2 min

Why Redesign the Dropbox Logo? Design Master Brian Collins Explains

The perils and perks of updating iconic brands.

When Dropbox unveiled their new brand identity, the Internet entered into a frenzy. There was plenty of backlash and criticism that came with this rebrand.

That’s why Brian Collins, the CCO and co-founder of Collins is here to talk about how he and his team approach the creative brief, the strategy, and why he embraces all knee-jerk reactions.

For those who don’t know him, Brian Collins is an extremely accomplished design leader. He’s been featured in the New York Times, Forbes, Fortune, as well as plenty other publications, and is the recipient of a number of awards such as American Master of Design, among others.

His firm, Collins, has worked with some of the biggest companies to do their rebrands, like Ogilvy and Spotify. In this video, Brian Collins explains why the Dropbox logo was redesigned in the first place, and why all creatives need to remember it’s not just about the design; it’s about the business.

Brian Collins and his team were brought on to help Dropbox grow their business beyond “storage". They were tasked with reimagining the Dropbox platform as one for creativity, not just file-sharing.

Before the rebrand, Dropbox was not communicating who they really were as a company. There was no clear language being spoken that reached out to their target audience.

To shift from the product to the benefits, a new language needed to be spoken by Dropbox. This language would take them out of being just a utility, and into a much larger, higher-order conversation about the nature of collaboration and creativity.

By focusing on this key benefit of supporting creative communities, the visual identity of the brand was then reimagined to show this in an engaging way.

Brian admits that there are things he and his team could have articulated better with the rollout of this new brand, but in the end, he and Chris remind us that there’s more to a rebrand than a new color palette. It’s about the direction of the business, and where it wants to be in the future.

For more from Brian, and how the Internet went from frantic to accepting of the new Dropbox identity, watch the full livestream recap above.

ABOUT

Chris Do

Chris Do is an Emmy award-winning director, designer, strategist, and educator. He's the Founder and CEO of The Futur—an online education platform that teaches the business of design to creative thinkers.

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