︎

/ Work
  1. Integrative
    Branding/UI/Direction
  2. JBS
    Branding/Direction
  3. Bonzai Intranet
    Branding
  4. Seeking Blue
    Interaction
  5. Fluxwerx
    UI/Direction
  6. Skipper Otto
    UI/Direction
  7. Catapult ERP
    UI
  8. Build Tech
    UI/Direction
  9. Moots Apparel
    Identity
  10. NY Aesthetics
    Identity
  11. Essex Eagles
    Identity
  12. JC69
    Identity

/ About 
A visual designer and brand strategist, solving problems and telling stories. Most previously the creative director at Goat︎.

/ Vocabulary
Branding - Building brand strategy and visual identity with a deep understanding of client and industry.

Direction - Overseeing the creative and/or strategic direction of a project.

UI Design - Wireframing and designing websites and digital products.

Identity - Simple, low-budget logos or incomplete branding projects. 

Interaction - Adding value to pre-designed UI projects in forms of layout and movement.

/ Clients
Bonzai Intranet
BTY Global
Catapult ERP
City of Vancouver
CloudFM
Essex Cricket
FJG Solicitors
Insurance Emporium
Integrative Naturopathic
JBS Equipment
Lendlease
NHS UK
Parachute Regiment
Redcliffe & Co.
Seeking Blue Records
Simon Fraser University
Southend F.C
Skipper Otto
Tak Logistics

/ Community
Organizer of Type Brigade︎- Vancouver’s typography speaker series.

Tickets available now for Type Brigade №50︎



Want to sponsor this event?
Contact me︎

/ Connect
LinkedIn︎
VSCO︎
Twitter︎
Email︎


End.
Mark








Bonzai Intranet Branding



If you want to disrupt an industry, disrupt it.


/ Role
Branding
Design
/ Direction
Gonzalo Alatorre
/ Illustration
Yvonne Hsu
/ Year
2018







Re-branding a market leader

Bonzai Intranet is an award-winning intranet platform which sits on Microsoft Sharepoint. As a pre-built product with ready-to-roll subscriptions, Bonzai was challenging the traditional, custom built method of building a company intranet, at a fraction of the price and with lightning fast set-up. 









Comparing Perceptions


To start, we interviewed employees from across the company, and sought to gain insights into Bonzai’s culture, operations and product offering. We also interviewed customers who rolled out the platform to see where perceptions aligned. What was it that made a successful intranet, and how did Bonzai fulfill that need?




Employee insights


“People don’t link using SharePoint, it’s awful. If we can get people to use Bonzai and not realize they’re using Sharepoint, then that’s a win. I really think we’ve done that.”


/ Software Developer, Bonzai Employee



“The user interface is extremely strong. Typically, SharePoint is not a fun thing to use.”


/ Sales Support, Bonzai Employee



“It’s easy to explain. It’s easy to understand. It’s a solid platform that has a lot of possibilities.”


/ Deployment Technician, Bonzai Employee




Customer insights


“What they’re offering is truly out of the box, and sitting on the Office 365 environment is a huge benefit. When we implemented it, we had no developers involved at all.”


/ Marketing Manager, Customer



“The support is far more valuable than the technology itself. If you don’t have proper governance, that’s where you’ll start to have problems. The technology is great, it does what it is supposed to, but its the knowledge and expertise that is the big value add.”


/ Marketing Co-ordinator, Customer








The Intranet in a Box


A few things came to light. This product is truly agile and the best of it’s kind across the industry. Not only are Bonzai creating a product which utilizes the Sharepoint platform, but they make it look damn good and a pleasure to use - and their support is second-to-none. On top of that, Bonzai is a fraction of the price of traditional intranets.  

/ An out-of-the-box solution



/ Disrupting a million dollar industry



/ Industry thought leaders





Logomark


The logo is bold, edgy and reflective of the wacky sounding name. Designed on a 6x5 grid, this mark portrays the versatility and customizable nature of the Bonzai platform. Staff believed that 80% of each Bonzai Intranet was generic, and the last 20% was unique to each company rollout. We made this shuffling mindset literal. 





Logo in use


/ Business cards




/ Social media

/ Website


Rejected Concepts


/ Exploring boxes & connectivity


/ Intranet-in-a-box





Typography


Familiarity and warmth, with an air of nonconformity. Graphik is said to be the ‘Vanilla-flavoured’ typeface that is perfectly suited for whatever self expression is needed. Its purposeful, elegant plainness allows it to move effortlessly between being a central design element or play a supporting role in a wide range of projects and applications. 



Graphik alphabet




Graphik weights
/ Thin

/ Light

/ Regular

/ Bold

/ Black

/ Super





Colour


Black and white anchor the brand, while orange adds energy, imagination and attention-calling qualities without being demanding. 



Primary 



Secondary 






Gradient lock-up


Subtle, but effective, the gradient anchors the bonzai logo as part of the visual language. 




Gradient in use


/ Sales deck







Visual Language


Inspired by the versatile intranet platform itself, the visual language has been developed to add clarity and continuity across the brand. With so many features, and such a wide range of audiences and product uses, we wanted to create a system which resonated with productivity and collaboration.  



Illustration

/ Fluid & productive



Iconography

/ Systematic yet versatile





Brick


A unique selling point of Bonzai was the ability to deploy an intranet at the click of the button. This was sub-branded as the helpful and personable, Brick. We worked with Bonzai to develop a brand around this very useful little chatbot. 






/ Icon

/ Slack integration


Rejected concepts






End.
Mark