Google for Startups
Google for Startups connects founders worldwide with the best of Google’s technology and expertise to help them grow.
Since 2018 we’ve partnered with the team on all aspects of its brand to help it stay meaningful to founders and thrive as things change.
Programme: Transform
Activity: Brand research & diagnosis | Brand strategy | Visual identity | Brand voice & messaging | Website | Product UX & UI | Brand film | Guidelines
Strategy overview
Google’s startup support spanned multiple brands and teams. It was powerful, but fragmented — lacking clarity, cohesion and vitality
Work in progress
The identity builds on everything that is instantly recognisable about Google, while adding a visual layer of ‘work in progress’, which reflects the scrappy, fast, and agile nature of growing startups. The result is a brand that feels simple, accessible, but with an energetic startup spirit.
Flexible system
From tape and marker pens to pinboard-style layouts, the identity’s distinctive visual kit of parts is underpinned by a flexible, dynamic system.
This enables the brand to have different modes and be prolific with its content, whilst feeling continuously fresh, varied and alive. Like the vibrant and forward-thinking community that it represents.
Central to the brand experience is the Google for Startups website. A hub of content and resources, designed from the ground up to help startups find answers to the challenges they’re tackling, wherever they are in their journey.
We worked on digital strategy, tone-of-voice, content, detailed styleguides, and every constituent detail, from iconography to key interactivity.
A digital brand in physical form
From startup hubs around the world to pop-up events, the identity’s bold visual language extends into the physical world creating a simple but striking presence, wherever it is seen.
Working with multiple teams globally, we have designed and implemented interior branding, encompassing everything from digital screens to physical wayfinding, and created detailed guidance to roll-out key aspects of the brand at different city locations around the world.
Testimonial
