ERG Branding
ERG Branding
ERG Branding
Logo designs for employee resource groups.
Logo designs for employee resource groups.
Logo designs for employee resource groups.
Project Type
visual identity • graphic design
Tags
culture
Roles
Lead
Association
Design Systems Manager
at
CallRail
in
2023
The ask
Previously, our ERGs were not cohesively branded, if branded at all. Each group was responsible for creating their own visuals and mostly did not have any sort of logo or visually representative material at all. The head of our Culture team wanted to provide our ERGs with their own logos and wanted them to all feel cohesively connected back to the company's brand. At the time, our Marketing design team didn't have the resources to take on the project. And before outsourcing the work, I volunteered to take a stab at it since I have a background in graphic design, wanted a fun side project that would allow me to use old skills again, and felt very invested in our ERGs. I was also serving as a co-chair for one of the resource groups and valued the opportunity to use my personal experience as an ERG leader to support any kind of visual identity work for them.
The ask
Previously, our ERGs were not cohesively branded, if branded at all. Each group was responsible for creating their own visuals and mostly did not have any sort of logo or visually representative material at all. The head of our Culture team wanted to provide our ERGs with their own logos and wanted them to all feel cohesively connected back to the company's brand. At the time, our Marketing design team didn't have the resources to take on the project. And before outsourcing the work, I volunteered to take a stab at it since I have a background in graphic design, wanted a fun side project that would allow me to use old skills again, and felt very invested in our ERGs. I was also serving as a co-chair for one of the resource groups and valued the opportunity to use my personal experience as an ERG leader to support any kind of visual identity work for them.
The ask
Previously, our ERGs were not cohesively branded, if branded at all. Each group was responsible for creating their own visuals and mostly did not have any sort of logo or visually representative material at all. The head of our Culture team wanted to provide our ERGs with their own logos and wanted them to all feel cohesively connected back to the company's brand. At the time, our Marketing design team didn't have the resources to take on the project. And before outsourcing the work, I volunteered to take a stab at it since I have a background in graphic design, wanted a fun side project that would allow me to use old skills again, and felt very invested in our ERGs. I was also serving as a co-chair for one of the resource groups and valued the opportunity to use my personal experience as an ERG leader to support any kind of visual identity work for them.
Process
Project vision
Our head of Culture and our Creative Director had previously met to discuss what they wanted out of the project. The main directive was to create a set of logos that were derivative of our company logo. They also had some initial draft designs to get some ideas rolling that were shared with the ERG leaders. However, some of us were concerned that the direction was leaning too far towards parity with the corporate brand and not allowing for enough individuality for each ERG. So in an effort to steer the vision more in the direction of what we (the ERG leaders) wanted for our groups, I diagrammed what I believed to be the ideal relationship between the corporate brand, individual ERGs, and individuals within each ERG.
Thinking about it in terms of the audience, we can consider a spectrum from external to internal. Our external audience would include customers, for example. And that’s our primary target audience for our corporate branding, including the logo. Of course our corporate logo is intended to be used internally, but its design was created for an external audience to view and connect back to our overall brand and visual identity. Though our ERG logos would appear on our website and potentially other external places, they’ll needed more internally to serve our ERGs themselves. And beyond that, we can anticipate needing more individualized characteristics such as color and imagery that will have little to no external viewership.
Stakeholder sync
I met with the stakeholders on the project, which included our Creative Director. I was able to get his buy-in on the approach I advocated in the diagram where we would allow the ERG logos to be more individualized. However, also treating the logos as a set where displaying them together would clearly identify that they are collectively designed would help ensure the relationship back to their parent logo. In a way, they could be seen as direct siblings and part of a family.
We also discussed direction around color application and how much that could/should relate back to the corporate brand. And this is where the external vs internal framing helped again. Our Creative Director expressed wanting to keep colors derivative of the corporate brand when used externally, such as on our website. But when used for more internal purposes like programming and swag, we could deviate from the corporate brand and have more individualized color palettes that would more directly represent each ERG. This way, each ERG would be free to celebrate their identities more authentically, which was very important to us.
