues) — and in turn, able to extend those benefits to its users.

Complementing positioning, Focus Lab refined three brand attributes — Savvy, Relevant, and Perceptive — that worked collectively to characterize Artifact as an innovative brand on the cutting edge of AI technology, yet empathetic to every customer's experience.

That conscientious heart enlivened the core messaging created and refined during the branding project. Take Artifact’s purpose statement: “To empower enterprises to perceive people’s needs, act decisively, and strive for a more empathetic future.” The ability to confidently and proactively help people resonates as both a brand personality trait and a product capability.

Furthermore, confidence and predictive power are only possible with accurate data. That's why Artifact's retooled vision statement, “To ensure evidence fully informs all of our clients’ business decisions — and that success is never left to chance,” promises a world where results aren't left to guesswork and shots in the dark.

Finally, the project team worked to flesh out a critical nuance: the difference between reactive and responsive, and responsive and predictive. The gist: Given customers' expectations, reacting to issues means you've already lost them, and responding to issues is the bare minimum a company must do. But if a company can be predictive — get out in front of challenges and fix them before they become annoyances — customers enjoy a smooth experience and value the company even more. A responsive CX experience might make a person feel served, but a predictive one will help them feel seen and understood.

The notion of feeling seen stemmed from our brand concept, Sense, which the project team used to anchor Artifact's visual identity. As a predictive tool, Artifact is always sensing what’s next and remains attuned to what a customer might need or want. Accordingly, Artifact’s logo was crafted with the same spirit of perceptiveness, using pointillism-inspired dots to form the brand name.

Playing on the ideas of perspective and possibility, the logotype is a customized version of Mondwest from foundry Pangram Pangram. It’s been carefully kerned and had its square corners rounded to abstract it slightly. The pixelated approach feels technical, ties to the savvy-ness of the product, and creates powerful pillars for the visual language.

Artifact's visual language is inspired by pointillism, and ties nicely to the brand’s logo. In the way that the same visual appears differently from varying distances, Artifact’s visual language provides a sense of dimensionality. Take the logo's dots, for example: they represent data, fluid and always moving.

The difference is in the details, and that's why another opportunity identified in strategy created further brand distinction. We're talking about color. The Focus Lab team knew a warm color would help Artifact stand out in the competitive landscape. So, we explored non-traditional neutrals in cream and navy paired with a leading orange, simultaneously soft and full of energy. The unexpected combinations feel fresh, innovative, and intentional, and forge a unique color system.

In terms of typography, the project team selected NaN Holo from foundry NaN as the brand's display type. A neo-grotesque sans serif, NaN Holo has intentional and bold structure while maintaining a friendly roundness. It has both substance and approachability. Graphik by Commercial Type is used for all body copy, and League Mono adds a technical edge as a tertiary font.

Focus Lab’s UI designer and interactive writer collaborated to create different looks for multiple site pages, including the homepage and About page. Visual language like pixelated portrait photography and pattern work welcome visitors to Artifact’s website, and the brand’s one-liner is displayed proudly across its various pages: “Artifact helps customer-focused enterprise teams stay attuned, attentive, and ahead through predictive customer experience.”

At the culmination of the project, Focus Lab’s Brand Support arm built further on the work, designing everything from custom product icons to event flyers to white paper templates. Other items included social media assets, banners, and swag. Each of these tailored deliverables embody Artifact’s new identity and create additional touch points that amplify the brand’s consistency and recognition.