CRMs are wild. Using enterprise CRMs will make you rethink your life and want to quit your job. When Creamier reached out to HEX to rethink a customer relationship software for an untapped (+ non-tech) market, we knew we had to really rethink what makes a good CRM from the ground up.
The thought process behind the thought process
We started this project like how we start every other: conversation. We wanted to understand what makes Creamier special and exciting, and how we can try and put that specialty into pixels.
We tried to find other products that felt more than just “software” and had that layer of authentic personality on them. The goal was to find products that could tae something generally unapproachable and present it in a noble and interesting way.
I think Setpoint’s identity really fit that vibe. They’re selling “operating system for capital markets” but present themselves in a extremely polished and unique way.
The colour system feels professional and but at the same time sets them apart from the traditional “finance-y” brand look. The use of illustrations is of course their biggest asset and I love the way everything came together.
The other project that was on my mind was Puck by Goodside Studio. I think hiring as a process is boring and intimidating, for both the employer and employee. There are thousands of things to consider and you can never really find the “perfect” match, and it’s a quite draining experience all around. Goodside was able to find hiring’s good side (holy terrible pun) and bring that to life with this brand
In both brands, the agencies focused on trying to build a brand world and narrative that twisted a boring space into something fun, while making sure they don’t completely feel detached from the product itself.
To begin with, I just wanted to riff of that idea of building a cool, whimsical world around this product and focus on the things that make CRMs interesting. I’ve never really shared this before but this is actually how the design process starts: finding cool shit and exploring layouts / putting random images / typography together until things start to make sense
What you saw was super derivitive and something I don’t even present to the client. I keep this for myself just so I can connect the vision in my head to pixels on the screen. It’s a lot easier to build something more refined once that’s clear.
I think the big issue above to me that while it was a cool colourful exploration, something about the colours and overall vibe felt too strong. It almost felt like it was trying too hard to be different and present CRMs as a fun trophy tool.
I also knew there was going to be a component of finance / money management on this product, and I wanted to see how I could integrate that into the brand. After putting a quick mood-board and exploring the idea a little more, I knew that it wasn’t the right fit for Creamier. Creamier is supposed to be a more human CRM that regular people can use, and the over-the-top d2c finance flashiness felt like it wasn’t relating to that audience at all.
Nonetheless, exploring this direction gave us a lot of clarity on what we did want Creamier to feel like: human. We wanted the product to ease off the flashiness and over the top boldness, and embrace a simple, modern and human identity.
Usually in a brand project, I like to present 3 moodboards and then 2 directions, but this time the vision became so clear on what we wanted that I decided to present only 1 to the client. The only time we did this in the last 2 years but I’m still happy that we pushed for this identity.
Presenting the direction
To present this direction, we started with the core premise — Warm And Human. Those were the words that inspired this direction from the get go, and we wrote a quick statement that captured the aesthetic we were striving for:
To that’s the goal. Strip down all the flashiness and bloat that comes with a technical CRM, and approach the project from a clean slate.
Colour
The colour scheme respects Creamier’s brand vision by providing a focused, single-tone core colour palette but by also integrating with a neutral, pastel palette that can bring life to any illustration, product screen or marketing asset. By maintaining a look, Creamier could present professionalism while communicating a sense of brand personality.
Paper Textures
We also took a lot of inspo from paper textures and thought of cool ways to subtly integrate that into the brand. The OG CRM is a pen and paper, and this was a cool way to pay homage + present an additional layer of recognition into the brand.
Another exciting way to bring this brand to life other than the warm palette was by introducing gouache style paintings, emphasizing soft, hand-painted textures. We wanted these paintings to feel abstract and not so “on the nose” by depicting things like reading, playing, exploring, writing. The goal was to definitely make a statement with these illustrations and have them dominate layouts + bring the brand together.
Typography
Probably should have addressed this earlier since it’s such a MAJOR part of this brand, but we wanted typography to really take a life of its own with this brand. Think of a notepad during a client call — all sorts of little details are scribbled on the paper in different fonts, sizes, weights, and styles.
That was kind of the inspiration behind the typography. We settled on GT Alpina because of how versatile and extendable it is, without losing sight on consistency. Since we were constantly bringing different weights and sizes, a priority was to make sure we don’t get lost in tackling multiple fonts.
Logo
I did an initial concept of the logomark and type concept for Creamier but it didn’t feel like it did justice to the overall identity. Too “metalic” I think.
So anyway, we got my guy Ethan to cook up some options. I told him to just look at the brand himself and do what he wants with the logo.
And did he cook
I love every logo. Each of them could fit into the brand and do the job. But concept three felt perfect: it had the handwritten cursive feeling and felt super intuitive with the rest of the brand.
I love it. The clients loved it. We finalized it asap.
Here’s some of the brand pieces:
Finally, I do want to mention that we also jammed on the product design and that process could be it’s own blog (or two blogs). Just know that designing a CRM will change you forever.
That’s all for this breakdown. If you think there’s anything I should focus more / less on, DM me and lmk on my twitter. Getting better with each breakdown!
Also, we have a full case study for this project here: https://www.hex.inc/work/creamier
And, we’re booking more branding projects at HEX. 🙂
Case Study: A detoxed identity for the world’s most complex product (CRM) was originally published in Muzli – Design Inspiration on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.