ShareFile

Workflows Made for People

Our Role

Brand Strategy, Brand Identity, Tone & Voice, Experience Strategy, Web Design, UX / UI Design, Art Direction, Motion Graphics, Video Direction, DXP Consulting.

Collaborators

ShareFile, CATK, Phase2, Acquia, Petra Sitaru.

Simplicity from the start

Putting people at the center

A modern client experience

Simplicity from the start. ShareFile is a fast-growing business that began with a product that made sharing and signing digital documents easy and secure. In 2011, this caught the eye of Citrix, which acquired the company for its portfolio of collaboration tools.

Putting people at the center. After over a decade, ShareFile decoupled from Citrix, giving it the opportunity to tell a story of evolved focus: from file-sharing to the human elements of a modern client experience. The brand we developed to tell this new story would put people at the center.

A modern client experience. Every element of the brand system and experience would underscore the ease with which ShareFile helps customers — and their clients — do their best work by simplifying communication, smoothing collaboration, and automating repetitive tasks.

A Layered System

The brand system would use a varied taxonomy of assets and media for a textured, engaging experience. Animated shapes in abstract, 3D planes evoke flow and ease, while warm portraiture of people in homey working environments paint an authentic portrait of contemporary work life. Spot illustrations are used to dramatize key value propositions and add playfulness and humor to the whole of the system.

A Dynamic Symbol

To tell a story of forward motion, of flow, and the joy of completing one task after another, we developed a logomark composed of checkmarks. Each individual check comes to life in a variety of ways, animating into a vibrant star or flywheel. Combined with our full wordmark, it makes for a dynamic pairing.

Color and Flow

A primary palette of neutrals and supportive pops of color provide a flexible foundation for the brand system, and any communications it’s applied to. Gradients are used to draw the user in, adding texture and emotional resonance to applications, and serve as a dynamic background for other brand assets.

Just the Right Type

Drawn by Pangram Pangram Foundry, PP Mori is a versatile and sophisticated gothic sans serif inspired by contemporary Japanese design. The foundation for our wordmark, it’s highly functional & unique, with playful diacritics and punctuations.

In their Element

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Our photographic approach would begin with warm portraiture. Featuring people in relatable work environments – the home, or home like offices — it allows us to tell stories around real personas and solid, credible use cases, and brings human warmth to a tech space saturated with product screens. We want above all to highlight moments of connection, joy, and thoughtfulness, pushing beyond what we think of when we think, “people at work.”

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Productivity in Motion

A full suite of 3D assets, featuring both abstract shapes and those inspired by our symbol, play in the same emotional and aspirational space that our gradients do. Playing a crucial role in our system, 3D assets tell a variety of stories, from visualizing how ShareFile works as a product and communicating benefits, to giving form to abstract ideas like process, collaboration, sharing, and flow.

“Digital innovation has created huge new opportunities to enhance customer experience and simplify interaction workflows.”
Kurt Heusner, General Manager and SVP, ShareFile

Spot-On Illustration

A library of spot illustrations — standalone images that draw attention to a specific detail — breathe life into our value proposition, while bringing a deeper layer of warmth and approachability to the brand system. They help streamline complex narratives around client challenges and product benefits.

A Vibrant Digital Ecosystem

The whole of the system comes to vibrant life in digital application — the ShareFile website, for one, but also in product UI itself. To represent and animate product, we developed a spectrum of illustration: on one end, a deeply functional, neary 1:1 depiction of product screens; in the middle, several abstracted elements of UI that tell a more focused feature story; and on the other end, an expressive fusion of photography, illustration, and UI elements.

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A Full Motion Toolkit

Considering the vital role that motion plays in the brand system, we developed a toolkit and explicit guidelines for its deployment. Working with ShareFile around several key milestones on their marketing calendar, we soon got to deploy the toolkit in full, with several reels & anthem videos that were scripted, designed, and developed to activate the rebrand in full.

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