PagerDuty Brand Identity

PagerDuty

Brand Identity

PagerDuty is a cloud computing company that produces a SaaS incident response platform for IT departments. Through its SaaS-based platform, PagerDuty empowers developers, DevOps, IT operations and business leaders to prevent and resolve business-impacting incidents for exceptional customer experience.

As Head of Design, I built an in-house design team and lead the direction and design of a strategic brand refresh. PagerDuty was shifting from an alerting tool to an incident response platform. A brand refresh was needed to elevate the brand.

Art Direction

Brand Identity

Logo Design

PagerDuty Brand Identity

Background

I started as the first designer for PagerDuty, an engineering-driven company. PagerDuty was growing rapidly, not just in number of employees, but in customers as well. I saw a need for strong brand recognition and demonstrated the importance of a re-brand for the company.

Since we were growing, PagerDuty needed an updated look and feel. PagerDuty was graduating from a scrappy startup into the enterprise space - it was starting to truly lead the way as an incident management platform.

To help with the rebrand (and to support all the design needs of the company), I built an in-house design team of 5 people: 1 full time interaction designer, 1 full time web developer, and 3 contract designers.

PagerDuty Brand Identity
PagerDuty Brand Identity
PagerDuty Brand Identity

Process

Once the founders were onboard (and this was a very laborious process of several meetings, discussions, and presentations), I wrote a Creative Brief for the brand refresh project to help formulate the concept, strategy, and execution.

We then began with a visual audit. We collected all of the existing assets of the PagerDuty logo. The original logo was designed quickly - it was created in 5 minutes. It was a great concept at the time, and served its purpose. It is a very literal logomark. But, as an identity needed to be present in other places, other media, we ended up with many variations. Also, no rules were applied - the logo was many greens. It was not tested in the various environments it would be used and there were several versions - each logo was created individually for each surface. There were several variations in color, spacing, and layout.

I conducted internal and external interviews. Internal interviews were with several PagerDuty employees and stakeholders. External interviews were with long time and loyal PagerDuty customers. Once interviews were concluded, I worked with the marketing and product teams to synthesize the data. We created a brand brief, brand prism, and personas.

Once these were finalized, we started logo explorations. We started with the logo because it is the toughest visual asset to design for a brand, and because it sets the foundation for all other design assets. Part of our growth as a company, was to create a unique brand identity. A brand is much more than a logo. But it starts with a logo. So that’s what we did. Informed by the research, we explored a logo mark. We then presented 3 logos to the executive team.

PagerDuty Brand Identity
PagerDuty Brand Identity
PagerDuty Brand Identity
PagerDuty Brand Identity
PagerDuty Brand Identity
PagerDuty Brand Identity
PagerDuty Brand Identity
PagerDuty Brand Identity

The inspiration

The inspiration for the PagerDuty logo in the simplest terms: we connect systems and people. And we chose to go with that as the base of our logo design. We were looking for a typeface that was a square sans-serif with a roundedness. We felt it was a good visual representation that bridges technology and people.

The typeface is a Google font called Audiowide. It is a sans serif, technology-styled, typeface composed of soft cornered tubes. It is clean and readable.

PagerDuty Brand Identity
PagerDuty Brand Identity
PagerDuty Brand Identity
PagerDuty Brand Identity
PagerDuty Brand Identity

Conclusion

I'll conclude with lessons learned. We learned that design at PagerDuty follows a process with heavy emphasis on collaboration. At PagerDuty, design is a process. Design is a holistic approach. Design is inclusive. Design is for everyone.

PagerDuty Brand Identity
PagerDuty Brand Identity
PagerDuty Brand Identity
PagerDuty Brand Identity
PagerDuty Brand Identity

Brand Guidelines

As part of the brand identity system, we created brand guidelines. The PagerDuty Brand Guidelines serve as the communication tool that explains to everyone how to apply all visual parts of the brand. This includes, but not limited to: fonts, colors, logo lockup, voice and tone... The goal is to have the overall look and feel of the PagerDuty brand reflected in every PagerDuty product and all communications.

PagerDuty Brand Identity
PagerDuty Brand Identity
PagerDuty Brand Identity
PagerDuty Brand Identity
PagerDuty Brand Identity
PagerDuty Brand Identity
PagerDuty Brand Identity

Lego Sign

The PagerDuty lego sign started as an idea for a Hack Day. Fellow designer, Antonia Hidalgo came up with the idea and spearheaded the project. She started researching, playing, and then mapping the PagerDuty logo to a Lego grid. Antonia created an impressive Lego brick grid that was to scale. She calculated the number of pieces needed for the base plates, and an average number of Legos needed to cover a couple of layers and create a foundation.

We purchased Lego pieces from several sources. We used white for the base plates, and green Legos for the PagerDuty logo. The green Legos were purchased in bulk, mostly from sellers on eBay.

Once all of the Lego pieces arrived, we assembled the white Lego base plates onto a piece of plywood. We then installed that ont oour dedicated wall space in the office. Using a marker, we marked the base foundation with the logo. We then put pieces onto and built it up to the logo! It was a very fun collaborative project. Everyone in the company helped build it.

PagerDuty Brand Identity

PagerDuty IPO

On April 11, 2019, PagerDuty began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "PD". It was exciting to see the PagerDuty brand that I designed on the New York Stock Exchange. It was also great to see the PagerDuty mascot, Pagey, that I also designed, there too! And whoever was inside the Pagey costume stole the day.

PagerDuty Brand Identity
PagerDuty Brand Identity
PagerDuty Brand Identity
PagerDuty Brand Identity