the drift brand book

Our Brand Book Version 1

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Our Mission

Drift is how businesses all around the world communicate with their customers.

Our brand is a reflection of our customers, our team, and everything that we create.

Branding is more than a logo.

Part 1

Behind the Brand

Part 2

Brand Assets

Table of Contents

Brand Values Human Customer-Driven TransparentOur Culture Some qualities that we value Some things that we appreciate

LogoColorTypographyVoiceSocial

Behind the Brand

The values that make us, well, us.

To us this is the really exciting stuff.

Brand Value #1

HumanPeople have learned to tune out marketing that feels like marketing. So all of our marketing should feel like it's coming from a friend. We are talking to people, so if you wouldnt say it out loud to a friend, dont say it in a blog post, in a video, or on a landing page.

Customer-DrivenWe do things for our customers above all else. Not for us. Your feedback matters the most, whether its something thats a little hard for us to hear or if its glowing praise. Feedback influences what we build next, how we prioritize, and everything else we create.

Amanda

Hey there!

Absolutely, you can book a demo time that works for you from my profile: team.drift.com/amanda

Hey! I have a question about Drifts team directories.

10:31 AM Seen

10:30AM

I also have some questions about the bot and your Salesforce integration. Could we set-up a demo?

Brand Value #2

TransparentBrand Value #3

At Drift we believe in shipping, learning, and iterating. Our belief in transparency means that internally we constantly share versions of our work with the team. But being transparent also means we need to be open externally. And that means, well, sharing with you. Thats why we are sharing the first version of our brand guide. Your feedback makes us better.

At Drift we believe in shipping, learning, and iterating. Our belief in transparency means that internally we constantly share versions of our work with the team. But being transparent also means we need to be open externally. And that means, well, sharing with you. Thats why we are sharing the first version of our brand guide. Your feedback makes us better.

Some qualities that we value:

Learning, authenticity, humor !, & passion

Sneakers, podcasts, outdoors, books, & being active

Some things that we appreciate:

Brand Assets

Our values and culture are the foundation for everything we write, design, and record.We know this wouldnt be a brand book without talking about our logo, typography, colors, and all that tactical stuff. So lets get to it. Heres everything that makes our brand piece by piece.

Logo

Now for some background on our logo. Get cozy, its story time. A long, long time ago, Drift had two Ts in the name: Driftt. So our logo mark was originally created using the two Ts in front, wrapping around to form a group huddle (because teamwork is ! ).

Check it out:

There you have it.

Weve since updated our name to have one T, but we maintain our old logo mark. "

The black and white logos have cut out Ts so that the color behind is seen. When using the color logo, the Ts are filled in with white.

Our logo should only be placed on top of a black, white, grey, or photo background. Always leave plenty of white space around the logo.

Full logo: Use the full logo when speaking with an audience that isnt very familiar with Drift.

Logo mark: Youre welcome to use the logo mark when youre speaking to an audience that already knows Drift.

Please dont alter the Drift logo in any way. Thanks!

Logo Use

Color

Black and White

Logo Mark

Primary Colors

Black

White

Medium GreyHEX #CCCCCC

Primarily we stick to black, white and grey. When we need some color, we use bright pops of blue and green.

Drift BlueHEX #0176FF

Blue is the first color we use after black and white. Blue is used in our logo mark and throughout our marketing. The blue is used to differentiate our enterprise and team plans.

GreenHEX #13CB6E

The green is used as another accent color. It is also used to brand our standard (free) plan.

Light Grey HEX #F2F2F2

Secondary Colors

Typography

Proxima Nova

LightRegularSemi BoldBold

Proxima Nova is our primary typeface. Youll see it throughout our website and in our marketing materials. It is our go-to for all things brand.

Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Xx Yy Zz 023456789 *&%$#@!?


Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Xx Yy Zz023456789 *&%$#@!?


Merriweather

LightLight Italic

We use Merriweather to compliment Proxima Nova. It helps emphasize certain words or change the tone. Visually it adds texture, style, and personality.



Emojis

We ! emojis. Everyday we message with our friends and family using emojis, so why not use them in all of our communications?

Emojis help us be more expressive, they add color to communication, and they add a little fun too.

# $ %

& ' ( )

* + , -

! . /

If youve ever written an email to a close friend or family member (were guessing thats most of you) then you already know how to write in the Drift voice.

At Drift, we write as if were talking to people weve known our whole lives. That means we dont try to impress folks with fancy, complicated words. Instead, we state things as simply and as concisely as possible.

At the same time, were not afraid to crack a joke or two. (Hey, were friends, right?) One of our guiding principles is to write like we talk. And a lot of times that means bucking traditional business writing wisdom and using a friendlier, more casual voice.

Voice

That means were friendly, conversational, human, warm, and helpful. So if we wouldnt say it out loud to a friend, we wouldnt use it in our copy.

We write as if we were talking to our best friend over lunch.

When copywriters argue with me about some esoteric word they want to use, I say to them, Get on a bus. Go to Iowa. Stay on a farm for a week and talk to the farmer. Come back to New York by train and talk to your fellow passengers in the day-coach. If you still want to use the word, go ahead. Copy should be written in the language people use in everyday conversation.

- David Ogilvy

Nobody likes to be bossed around.CTAs should be friendly, not forced. And never intrusive. For example, heres how we like to end our blog posts: P.S. Can we send you an email?

We really like lists:1. Lists are easier to read2. Lists are direct and to the point3. Lists make it easy to remember the highlights

Oh, and so we dont forget, secondary pieces of information can go down here in Merriweather Italics.

Or we highlight them.We also bold some important words.

Social

Our community is super important to us. So we use social media to help connect with our community.

All of the same priciples that go into our written and visual content also applies to our social communications.

Twitter.com/DriftYouTube: Drift.com/YouTubeFaceBook.com/HeyDriftInstagram.com/HeyDriftLinkedin.com/company/driftt

____ps. we use this social icon set (left)

pps. these are the kinds of conversations we have with our community (following page)

Visual Language

Our illustration style at Drift dances the line between fun and professional.

On the one hand, we want to show off our personality with our illustrated graphics. So we dont strive for photorealism and we often use visual metaphors.

On the other hand, we dont want to venture too far into cartoon-land. So we avoid illustrating people and we stick primarily to a black, white, and grey color palette.

Of course, every once in a while we have to throw in a splash of Drift blue or green. We cant help ourselves. !

Photography & Faces

Were people after all. So we try to show the are real humans behind the brand.

We are constantly taking photos in the moment, so more often than not we use iPhone photography. Benefits: we capture more, its in the moment, and its real. But sometimes we use our dedicated office camera when were feeling fancy.

Video has become an increasingly important medium at Drift for the same reasons.

Meet the founders:David Cancel (right)Elias Torres (left)

Okay, thats it for now. !

the drift brand book

Marketing