LaunchDarkly

The LaunchDarkly team initially identified their brand attributes as progressive, optimistic, and best-in-class. Although accurate to their current organization, we worked with their team to identify personifiable characteristics of its bolder future, and ones that could only be attributed to LaunchDarkly.

We saw LaunchDarkly as The Reliable Maverick: personal and individual, LaunchDarkly sets the standard, blazes the trail, and invites people to join. They're Assured and Bright: confident leaders approaching the future with expectancy, not hesitation. Finally, LaunchDarkly is Boast-worthy: a person who's probably cooler than you, but their presence makes you feel empowered, confident, and understood, inspiring authentic loyalty their customers can't wait to brag about.

The Reliable Maverick, Assured and Bright, and Boast-worthy could never be a brand other than LaunchDarkly. These characteristics are not for everyone, and that’s good; together, they tell a larger, aspirational story of the brand’s identity that’s decidedly different and wholly ownable.

There is no platform like LaunchDarkly, and there is no voice like it either. Focus Lab helped LaunchDarkly identify a one-of-a-kind voice and tone to go along with its visionary technology.

Focused and Empowering, Refreshingly Real, and No BS, LaunchDarkly’s voice claims its own space in the landscape. Tinkerers and mavericks at heart, they’ve challenged the status quo from the start — but they’re not reckless. There’s serious business at stake for a developer’s reputation and a company’s success. LaunchDarkly embodies these traits through communication that is insightful and rational — based in fact rather than assumption. Memorable and credible, its voice fosters loyalty and recognition by developers and stakeholders alike.

In addition to our voice and tone work, we created a house style manual to fine-tune their brand-specific grammar, mechanics, and style rules. Verbal identity work wrapped up with web copy editing to ensure consistent application of voice and tone and style guide rules.

From its position of authority, the brand communicates strength in unity, authenticity, and transformative action. A leader of the night, LaunchDarkly brings with it the dawn, obliterating barriers and blazing a trail for developers.

Dubbed Osmo, LaunchDarkly's new mark pilots an atmosphere of trillions of feature ships. Osmo brings to life the brand's mission-critical opportunity for modern development. In a world where every company is a software company, LaunchDarkly leads the way and saves the day.

The logotype began as a font, which was then edited to function more as a unique logotype. The logo lockup positions the mark to the right of the logotype, directing the eye forward.

LaunchDarkly is blazing the trail and we wanted to use the visual language to reintroduce boldness and dynamism to the brand. Accent colors are bold and UI elements are sharp. A subtle gradient adds color to headlines without being too jarring. Vector and line textures float on the background and create branded, visual balance. A layered blur effect balances strong visual elements with legibility while simultaneously adding depth to compositions.

Typography also plays an essential part of the identity. It allows LaunchDarkly to be boast-worthy while remaining reliable and assured. The typographic system relies on Audimat 3000, a versatile font with a "subtle blend of rigidity and eccentricity."

Our interactive work began with a content audit and low-fidelity wireframes — affectionately called "LoFis." LoFis allow us to work through page goals, content, storytelling, and the customer's journey before UI design begins. For LaunchDarkly, we rearchitected some site content to reflect updates to the product and proposed new mental models for understanding its features and offerings. High-fidelity wireframes, or HiFis, then begin to solve the problem of how to communicate that information visually. Through UI design, we brought the brand to life and worked to position LaunchDarkly as setting the bar for the future of modern development, including employing stylized visuals and expert visual hierarchy.