Creating a brighter future for open source software
To capture the attention and enthusiasm of open source maintainers, Tidelift wanted a compelling brand to match their compelling vision. Starting with a name, expressed by an authentic story, and brought to life through a vibrant visual system.
Setting context
Open source software is everywhere. It powers our global financial markets. It spurs scientific progress. It shakes established industries. At its best, it creates new opportunities, regardless of experience, income, or geography.
But open source software has some undeniable issues. Maintaining projects over time can be a full-time job even when it isn’t, with little direct financial reward. Tidelift was founded to make open source work better—for everyone.
Primary contributions:
+ Brand research and strategy
+ Visual design system
+ Product design
Role:
Visual Design Lead
Credits:
Created at: New Kind
Website: Tidelift
Messaging and naming: Alex Kimball
Our first step was a day-long workshop, bringing together the company’s leaders to discuss their vision, the competitive landscape of the world of open source software, positioning, and key audience personas. Followed by a series of founder interviews and surveys, we learned that the open-source community needed a brighter, fairer future for open source.
So, we created a brand identity, visual design system, and messaging that reflected the optimism and positivity of Tidelift’s mission.
Building a brand
The spirit of Tidelift evokes a communal feeling of moving together. The mark connects the two T’s in the name—representing developers and maintainers—both lifting upwards in harmony. And the full word mark was created with subtly soft corners to evoke a positive, playful tone.
The Tidelift brand is built on feelings of warmth, authenticity, and shared growth. So we explored warm color palettes that could evoke that same sentiment.
Creating a scalable visual system
The Tidelift team needed a visual design system they could grow into as they expanded their design team and built their MVP product. So we created guiding principles to inform visual style, typography, spacing, motion, and interaction models that could span across their marketing site and product design for a cohesive experience. This also included working closely with their front-end developers to give feedback on early product prototypes.
Impact
Tidelift has raised $15MM in Series A funding from General Catalyst, Foundry Group, and Former Red Hat CEO Matthew Szulik. With the help of a story-driven brand and a cohesive visual design system, Tidelift is growing—and the tech world is taking notice.
In the time since our work together, Tidelift’s visual design system has expanded into their product and has been a driving force to attract talent.