Exploring the Technical Side of the Braze Brand Refresh

At Braze, transformation is more than a buzzword; it’s part of our DNA. When we unveiled our updated brand identity in winter 2024, it marked an exciting evolution in how we present ourselves to the world. From a refreshed color palette to a more modern, human-centered design, this comprehensive brand update emphasized our commitment to staying at the forefront of customer engagement. But the refresh extended far beyond marketing materials—it ignited a larger workstream focused on integrating this new look and feel across the Braze platform, dashboard, and technical ecosystem.

The connection between the brand refresh and the Braze product

Here at Braze, we have a long tradition of ongoing product development and innovation, with the goal of continuing to enhance the product experience for our customers. Between 2019 and 2022, the Product Design and larger Product, Design, and Engineering (PDE) organization began the process of reimagining the Braze product’s visual identity through the development of our Beacon Design System. But while this effort served to make the Braze platform’s user interface cleaner and more intuitive, it didn’t seek to align our product design approach with brand principles and deeply integrate the Braze brand within the Braze platform.

The 2024 brand refresh wasn’t just about a new look for the Braze website or our marketing materials. It was a broader initiative that set the stage for elevating the customer experience across all touchpoints, including the Braze platform itself. That allowed our Product Design and Engineering teams to align the Braze platform with the new visual identity while ensuring the experience remained intuitive, accessible, and efficient for modern marketers.

As Braze Executive Creative Director Greg Erdelyi noted, the refresh was about “expressing what already makes Braze exceptional,” and we took that philosophy seriously. We treated this effort as a chance to unify our brand's emotional resonance with our product's functional excellence. The outcome represented a significant milestone in the evolution of the Braze platform, supporting a more cohesive connection between our company's brand and technical sides.

Why the Braze platform needed a refresh, too

The decision to undertake a comprehensive brand refresh stemmed from a strategic need to reflect the Braze platform’s position as a market leader in customer engagement, both from a marketing perspective and within the Braze product itself. This refresh was about more than aesthetics—it was about aligning our premium value proposition with the way customers experience the platform, supporting effective navigation and usability.

How the refresh aligns with the organization’s goals:

• Reinforce market leadership: This initiative highlights the ways in which Braze continues to innovate its platform for our customers and deliver a premium user experience.
• Enhance the user experience: The refresh provided an opportunity to improve accessibility, usability, and overall functionality.
• Create a cohesive brand experience: From Braze.com to the Braze dashboard, the goal was to deliver a seamless journey for users interacting with the Braze ecosystem.

Rafaella Studart, Product Design Manager, explained, “We saw this as an opportunity to create a more cohesive end-to-end experience for customers. From the moment they visit the website to using the product, everything should feel seamless and aligned.”

Leading the design strategy

Executing the brand refresh required close collaboration between our Product Design, Brand, and Engineering teams, with Product Design leading the adaptation of the brand strategy across the full range of Braze product touchpoints. During that process, each team played a unique role in shaping and implementing that vision, including through:

• Design workshops: After the strategy was unveiled, a two-day workshop brought designers together from both our Product and Brand teams to align on principles for the product refresh. This collaboration laid the groundwork for balancing creative vision with product requirements.
• Early scoping and alignment: Designers and engineers partnered to assess the potential impact of various approaches and determine effective next steps.

Balancing vision and practicality: The Braze Brand team developed bold, visually engaging elements that the UX team not only integrated into the Braze platform but also extended—by refining color palettes and making necessary adjustments to ensure that accessibility and functionality remained top priorities within the product.

Communicating the vision and gaining buy-in

As with any major launch, there was a necessary level of collaboration needed to ensure an effective and neat rollout. The Marketing team carried out the overarching brand strategy and developed the visual style and assets that served as the foundation of this overall effort. The Product Design organization then took things a step further by leading the effort to extend and tailor the brand strategy specifically for the Braze product—creating cohesion across both the marketing and product experience of Braze, and ensuring that the unique needs of the Braze platform were met—then helped to bring the product design strategy and concept to life.

All of this work required careful planning and tailored communication to gain stakeholder alignment once details were shared. That process included:

• Strategic roadshows: After the brand strategy was unveiled, the Product Design team conducted roadshows to present the proposed updates to leadership and gather actionable feedback.
• Audience-specific communication: Messaging was adapted for different stakeholders, from high-level overviews for executives to detailed breakdowns for the engineering teams that had to put dashboard and platform updates into practice.
• Iterative feedback: Regular check-ins and internal user testing ensured that the refresh aligned with our organization’s broader goals and met the expectations of internal teams and customers alike.

Executing the tactical elements of the refresh

The technical implementation of the refresh involved significant changes to our Beacon design system and the underlying token infrastructure. In particular, Braze Senior Software Engineer Dan Garrett and Braze Senior Product Designers Gracie Liu and Taylor Ridgway played pivotal roles in ensuring these updates were scalable and efficient. These updates included:

• Restructuring design tokens: The team restructured the token system within Beacon to support new colors, typography, and spacing, making it easier to implement updates and future changes. Leveraging a feature flag, they enabled seamless switching between themes, allowing the updates to roll out incrementally without disrupting existing Braze workflows.
• Supporting accessibility: Color theory and accessibility standards were key considerations when integrating the new brand look across the Braze platform. For example, the transition from the old to the new brand colors required nuanced adjustments to maintain contrast and usability for all users, including those with visual impairments.
• Incremental rollouts: Changes were implemented in phases, with test patches sent for approval before full deployment. This approach minimized disruption and ensured a smooth transition for users.
• Navigation enhancements: The update introduced updates to the navigation system that streamlined the UI and introduced a new “minimize navigation” feature that enhanced usability.

Conclusion

The 2024 Braze brand refresh represents a pivotal moment in our journey to deliver a cohesive and premium user experience. By extending this transformation beyond marketing and into the product itself, we’ve reinforced our commitment to empowering modern marketers. This ongoing effort—driven by collaboration, innovation, and strategic foresight—ensures that Braze continues to set the standard for customer engagement technology.