At Castle, design goes far beyond how something looks. We believe it is about caring deeply, having clarity, and solving problems in the most holistic way possible. We approached our branding challenges in the same way and we are excited to share with you our journey.
Time for a change
Our original brand was beginning to show its age and was faced with creative limitations that held us back from positioning ourselves as an innovative and leading brand in the security space. We saw this challenge as an opportunity to build a scalable foundation to help us pave the way towards our future vision of Castle.
We often use the analogy of a tree when we talk about brand at Castle.
"If we were to see the current brand as a lonesome tree, what will it take to become a forest so that our customers are captivated in an all surrounding way as they walk through and experience our product for the first time?”
Like many other areas of a business, we believe that brand needs to be well-oiled, maintained, and continuously invested into. How we shape our culture, are perceived by our customers and future talent, talk about our product, and execute on our marketing initiatives, are all impacted by how we express ourselves to the world. If we could align on our values and speak a common language, we believe we can synergize these experiences and truly become the forest we envision ourselves to be.
Our new identity
We went through multiple iterations and took many different directions but inevitably fell in love with the natural evolution of the old logo. The simplified mark paired with a modern typeface that shares the same circular characteristics, helped us achieve a look that is distinct, more refined, and unified.
A closer look
We felt that the old tower emblem had too many details that were competing for attention. The new emblem takes inspiration from the original and is constructed using basic geometry that is distributed equally in size. By doing so, it is more clearly distinguishable and evenly placed inside the encapsulating circular boundary.
Flexible brand expression
Building a brand language that can provide flexibility and scale for the next 5 years was important to us. To enable more creative freedom we developed a variety of ways that the brand can be expressed through the use of backgrounds, typography styles, and gradient coloring to help further compliment the brand.
Ensuring consistency across all mediums
Our logo will be seen and recognized across multiple brand touchpoints. Here are some examples of how you might come across our new logo in the wild! If you like what you see, please don't hesitate to come say hello and pick up one of our new swag at a Castle attended conference or meetup.
What's next
Our new logo is only the first step in our ongoing effort to build the next Castle forest and mature as a company that values product and design. Over the next few months, you will be able to hear more updates and see Castle further aligning around this new direction.
Thank you for taking the time to check out our new brand. See you in the next design update!