The making of a Silicon Valley icon: how we gave Asana true personality
When Asana was set up by Dustin Moskovitz (co-founder of Facebook and inventor of the ‘like’ button) and Justin Rosenstein (fellow Facebooker and ex-Googler), it was never going to be an ordinary Silicon Valley start-up. It started out providing shared task lists and bug trackers but evolved into a collaboration software company with cult status. It was a great product and a firm with plenty of personality, but its branding didn’t convey that.
The Asana team had already been at work, exploring what made them ‘them’. They recognised a need for an objective, expert partner to help them refine, define and prioritise their ideas, so we joined their internal team to push the project forward. Firstly, we developed a brand narrative: “Do great things together”. This would serve as the anchor for the redesign, the product launch and everyday business decisions.
The brand story’s theme of the power of teamwork became the springboard for everything from typeface to colour palette. Re-engineering their old symbol, we retained Asana’s inimitable three dots but placed them in a huddle to signify collaboration, using bright gradients to represent the energy of teamwork. The dots also serve to form an abstract ‘A’ in the mark that symbolises the limitless potential of people working together.
As close partners with the design team, we delivered an identity that simply and powerfully conveys what lies at the brand’s core — a belief that Asana enables and empowers people to do work that changes the world.
