New Level Work
A multi-facetted rebrand in every shade of green
Challenge
BetterManager, a 100% virtual professional development and coaching company based in San Francisco, recognized the need for a brand overhaul. Teaming up with a reputable brand strategist, they acknowledged that simply being "better" wasn't sufficient, especially with the added challenge of a name similarity to a competitor. Additionally, they were in the process of repackaging their primary product offering and sought a way to effectively promote this transformation to their potential customers.
While the brand strategist set the groundwork with a new name, logo, and product packaging, much was left to be accomplished to bring this fresh brand vision to life. I joined the team as a freelance designer/creative director, tasked with bridging the gap from vision to reality. My responsibilities included creating a detailed style guide, a brand-new website, and updating visuals across all platforms and marketing collateral.
Outcome
Despite an aggressive timeline, New Level Work successfully launched their new brand in mid January. This included a newly designed website, blog, podcast, sales presentations, and updated social media channels. A detailed styleguide and various templates facilitated future updates ensuring their brand would remain consistent over time.
Approach
To facilitate quick consensus on the overall look and feel, I crafted moodboards illustrating potential directions aligned with their new brand vision. I took into consideration they wanted a “green” color palette and wanted to leverage portraiture. Each moodboard presented various fonts, images, icons, and shades of green.
New Level Work is a coaching and training platform designed to guide leaders to new levels of performance. Formerly BetterManager, they aim to equip managers with the needed competencies and skills to feel valued and create value in the ever-changing world of work. They are 100% virtual, technology-enabled and proven effective for accelerating leadership development for all levels.
Setting the direction
Once a direction was chosen, I began to build out a design system in Figma and a detailed style guide that clearly articulated the new brand strategy and guidelines on how to implement it.
Simultaneously, I created new pages for the existing website detailing the revamped package offering. Careful consideration was given to selecting photography and layouts that could seamlessly transition to the new website.
Implementing the design
Upon completing the style guide, I initiated the design process for their new website. We leveraged as much content as possible from the existing website but took the redesign as an opportunity to make the navigation more intuitive and mobile friendly. New pages were also created to better articulate their mission and how their program sets them apart from competitors.
To expedite design and development, we leveraged the Relume library for Webflow, which provided skeleton components that I could quickly adapt to match the client's brand and content and the development agency could easily implement.
Concurrently, I built a robust image library for use across all of their marketing communication. I rebranded their popular podcast, "Building Better Managers," created social media assets to announce the new brand, and updated images on their longstanding blog. New templates were developed for sales pitches, ebooks, PDFs, and company letterhead, ensuring a consistent look and feel across all communication channels.
Despite the aggressive timeline, we successfully met our deadline, launching the new website and announcing the rebrand in mid-January. The optimized website has proven to be more effective for lead generation, setting the stage for New Level Works's continued growth and feedback has been tremendously positive. I eagerly anticipate witnessing their success and look forward to continue to support them on their journey.
“Allison not only helped us bringing a vision of a new brand and a repositioning of our product to live, but elevated how we show up in the market. Under her guidance and expertise the brand reflects now exactly what we and our clients always knew we stand for: Leadership Development at its best with impact beyond the manager we coach. In addition when tasked with deliverables around visualizing competency models and thought leadership she found very creative yet spot on ways to make complex ideas visually easy to understand. Allison delivered fresh, cutting edge designs of highest quality which will pave the path for New Level Works future success.”
Sonja Lutz
CMO | Chief Revenue Officer
New Level Work