When we first launched FlowPath we needed a logo. There is plenty written about not focusing too much on name or logo as a pre-revenue startup, so back then we didn’t. We went to Fiverr and paid $18 for a logo design and some graphics we could use for marketing. Our original name we used for this logo wasn’t even FlowPath, it was VendorLoft.
But we quickly grew out of that name and now we have outgrown our current logo. Here is a quick read into some of the considerations that go into logos, marks, and font when you put a little more time and attention into it. First, a big thanks to our awesome designer/engineer/trivia master Ben Charity, who took this on as a side project and did a phenomenal job.
We will admit it first, the old mark wasn’t great.
When showed to significant others and friends, the logo elicited all ranges of emotion and feedback. We got fear, neutral nods, laughing at whatever it made them thinking about - most common was a toilet flushing… it wasn’t anything that reflected what FlowPath was accomplishing for our customers. It was also too generic to be recognized on it’s own, such as on a phone app icon or on a t-shirt. We made it work, though, and (some of us) will remember it fondly. There is still something about it being first, though, as “OG” logo swag is already worn with pride around the office and across our customers.
We still love our name and the meaning behind it, though, and we wanted to create a mark better to support the name. A mark that was more easily recognizable.
So how did we get to this?
Over time, with the incredible input from our customers, we’ve better defined who we are as a company and we needed to update how we represent that. We sought for the new logo to reflect moderness of the software and how simple FlowPath is to use. First, the mark, an overlapped “FP” overall represents the layers of work that can be performed in our platform. The ‘f’ part reflects the communication stream, and the color “flows” as such, built into the core of our platform - the Path. Additionally, by overlapping, rather than keeping the letters separate, allowed for a lot of variation in usage of the mark.
The final version represents direct communication which is core to a smooth system as well as our constant accessibility and open communication with our customers.
The new mark directed the wordmark and typography choices. We kept the strength of the original word “FlowPath” but updated the shapes to match our mark in style and ‘flow’. This new styling is reflected not just in our marketing material but also is the font in the FlowPath platform. To say we went through a few iterations and experiments would be an understatement. Take a look at the options we considered, accounting for how this font would be reach across devices and within our platform.
We took the opportunity to update the app font for increased legibility at small sizes as our users span many generations and are often presented with tons of data on a small screen.
Finally, how did all of this lead into the colors!? Using these base shades we looked at how we could update our current color palettes. Goals were a more modern interface with colors that were fully accessible while still offering easy visual distinction. We wanted colors to work together across hues and shades. When we honed in on the core colors, we then generated full palettes with accessibility in mind.
That’s it!
That is about as fast of an overview as we can provide of the hours of work and meetings that went into bringing about these changes. Lots of reflection, dreaming, and definition went into this change and we hope you enjoy them as much as we do!
About FlowPath
FlowPath is modern software for maintaining the world's facilities and infrastructure. FlowPath leverages its platform technology to solve the complexity of managing facilities of single-campus and multi-location organizations at scale. Existing facilities software is complicated, modular, outdated, and siloed for companies that want to standardize processes across locations, integrate vendors into workflows, and capitalize on operational efficiencies as they scale.FlowPath was named a Gartner top Facility Management Software for 2022. To learn more, visit https://www.getflowpath.com.
