Developing a new positioning, identity, and narrative to ignite new growth.
- Services Provided
- – Brand Strategy
- – Visual Identity
- – Positioning
- – Messaging Platform
- – Corporate Narrative
- – Copywriting
- – Website Design
- – Brand Guidelines
Mobile is the most transformative technology of our lifetimes that is changing how we live, work, and play. As companies around the world recognize its promise, they are asking their mobile teams to deliver mission-critical experiences that are increasingly bold and ambitious.
Embrace helps developers build these experiences with technology that provides a higher fidelity view of what drives success. But as a start-up with low awareness and an offering that stretches across several categories, Embrace asked Emotive to develop a story that would clarify their offering and position them as a vital partner to mobile teams.
Core to our work was shaping a brand to inspire mobile developers to think bigger about the experiences they can build. The result was a breakthrough visual identity and brand story that reflects Embrace’s vision for empowering its customers to build the future of mobile.
What We Learned Along the Way
Mobile is about people.
Mobile is the most personal technology in our lives—we carry it in our pockets and on our bodies, and we integrate it into the spaces we occupy. We wanted the Embrace brand to feel authentic and unique, just like people, but without the typical photography and images that make brands feel generic.
Know your persona.
Mobile engineers are leading the (r)evolution of mobile. They are typically the primary day-to-day decision makers for features and optimizations. Creating a brand to inspire this persona with the confidence to think bigger about what they can create was key to focusing our message.
Communicate value at every level.
Because Embrace stretches across multiple categories, the brand needs to deliver messages that meets different people at different places on the mobile development journey. In doing so, Embrace can invite developers to grow with them as they expand their visions for the experiences they want to build.
“Emotive provided the right level of listening, offering up a unique point of view, and collaborating to refine our brand positioning. It was an amazing partnership to accelerate us from a start-up to a growth-stage company much faster.”
Eric Futoran, CEO, Embrace
Seeing the Future of Mobile
The new Embrace logo embodies simplicity with brackets and dots that make a nod to code and establishes a brand authentic to developers. The logo reflects the e’s that begin and end the Embrace name. The composition asserts the symbol as a character that can come to life dynamically.
Creating a Conversation
Key to the Embrace design system is a typographic approach where different typefaces represent different points of view. This allows the Embrace brand to engage different audiences in a dialogue and deliver messages that fly at different elevations and embody different tones.
8-Bit Amazing
A photography style that relies on simple objects combined with 8-bit icons creates a unique graphic language that gives the Embrace brand an iconic approach to expressing itself. The visual language feels authentic to developers, and brings fun, honesty, and approachability into how the brand shows up.
Standing Out with Simplicity
A clean logo. A reductive, differentiated color palette. Imagery and iconography that speaks to developers. An illustration style that accelerates your ability to identify what matters. The Embrace design system sets Embrace apart in a crowded field with a bold, direct identity that communicates confidence.
Experience that Works
Push the boundaries.
To go from start-up to positioning for growth, don’t be afraid to push the boundaries of where a brand can go. The combination of authenticity and boldness helps everyone see bigger possibilities for the brand.
Be ready for change.
A brand positioning process can take months to complete. Expect that there will be strategic shifts in the business while the process is underway. Be ready to pivot to meet the changing needs while staying true to the brand.
Drive employees with the “why”.
The story of how a company plans to grow creates an opportunity to engage employees on a deeper level by connecting them to a bigger “why.” When people see the individual, organizational, and world-level benefits of growth, inspiration surrounds them.
Know your timeframe.
Being clear about how long you need the brand to live. Establishing constraints allows you to push on the creative to ensure your brand is working as strategcially as it can within a timeframe (and possibly beyond).
