Upstart
Disruptive Brand for a Disruptive Business
My role
Lead designer + Art Director
Team
Seph Golding- Senior Designer
Ricki Galea - Designer
Danny Avery- Senior Account Manager
Focus
Brand Strategy
Visual Branding
Digital
Objective
We undertook a brand refresh and website design, build, and optimisation for Upstart, a forward-thinking strategy firm renowned for its pathway transformation projects across healthcare and other key sectors. The goal was to modernise the brand while reinforcing its position as a leader in digital strategy and transformation.
Outcome
Working closely with the Upstart team, we developed an adaptable, digital-first visual identity and a new website as the centrepiece of their brand experience. The refreshed brand positions Upstart as innovative, professional, and future-ready, ensuring a consistent and engaging presence across all digital applications.
History
Punk fanzines and back-of-the-napkin hand-drawn sketches inspired the original brand visuals. However, the brand also fell into a trap of cliché images and metaphors. Mostly symbolised by shattered glass, and trope images of arrows and people skydiving. The aim was move towards a sophisticated visual style.
Experiment and then experiment some more
Whilst attempting to keep to certain brand cornerstones: limited colour palette, geometric fonts, we explored different visual styles. The thinking came down to what the visuals needed to represent—the action of the services, denoted by sketched graphics or language, around themes of distortion.
