A HUMAN BRAND
Before 2000, choosing benefits meant sifting through piles of paper, not having the resources to understand or compare plans and then hoping you picked the right one. Benefitfocus was founded with one mission: to give people the knowledge, options and freedom to protect what they love most, the health and wealth of their families. It’s not just technology. It’s peace of mind.
We needed a visual brand that represented our mission to make lives better; a brand that is human.
To comply with my non-disclosure agreement, I have omitted and obfuscated confidential information in this case study. The information in this case study is my own and does not necessarily reflect the views of Benefitfocus.
Benefitfocus
Cloud-based SaaS benefits management platform that simplifies how organizations and individuals shop for, enroll in, manage, and exchange benefits.
THE CHALLENGE
REFRESH & REFRAME
Benefitfocus was in a hyper growth state and was quickly outgrowing it original web presence. In addition, we wanted to invest in a modern UI for our platform to catapult our brand in the market.
Our goals:
.: Create a design system that felt human, secure and fun at the same time
.: Choose elements that were optimized for print and web applications
.: Build a brand that is recognized in our industry and beyond to represent Benefitfocus
MY ROLE
In collaboration with our Creative Services and UX design teams, I co-led a rebranding initiative that included new color palette, typography, photography and iconography. We developed a manual of style used across our marketing channels and platform products.
I managed 3rd party partners for typography and custom iconography creation. I also created the digital guidelines for design patterns such as buttons, menus and other interactive elements.
KICKOFF
Mood Board
It was important for us to capture our brand voice in every element. Our voice needed to be human, secure and fun at the same time.
.: Human: to feel personable, welcoming and caring.
.: Secure: to show our commitment to security and a feeling of safety.
.: Fun: to represent our vibrant culture.
We gathered elements that embodied these themes to create a mood board.
THE ELEMENTS
Typography
A foundational element that expressed strength and playfulness with its organic shapes and subtle transitions of stroke width, all contributing to a less severe, humanist tone of voice.
Color
Our primary colors use an analogous color scheme to create a serene and comfortable design. Complementary colors were chosen to provide contrast when emphasis would be important. Our greyscale incorporated slightly warm tones to compliment the primary palette. We named our colors to create a common language between designers and developers.
Iconography
We developed a set of custom iconographies that would mimic the organic shapes of our typeface and take a new spin on standard icon illustrations while ensuring scalability and flexibility. Our core icons are unique to our industry, application and products.
Photography
Leveraging our Benefitfocus associates, we developed a set of lifestyle photos that could be used to showcase our products and our culture.
Voice
A voice that is human; designed with empathy to represent a company with a mission to make lives better.
Application Patterns
A collection of reusable patterns to deliver a consistent user experience from the sales cycle to implementation of our products.
Illustrations
We created standard illustration patterns to be used across our experiences and applied our new branding elements to illustrations that communicated benefits concepts.
