Visual Identity of the Year 2023
The story behind the Visual Identity of the Year
As a pioneer in the business of nonfiction summaries, getAbstract has supported hundreds of organizations to build their learning cultures with expertly curated, reliable, and compressed knowledge since 1999. getAbstract has continually developed its products and offerings, but in recent years, the company has pushed for more innovative solutions. The internal changes were progressive but the branding lagged in comparison. Therefore, a rebrand was necessary to bring the dynamism of the novel approach to the forefront.
In addition, an increasing number of competitors entered the market with a high focus on digital product design and usability. Compared to the competition, the getAbstract branding created an outdated perception in the market, lacked consistency in design and messaging, and was not intuitive in critical areas. The lack of a consistent framework also prevented the firm’s designers from being able to create quick, outstanding creatives and develop more accessible design features.
Most importantly, getAbstract wanted the brand to reflect the company’s core mission: To save people time by providing easy access to summarised, actionable expert knowledge. From the beginning, they asked themselves: ‘What powerful story do we want to tell?’
The key was to ensure that, from communication to design, the rebrand represented the mission and values and conveyed the differentiating attributes of the brand – timesaving, to the point, inspiring, and reliable. First, the brand profile was developed (with values, benefits, differentiation, and tonality) and then the brand essence and manifesto. The new slogan encompasses the brand’s mission: ‘Know better. Do Better. In 15 minutes.’
Visually, the team considered the evolution of the getAbstract logo, the curly bracket. It has always been the symbol of summarisation, but it was not unique and readily identifiable with getAbstract. So, rather than using a character from an existing font family, the team used geometrical shapes and a grid system to rebuild the logo. This approach made the logo unique and connected to the logotype. Furthermore, the grid system created for the logo offers an almost infinite number of graphic elements that can be used throughout the corporate design.
In addition, the following were developed:
A new, modern, and vastly extended color palette to represent the reinvention and optimise for accessibility.
Special filters and colour effects that can easily turn stock images and illustrations into the new vibrant modern style.
Textures to be consistent and maintain a unique brand experience with minimal maintenance.
An updated typeface, Akkurat LL, which is aesthetically pleasing and more accessible (readable, legible, and simple).
A series of unique icons and pictographs.
Since the rebranding launch in April 2022, the average session duration increased by 21%, while the average time spent on the site rose by almost 80% compared to the previous period. More importantly, the average time spent on summary pages increased by an impressive 462%!
There has also been a significant impact on monthly engaged users, which increased by 8% compared to the same period in the previous year. And lastly, average page load time decreased by 16%, average server connection time by 15% and average redirection time by 6%.