Inspiration
With the vision and project requirements settled, we started looking for visual inspiration to help narrow in on a visual direction to design the logos. I partnered with one of our other UX managers who also has a background in graphic design. We helped each ERG leadership team do their own inspiration research by gathering images of things they each felt represented their respective group. Once they had their inspo boards, we met with each team to learn more about what they liked about the images they gathered and what they meant to them. This gave us a lot of insights around what each team identified with and why.
From there, I also spend some time doing my own inspiration search for logos or logo-like visuals that might spark some ideas for the overall visual styling. Of course, these still needed to reference back to our corporate logo. But as a singular design, it wasn’t enough to extract a whole visual direction for the ERG logos. So I looked for examples of logo sets and symbols that would give me ideas on how ways to explore a ‘set’ of related designs, each with unique qualities. Here were some examples that I found helpful:
Initial designs
With all the visual inspiration gathered, the other UX manager and I started exploring some design directions. We tried a couple different directions, including building around the overall outside shape of our corporate logo and line-based designs with a similar thickness and rounded tips found in the inside shapes of our corporate logo. We also focused on shapes that related to the imagery that each ERG leadership team’s visual inspiration choices. Here were some early samples:
From there, we started settling in on the overall aesthetic and determined the general level of detail that would work. With that in mind, I followed up with each ERG leadership group to show them all the versions we explored for their group. Based on their feedback, I worked with each group to dig a little deeper and help them come up with a few more ideas of imagery that might represent their groups, keeping in mind that we needed to keep detail minimal and shapes relatively simple. Because we found a general aesthetic pretty quickly, it made exploring subsequent ideas pretty easy.
Process
Project vision
Our head of Culture and our Creative Director had previously met to discuss what they wanted out of the project. The main directive was to create a set of logos that were derivative of our company logo. They also had some initial draft designs to get some ideas rolling that were shared with the ERG leaders. However, some of us were concerned that the direction was leaning too far towards parity with the corporate brand and not allowing for enough individuality for each ERG. So in an effort to steer the vision more in the direction of what we (the ERG leaders) wanted for our groups, I diagrammed what I believed to be the ideal relationship between the corporate brand, individual ERGs, and individuals within each ERG.
Thinking about it in terms of the audience, we can consider a spectrum from external to internal. Our external audience would include customers, for example. And that’s our primary target audience for our corporate branding, including the logo. Of course our corporate logo is intended to be used internally, but its design was created for an external audience to view and connect back to our overall brand and visual identity. Though our ERG logos would appear on our website and potentially other external places, they’ll needed more internally to serve our ERGs themselves. And beyond that, we can anticipate needing more individualized characteristics such as color and imagery that will have little to no external viewership.
Stakeholder sync
I met with the stakeholders on the project, which included our Creative Director. I was able to get his buy-in on the approach I advocated in the diagram where we would allow the ERG logos to be more individualized. However, also treating the logos as a set where displaying them together would clearly identify that they are collectively designed would help ensure the relationship back to their parent logo. In a way, they could be seen as direct siblings and part of a family.
We also discussed direction around color application and how much that could/should relate back to the corporate brand. And this is where the external vs internal framing helped again. Our Creative Director expressed wanting to keep colors derivative of the corporate brand when used externally, such as on our website. But when used for more internal purposes like programming and swag, we could deviate from the corporate brand and have more individualized color palettes that would more directly represent each ERG. This way, each ERG would be free to celebrate their identities more authentically, which was very important to us.
Inspiration
With the vision and project requirements settled, we started looking for visual inspiration to help narrow in on a visual direction to design the logos. I partnered with one of our other UX managers who also has a background in graphic design. We helped each ERG leadership team do their own inspiration research by gathering images of things they each felt represented their respective group. Once they had their inspo boards, we met with each team to learn more about what they liked about the images they gathered and what they meant to them. This gave us a lot of insights around what each team identified with and why.
