Cornerstone is one of the world’s largest companies in the HR software space and has a mission to use technology and insights to make work a place that works for everyone.

The brand team created a select group of advisors to drive the strategy consisting of leadership members and agency partners. Together we set off to redesign a new brand identity that conveys the engaging experience of its technology and sets the company apart in its category. The program encompasses brand strategy, positioning, and verbal identity.

With the rebrand, the company wanted to leverage its knowledge and expertise and stand out as a pioneer. The new identity is also intended to signal that Cornerstone has gone through a significant transition since combining forces with a former competitor, Saba Software.

The positioning highlights Cornerstone as a platform that empowers people to achieve extraordinary things and work with autonomy, freedom, creativity, and agility. The strategy emphasizes understanding and freedom, which allows the branding to be both smart and playful.

These themes inform a dynamic visual language that is simple, bold, and warm. The new Cornerstone logo combines the letter “C” with a “North Star” shaped counter at the center of the mark. The North Star is used by Cornerstone as a metaphor for guiding people forward along their professional journey no matter where they are. Built of circles, the logo’s form has a clean geometry that is simultaneously strong and friendly. The primary brand color is a bright orange, a marked shift from the blue of the previous identity and the more subdued corporate colors of competitors.

The Cornerstone symbol serves as the foundation for a comprehensive design system, with the “eclipse” shape of one of its sections used as a window for imagery or a container for type in layouts. The forms extend to a series of simple custom icons designed using the characteristics of the Cornerstone logo. These are augmented with additional illustrated icons to give us an array of options for the hundreds of pieces of communications we create each month.

The brand’s new visual style is bright and charming, and the increased use of illustration helps make it warm and approachable. A major component of the identity’s toolkit is a family of exuberant 3D animated characters created by the London-based motion graphic designer. The playful mascots are a cross between whimsical creatures and anthropomorphic spacecraft, in orange rounded forms that echo the logo and with a sophisticated design that reflects the technology.

The characters personify Cornerstone as an innovator powered by AI and data insight, and although artificial themselves, help speak to the friendly, personable benefits of the software rather than the underlying code itself.

As part of the system, the we also established new guidelines for brand photography that feels real and authentic, rather than staged, for an honest depiction of working life.

View full company guidelines here.