Earlier this month SauceLabs went through an entire rebrand with the help of the How&How design studio to communicate their streamlined and perfected testing processes.
The company provides continuous test and error reporting solutions, allowing companies to develop, deliver, and update high-quality software at the right speed.
The Rebranding Brief Template
The Rebranding Brief Template is a free template that will help you get the brief for your rebranding project right. ...
Although we are late to join the party on this one, we thought it was important to feature this on the blog due to the amount of positive change within the rebrand in particular.
With a new visual identity, tone of voice, website design, and messaging centred on the four themes of speed, agility, focus, and growth, this new look is more successful at demonstrating SauceLab’s offering.
So, with that, let’s get into the specifics of this rebrand!
Credit to Underconsideration
Colour Palette: The Traffic Light Concept
The colour choices for this rebrand are super interesting as the company and studio created both a primary and secondary colour palette to ensure maximum accessibility.
The primary colour palette is inspired by the software testing traffic light system which consists of 3 stages: pass, issues, and fail.
These are represented through 3 colours, green, amber and coral and are integral to the new branding and used across the entire website, illustrations, and advertising materials.
The secondary colour palette is a flexed version of the primary palette, ensuring that the colours used work for both dark and light modes by tinting and changing colour ratios in order to boldly stand out in the market.
It’s safe to say that despite these 3 colours being consistent across the branding, the green shade used is arguably the most important colour.
The green links to “passing” software tests and positive outcomes hence why SauceLabs have now heavily focused their brand identity around this colour.
Credit to Underconsideration
Icons and Illustrations
Moving on now to arguably the best part of this rebrand entirely, with the brand new icons and illustrations.
Starting with the icons, although more basic, they provide a nice contrast from the more detailed illustrations which we will get onto soon.
All of the icons are in the same green shade that is consistent throughout the branding and each shape, from the coding brackets, to the eye, are in a more pixelated style.
Not only does this link to the brand new logo with the coding bracket design, but it helps to provide a stronger tie-in with the offering of the company more generally.
These simple icons are important as the new illustrations provide enough detail when it comes to the new branding and website design.
This range of illustrations have been updated to showcase the flexibility and the human side to the team behind SauceLabs.
The entire team spend their days creating code, innovating, and collaborating and it was key to present this in the form of illustrations.
Therefore, SauceLabs and How&How enlisted the help of Poland-based illustrator and graphic designer, Joanna ławniczak, to create a new set of retro-futurist illustrations.
By mixing delicacy and quirky futuristic designs, featuring animated coffee cups, clicking cursors, traffic lights, lego bricks and floating cameras, this helps to create the feeling of making the inaccessible, accessible.
This really helps to communicate what SauceLabs do, as their more complex testing systems have been visualised making it simpler for consumers and clients to understand the company and their processes.
Credit to Underconsideration
Logo and Mascot
Finally, moving onto the updated SauceLabs logo which first and foremost has shifted from red to green.
As we have already explained the colour palette choices, this move makes total sense!
Instead of using red as their brand colour, the company made the smart decision to move over to green for the new logo icon which feels more appropriate given that green equals pass, when it comes to the testing process.
Not only this but green for go matches up far better with what SauceLabs offers customers: acceleration of the code testing process.
The icon that is incorporated into the new logo is no longer a red lightning bolt, but instead takes inspiration from a set of coding brackets and has several interpretations.
If you look closely you’ll find that the new logo icon creates an abstract letter S which is a nice subtle tie-in to the brand name.
In addition to this, some still interpret the icon as a lightning bolt to symbolise the speed of the testing, but a more pixelated version, and some see a padlock to reflect the security of the company platform.
The typeface was equally updated and the company chose Aeonik Fono to add a contemporary twist to the classic developer-style typography. Code syntax was then used to shape graphic highlighters, textual moments, and product logos.
The updated mascot, SauceBot, was the finishing touch to this rebrand, which was built from code syntax and offers a range of fun expressions to guide teams through the SauceLabs experience.
Ready, Set, Go: The Sauce Labs Rebrand
In order to bring the company to the forefront of the tech industry, it was key to inject both colour and life into the SauceLabs brand.
By creating detailed and intricate illustrations, a colour palette that connects the company offering with the visual identity, and an updated logo, How&How have created a brand that better reflects SauceLabs values and mission.
In such an overcrowded industry, when refreshing tech branding it’s important to showcase the human foundation behind a brand in order to connect who you are, with what you do.
This collaboration between SauceLabs and How&How has successfully updated the previous branding adding both colour and personality, whilst still incorporating key brand values.
But let us know what you think! Whether you work in tech or this rebrand caught your eye we want to hear your thoughts on this rebrand so get in touch via the social links below!