From there, I also spend some time doing my own inspiration search for logos or logo-like visuals that might spark some ideas for the overall visual styling. Of course, these still needed to reference back to our corporate logo. But as a singular design, it wasn’t enough to extract a whole visual direction for the ERG logos. So I looked for examples of logo sets and symbols that would give me ideas on how ways to explore a ‘set’ of related designs, each with unique qualities. Here were some examples that I found helpful:
Initial designs
With all the visual inspiration gathered, the other UX manager and I started exploring some design directions. We tried a couple different directions, including building around the overall outside shape of our corporate logo and line-based designs with a similar thickness and rounded tips found in the inside shapes of our corporate logo. We also focused on shapes that related to the imagery that each ERG leadership team’s visual inspiration choices. Here were some early samples:
From there, we started settling in on the overall aesthetic and determined the general level of detail that would work. With that in mind, I followed up with each ERG leadership group to show them all the versions we explored for their group. Based on their feedback, I worked with each group to dig a little deeper and help them come up with a few more ideas of imagery that might represent their groups, keeping in mind that we needed to keep detail minimal and shapes relatively simple. Because we found a general aesthetic pretty quickly, it made exploring subsequent ideas pretty easy.
Process
Project vision
Our head of Culture and our Creative Director had previously met to discuss what they wanted out of the project. The main directive was to create a set of logos that were derivative of our company logo. They also had some initial draft designs to get some ideas rolling that were shared with the ERG leaders. However, some of us were concerned that the direction was leaning too far towards parity with the corporate brand and not allowing for enough individuality for each ERG. So in an effort to steer the vision more in the direction of what we (the ERG leaders) wanted for our groups, I diagrammed what I believed to be the ideal relationship between the corporate brand, individual ERGs, and individuals within each ERG.
Thinking about it in terms of the audience, we can consider a spectrum from external to internal. Our external audience would include customers, for example. And that’s our primary target audience for our corporate branding, including the logo. Of course our corporate logo is intended to be used internally, but its design was created for an external audience to view and connect back to our overall brand and visual identity. Though our ERG logos would appear on our website and potentially other external places, they’ll needed more internally to serve our ERGs themselves. And beyond that, we can anticipate needing more individualized characteristics such as color and imagery that will have little to no external viewership.
Stakeholder sync
I met with the stakeholders on the project, which included our Creative Director. I was able to get his buy-in on the approach I advocated in the diagram where we would allow the ERG logos to be more individualized. However, also treating the logos as a set where displaying them together would clearly identify that they are collectively designed would help ensure the relationship back to their parent logo. In a way, they could be seen as direct siblings and part of a family.
We also discussed direction around color application and how much that could/should relate back to the corporate brand. And this is where the external vs internal framing helped again. Our Creative Director expressed wanting to keep colors derivative of the corporate brand when used externally, such as on our website. But when used for more internal purposes like programming and swag, we could deviate from the corporate brand and have more individualized color palettes that would more directly represent each ERG. This way, each ERG would be free to celebrate their identities more authentically, which was very important to us.
Inspiration
With the vision and project requirements settled, we started looking for visual inspiration to help narrow in on a visual direction to design the logos. I partnered with one of our other UX managers who also has a background in graphic design. We helped each ERG leadership team do their own inspiration research by gathering images of things they each felt represented their respective group. Once they had their inspo boards, we met with each team to learn more about what they liked about the images they gathered and what they meant to them. This gave us a lot of insights around what each team identified with and why.
From there, I also spend some time doing my own inspiration search for logos or logo-like visuals that might spark some ideas for the overall visual styling. Of course, these still needed to reference back to our corporate logo. But as a singular design, it wasn’t enough to extract a whole visual direction for the ERG logos. So I looked for examples of logo sets and symbols that would give me ideas on how ways to explore a ‘set’ of related designs, each with unique qualities. Here were some examples that I found helpful:
Initial designs
With all the visual inspiration gathered, the other UX manager and I started exploring some design directions. We tried a couple different directions, including building around the overall outside shape of our corporate logo and line-based designs with a similar thickness and rounded tips found in the inside shapes of our corporate logo. We also focused on shapes that related to the imagery that each ERG leadership team’s visual inspiration choices. Here were some early samples:
From there, we started settling in on the overall aesthetic and determined the general level of detail that would work. With that in mind, I followed up with each ERG leadership group to show them all the versions we explored for their group. Based on their feedback, I worked with each group to dig a little deeper and help them come up with a few more ideas of imagery that might represent their groups, keeping in mind that we needed to keep detail minimal and shapes relatively simple. Because we found a general aesthetic pretty quickly, it made exploring subsequent ideas pretty easy.
