A bold new chapter: Behind Notion’s brand refresh
Milestones often inspire us to celebrate progress. At Notion, our 10th anniversary felt like the appropriate time to look back and consider everything we’ve achieved together.
In the spirit of reflection, service and growth, we sat down with our founding partners—John Senseney, Louis Kokenis and Matt Frauenhoffer—to discuss Notion’s first ten years and their thoughts on our identity.
All three partners noted that while we have always valued brand development, it was challenging to focus on ourselves while trying to produce great work for our clients and establish a reputation for partnership and creative problem solving.
“When you first start to build a business,” says John, “you don’t anticipate this level of growth and success. You need time to build culture, purpose and a holistic brand identity.”
“We were ‘heads down’ for a long time,” notes Matt. “We were growing organically and focused on serving our clients.”
Louis agrees, “We really focused on building relationships and culture. Now we feel like we have a core identity and a strong story to tell.”
Roughly five years into our existence, a distinct culture had emerged around what we call the “How can I help?” mindset. Across the agency, the prevailing ethos is one of rolling up our sleeves and pitching in. As new team members joined the agency, the faces of Notion and our expression of who we are started to evolve. At the same time, we began thinking about a brand update.
Notion always had a clear mission, to be the creative partners of choice for our clients and employees by understanding their needs, delivering on our promises and surpassing their expectations every day, but our visual identity took time to take shape – as it should in the early years of business. Acknowledging these shifts and being open to change allowed us to pursue an exploration, a better framework and a unified brand.
A natural transition for our business was to move away from discussing our creative services as deliverables, tactics and communications tools (e.g., decks, reports and videos). While we do indeed produce these types of outputs, clients informed us that they actually lean on Notion’s creative thinking, B2B experience and strategic design skills to help solve key business and marketing challenges. The expansion of our expertise was also driven by a deliberate decision to recruit a diverse collection of talented, experienced and growth-minded professionals.
“New talent enables new possibilities,” says Matt. “We’ve grown to better understand where clients need us and see our value.”
“We focused on understanding pain points and creative gaps and how we can provide impactful support as a business partner,” explains Louis. “We recruited talent and experts in our field who aligned with our personality and core values.”
That brings us to the post-pandemic era, when we came together again to a freshly built office space, a hybrid work model and a rock-solid client roster. We continued to grow, new leaders stepped forward and everyone wanted more ownership of the brand. As the 10th anniversary loomed, our brand reboot kicked into high gear.
“Working on our brand was an enjoyable yet demanding endeavor,” says John. “We had to balance competing priorities to invest in ourselves while maintaining our dedication to serving our clients.”
Spending time as a team thinking about our own brand re-energized the culture, empowering employees to explore, have fun and embrace their curiosity. Emerging leaders led the way on questions of aesthetic style, tone and functionality, challenging the partners to consider new approaches, all in the spirit of true collaboration. Designers, writers and strategists poured their hearts into creating, adapting and refreshing our identity.
Then, we strategically introduced the refreshed brand to audiences in a phased and thoughtful manner.
“We started to implement gradual brand shifts internally through on-screen signage, team recognitions and lunch ‘n learn presentations,” says Matt. “We took our time, exploring and adjusting until the tone and visuals felt genuine.”
The brand also began to take form on Notion’s external channels and client materials.
“Social media was a great place to test how we do visual storytelling,” says Louis. “From real-time feedback to audience building, it provided an effective way to explore new styles, voice and brand elements.”
In August 2024, Notion’s social media program won a Digital Design Award from Graphic Design USA Magazine.
A key component of the brand refresh was a redesigned website, where all our brand elements came to life through the choreography of visuals, words, layouts and interactivity.
“The website was a labor of love,” says John. “At least 15 team members contributed to the planning, writing and redesign. We wanted to include as many employees as possible and use the project as an opportunity for people to learn and grow.”
This group effort exemplified our “How can I help?” attitude, demonstrating what is possible when a group of creative problem solvers put their minds to a collective goal.
“I’m excited to use our updated brand as a better way to tell our story for business development and recruitment purposes,” says Matt. “It really showcases our professionalism and dedication to craft.”
“The new website offers a deeper focus on our B2B expertise and our strategic problem-solving abilities,” says Louis, “and it provides an opportunity to showcase great talent doing great work. The faces on our home page are our heroes, the people who make Notion special.”
“The brand has the same energy and diversity that our employees bring,” offers John. “Like our team of unique personalities, the brand is built with flexibility to go in any direction.”
Looking back on the past decade and imagining what the future holds, one thing is certain—Notion will remain dedicated to solving problems creatively and being trusted partners for our clients and one another. Nurturing ourselves and learning from our own brand experience is another way we pass knowledge on to our clients.
As we often say, our clients are the reason we have the privilege of doing what we do, and we are grateful.
