Transforming a 37-year old tech brand

Pega’s an enterprise tech company that helps the world’s leading organizations crush business complexity so they can make better decisions and get work done. Over 37 years, Pega’s grown to a billion-dollar business and while its technology is redefining the industry, its brand had a reputation of being corporate, outdated, and stodgy.

The software is powerful and flexible, but its visual identity was anything but. With one typeface (Open Sans) 4 shapes (circle, square, diamond, triangle) and 4 colors (teal, navy, orange, yellow) the brand couldn’t convey the energy and impact surrounding Pega’s products. The old colors weren’t ADA compliant, they vibrated against each other, and there was no subtly among them. Additionally, the shapes were rigid, uninspired, and couldn’t convey any sense of emotion.

To start, we refined and expanded the color palette so it all worked cohesively together, to feel more modern, and to mellow out the intensity of our old palette. We then expanded our library of shapes to allow for more variety and to convey more emotion: a mix of geometric, organic, and pattern. Finally, we created an illustration style that was bold and differentiated. We developed a series of conceptual scenes, a library of narrative illustrations, and a modular system of people – think: a set of faces, expressions, hair, legs, torsos that we could mix and match as needed.

Keeping the original logo and type, the result is a system that feels true to Pega’s brand heritage, but evolved to something far more modern and customizable. Something that could suit a variety of needs from the web to events to print. And that will help shift Pega’s perception from old to modern, from stodgy to engaging, from outdated to innovative.