Cloud computing isn’t the wave of the future. It’s the standard of today. The cloud is home to countless applications and vast amounts of data—enabling businesses, products, and ideas to scale faster than ever before. At the enterprise level, companies like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud provide hosting and development for cloud-based organizations, but are too big to address the specific needs of developers as well as small and medium-sized businesses, or SMBs for short. These SMBs require the flexibility, simplicity, and customization that enterprise-level services could not provide.
With ambitions of being one of the most beloved cloud providers on the planet, DigitalOcean sought to capitalize on this gap in the market. As a testament to its revolutionary technology, the company had successfully undergone an IPO with the New York Stock Exchange in March 2021 and raised $775 million with the first round of funding, so it was ready to grow beyond its primary audience of developers and into SMBs. But to capture this white space, it needed a brand that was capable of breaking through the noise. So, the DigitalOcean team engaged us to build a new brand identity, product positioning, and strategic framework that were both resonant and ownable. As long-time DigitalOcean users ourselves, we were uniquely positioned to help them solve these challenges and navigate this pivotal moment for the business.
We partnered closely with DigitalOcean’s marketing, digital experience, and product design teams to inform the trajectory of this refreshed brand. We spoke with stakeholders, employees, and users to understand what differentiates DigitalOcean from the rest of the industry.
What we found was that no other brand—from AWS to Netlify—spoke to developers and SMBs in a way that truly addressed their needs as growing businesses. Overall, their motivation was simple: they needed space and time to create world-changing software. There was a void in the cultural conversation, and growth was our way in.
Through this, we uncovered our big idea for DigitalOcean moving forward: “Get growing.” This was our promise to this new audience that their potential is unfathomable with DigitalOcean. This open-ended, developer-first sentiment set the tone for the rest of the brand identity, from messaging to visual language. We established corresponding brand pillars and communication frameworks with growth at the center.
DigitalOcean’s brand identity had seen multiple iterations throughout the last decade and its biggest challenge was defining a singular brand language. Many of its changing styles had continued to live within the brand system, causing visual dissonance and confusion. That was our primary challenge in approaching a refreshed identity. We created a system of distinct, expressive, and digital-first components that brought consistency to its visual language and fresh life to the brand. From type and color to illustration and pattern, we challenged the status quo of the space by building an entire world around the developer experience.
At the beginning of our engagement, the client’s goal was to build a brand that was built for growth. In hindsight, we’re proud to say we accomplished just that. Together, we crafted a flexible identity that gives users around the world the permission to be endlessly inventive and extraordinarily impactful—helping happy dev teams make bigger waves.
