The Situation
InstantScale, a venture capital firm based in Southern California, came to us with a need for website redesign. InstantScale’s website at the time lacked distinction and polish, and was built into a restrictive CMS that limited their ability to upgrade. By working with the InstantScale team to define their company’s values and mission, my team and I delivered a new brand identity and website that expressed their desired values:
- experienced
- honest
- and committed to pushing the I.T. industry forward.
[ Old Logo ]
The Brand
Often times, a company’s website is the first touchpoint a customer has with a company, and without a sound brand to go with it, an important opportunity is missed. A big part of appearing professional and competent is having a look and feel that is equal parts clear and visually appealing. Add content with substance and effortless usability and you have a powerful website. Unfortunately, InstantScale’s brand at the time was essentially absent, so while they initially only requested a new website, we convinced them that a quick rebrand was paramount to offering a topnotch web experience.
[ Failed Logo Concept ]
Our first thorough pass at a logo for InstantScale resulted in a three dimensional, translucent cube-within-a-cube logo which hoped to convey a sense of potential and growth. While it achieved our goals conceptually, we found shortcomings in its application. The translucent nature of the graphic didn't bode well on many background colors, and the flat/rubberstamp version of the logo didn't carry the same qualities we crafted in the full version. Ultimately, this logo was canned and we sought to find another solution for InstantScale's logo mark.
An Illustrator screenshare session with my designer in Lisbon allowed for the magical collaboration session that led us to the final logo. Our goal of showing growth and upward transformation resulted in a minimal, geometric logo that looks amazing in any environment. The use of squares also inspired a nice visual theme for the website and other materials. The color palette is striking and dynamic, and the new logotype is clean and modern. InstantScale's brand now communicated an air of success and belonging within the upper tier of venture capital firms in the world.
[ InstantScale Final Logo Horizontal ]
[ InstantScale Final Logo Vertical ]
[ InstantScale Corporate Stationery ]
With a strong brand identity established, we worked to create a website that harnessed InstantScale’s new look and injected content that was clear, informative, and a stepping stone toward further engagement. The main goal with the site was to feature their portfolio of clients and present the InstantScale leadership. A single page layout was the perfect solution for InstantScale's light, but significant content.
Since we knew their portfolio of clients would certainly change after we handed the site over, we built the site into a CMS called Perch. This particular content management system was easy to implement and even easier for the client to use. It allowed us to develop a tile design for the portfolio area with pop-up descriptions that are easy to edit, add, and remove as an admin.
The resulting website is easy to navigate, visually refreshing, and equally powerful on any screen size.
[ InstantScale Mobile Site ]
CHAD CARDENAS
Founder & Managing Director,
InstantScale
"Our branding and website project with Max and his team was a complete success. InstantScale now has a visual identity we are proud of and a website that effectively serves our visitors. Max exceeded our expectations at each step of the process and we couldn’t be happier with the result."
