Apttus: Brand style guide

Role: Design, creative direction

When I first started working with Apttus the company had a loose style guide that talked about logo usage, colors, and fonts. They were also using different internal and external designers which lead to some inconsistency in how the brand was being expressed. I wanted to drive a new set of guidelines and help bring consistency to the brand. On top of that I wanted to create a document that told the story of the brand and the story behind the design elements.

The first thing I did was develop a series of concepts that visually told the story of the brand in different ways. Apttus already had a series of design elements that they were using but there really wasn’t a rhyme or reason behind why they used these elements. I built upon these elements and presented to the senior leadership team five different design concepts and examples of design applications. My goal was to get the executive team to align on a direction for the look and feel that would become the basis of the brand guidelines.

Altocumulus design elements concept

Speed design elements concept

Poly cloud design elements concept

Connectivity design elements concept

Cloud evolution design elements concept

Once I was able to drive alignment with the executive team, I designed a new brand guidelines document. The document consisted of three main sections: the brand story, the brand expression system, and the design application examples. The document was used to onboard designers/contractors and served as a guide for any vendors that were involved in creating materials for Apttus.