Plugable Brand

Location & Date:

Redmond, WA - 2019-2020

Employer:

Plugable Technologies

As the graphic designer at Plugable I’ve identified many problems and solutions for the Plugable Brand. For over a decade, Plugable has been a successful company providing tech solutions to many customers for productivity. However, brand identity has been inconsistent over the years and for the past two years I’ve helped curate and mold the Plugable Brand to not only tell its story but to evolve for the future.

The inconsistencies that I’ve experienced while here were due to many various constraints, different elements used overtime, and systems that weren’t in place. I’ve taken control and made sure that our brand was held accountable for.

Research Competitors & Testing

Some of the steps I took were finding out what our competitors were doing and what Plugable can do to differentiate. When working on certain projects we would see what our competitors were doing such as in their packaging, messaging, and imagery. I then incorporated the many inspirations into an optimal brand for Plugable. In other cases, I would also conduct A/B testing either based on customer sales or surveys.

Collecting Assets & Building the Brand

To ensure the brand remained consistent, I created a file where it collects and keeps most of our visual assets like logos, colors, and other graphics all in one place that can be reused. Once we had accumulated more branding for all our assets and messaging, I created a “Plugable Guidelines” document which contains rules for all our graphics that we use so we remain consistent as a company.

Communicating Content & Constraints

Communicating information was inconsistent among our team, so I’ve implemented systems where all content can be communicated easily for all collaborators such as product owners and graphic designers. For example, I have a live document with checklists that ensures any content required or needed for packaging artwork is written in the document and reviewed. To ensure feedback was also communicated efficiently, I researched and introduced a platform that helps managers and members collaborate and review large artwork and images files.

Result

Although the process was challenging, the steps taken were necessary to refresh the brand. The outcome helped create a clear Plugable story for our customers and a very streamlined process for our internal team. We are much more aligned and consistent on our creative decisions which has resulted in increased sales and customer retention.