Assembly

OVERVIEW

Assembly was a comprehensive online platform where global makers connected and collaborated to create software services, websites, and mobile apps, managing processes and mitigating needs from start to success. When Assembly approached us they lacked an ownable identity and an engaging web presence. All work completed while at Focus Lab.

ROLE

Strategy

Identity

Brand XP

Website

EVALUATION PHASE

Their existing brand lacked storytelling around their values and extensive platform capabilities. Their gear mark also misled people to associate them with manufacturing.

Our challenge was to create and build a complete brand identity and web experience that captured the interpersonal aspect of the platform, simplified a complex subject, built trust of the target audience, and gave robust life to the overall visual experience.

CONCEPT 01

Signal Flags

New nations rally behind their flag, the visual representation of their independence, a unifier of many, and the hard-fought result of revolution. The concept carries well for Assembly, a revolutionary platform that rejects the company and uplifts the creating power of individuals who come together.

CONCEPT 02

Periodic Table

The most basic component of everything around us, elements are the quintessential representation of independence and, when combined, the strength of collaboration, and the creation of something important. The periodic chart as a whole represents the organization of these elements.

CONCEPT 03

Basic Shapes

From tangram exercises at school, to imaginative Lego wonderlands, we learned young the power of putting pieces together. This concept allows us to simply tell the story of Assembly. Given the simplicity of the components, the application is limitless and versatility maximized.

BRAND STRATEGY & CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT

The Brand Strategy round set up a strong concepting round, where we honed in on “flags” as a solid direction. Exploring signal flags led us into the world of naval signals and into morse code. We fleshed out a look that combines code with banner-flags. The result was colorful, interesting, and highly unique. The new brand experience captured Assembly’s essence of people and idea-sharing.

IDENTITY SYSTEM & BRAND EXPERIENCE

We created a brand identity system that captured Assembly’s many moving parts. The end result was bold, moveable, and interactive. The flexibility and implicit motion in the new mark was complemented in the experience design and development via clever animation within a single vertical funnel.

We elevated and exposed the large community of Assembly users on the website by adding a grid of user avatars. The resulting experience was one of simplicity, engagement, and clear pathfinding.

WEB EXPERIENCE

The Assembly team asked us to help them distill their messaging and simplify the information on their landing page. A complex platform with many points of information and interaction, their existing site lacked hierarchy and appropriate user funnels, and the content therein was jumbled, lacked cohesive storytelling, and tended to repeat itself.

We worked with them to streamline messaging and calls to action, create a path to content acquisition for primary users and separate out the content relevant to secondary users.

"Our rebrand and new homepage resonated and helped us connect with new members. To the tune of 60% growth in signups from the Assembly homepage."

– Matt Deiters, Founder & CEO of Assembly

Credits:

Creative Director 👉 Bill Kenney

Strategist 👉 Summer Teal-Simpson

Front-End Developer 👉 Andy Fought

Contact

Interested in working together?