Final designs
After exploring more ideas for each logo and letting each ERG leadership team vote on their favorite, here’s where we landed. This set is also updated to reflect the current ERGs. Our corporate logo is included at the top as the parent logo for broader brand context.
Applying color for the corporate-branded versions of this logo, these are the versions intended to be used externally and for initial company-wide swag:
Final designs
After exploring more ideas for each logo and letting each ERG leadership team vote on their favorite, here’s where we landed. This set is also updated to reflect the current ERGs. Our corporate logo is included at the top as the parent logo for broader brand context.
Applying color for the corporate-branded versions of this logo, these are the versions intended to be used externally and for initial company-wide swag:
Final designs
After exploring more ideas for each logo and letting each ERG leadership team vote on their favorite, here’s where we landed. This set is also updated to reflect the current ERGs. Our corporate logo is included at the top as the parent logo for broader brand context.
Applying color for the corporate-branded versions of this logo, these are the versions intended to be used externally and for initial company-wide swag:
Application
Upon launch of our new family of ERG logos, our lead brand designer created stickers (not pictured). I later made Slack emojis (below) so we could add a little flare in our company chats.
For one of our ERG kick-off events, I designed some greeting cards for my ERG to hand out to members. This is where we started having more fun with color, getting more expressing at the specific ERG level.
Additional applications so far have included virtual meeting backgrounds and presentation slides for programming events. We’re just getting started and hope to see more swag and other ways we express ourselves.
Application
Upon launch of our new family of ERG logos, our lead brand designer created stickers (not pictured). I later made Slack emojis (below) so we could add a little flare in our company chats.
For one of our ERG kick-off events, I designed some greeting cards for my ERG to hand out to members. This is where we started having more fun with color, getting more expressing at the specific ERG level.
Additional applications so far have included virtual meeting backgrounds and presentation slides for programming events. We’re just getting started and hope to see more swag and other ways we express ourselves.
Application
Upon launch of our new family of ERG logos, our lead brand designer created stickers (not pictured). I later made Slack emojis (below) so we could add a little flare in our company chats.
For one of our ERG kick-off events, I designed some greeting cards for my ERG to hand out to members. This is where we started having more fun with color, getting more expressing at the specific ERG level.
Additional applications so far have included virtual meeting backgrounds and presentation slides for programming events. We’re just getting started and hope to see more swag and other ways we express ourselves.
Takeaways
I really loved working on this project. It had been years since working on a branding-related project. But I thoroughly enjoyed the process. But more importantly, we were successful in serving our ERGs by providing them with a quality set of logos with a wide range of potential application. Seeing these given better resources to represent themselves is encouraging. Definitely a highly rewarding project to have worked on.
From here, I’ll be working with the Culture team to create future logos when new ERGs are formed. And given the chance, I’d like to continue being a design resource to each ERG to help with visual expression and other branding or swag projects that will further help ERG members feel connected, supported, and seen.
Takeaways
I really loved working on this project. It had been years since working on a branding-related project. But I thoroughly enjoyed the process. But more importantly, we were successful in serving our ERGs by providing them with a quality set of logos with a wide range of potential application. Seeing these given better resources to represent themselves is encouraging. Definitely a highly rewarding project to have worked on.
From here, I’ll be working with the Culture team to create future logos when new ERGs are formed. And given the chance, I’d like to continue being a design resource to each ERG to help with visual expression and other branding or swag projects that will further help ERG members feel connected, supported, and seen.
Takeaways
I really loved working on this project. It had been years since working on a branding-related project. But I thoroughly enjoyed the process. But more importantly, we were successful in serving our ERGs by providing them with a quality set of logos with a wide range of potential application. Seeing these given better resources to represent themselves is encouraging. Definitely a highly rewarding project to have worked on.
From here, I’ll be working with the Culture team to create future logos when new ERGs are formed. And given the chance, I’d like to continue being a design resource to each ERG to help with visual expression and other branding or swag projects that will further help ERG members feel connected, supported, and seen.