Three years ago when I joined the Shanghai-based tech startup, Seedlink, the company only consisted of nine people. Unlike large corporations, the company did not have many regulations or guidelines to structure the day-to-day activities, due to its small size and geek culture.
But as the business grew, new people became part of the team and our operations started to expand to more cities around the globe. Before I realized it, things had gotten a bit chaotic. The visual elements across different marketing channels were totally unrelated to each other, each demonstrating its own aesthetic style. The colors were inconsistent between our case study documents and product data sheet. At certain point, I could find 4-6 different versions of the logo appearing in various communications. There were digital drawings on the website, but in other materials we mainly used stock images.
I noticed this challenge and thought it could be a great opportunity to unify the design scheme of Seedlink, and establish a more professional brand identity. I was therefore assigned the task of leading this project to create a visual identity and guideline for the company’s brand.
