Which one feels more wise?
Three directions for MentorCruise. Their users picked the one nobody else in the category would 🤘
A brand audit, three stylescapes, one cleaner boat, and a merch store full of sharks.
We did a brand audit and style evolution for MentorCruise, the mentorship marketplace.
The bones were good: a boat, a lighthouse, a green they liked. The typography and palette just needed to grow up. and quick, because they had competitors outpacing them on the design front.
Creative Direction
We built three stylescapes, each one stolen from a different muse(s).
The first came from Rüfüs Du Sol and, I swear, a pattern worn by the Finnish Prime Minister.
Stylescape
Muses
The second was the safe evolution of their current look, built around the lighthouse.
Stylescape
Muses
The third stole from 1970s Porsche ads, in a nautical palette.
Stylescape
Muses
The Logo
The logo barely moved. They wanted to keep the boat, so we rebuilt it to read more like a sailboat and less like a piece of origami. (We pitched a more abstract sailboat too and other concepts like a Life Preserver too, but their affinities for the boat were unsinkable).
Testing Creative Directions
Here’s the crazy part: they tested the stylescapes with their users across a set of standard applications to see which one hit the mark.
- Ads
- Landing page
- Social profileDom and his team never asked which one they liked. They asked which one felt more wise, more calm, more established, more luxurious.
The vintage, Porsche inspired version won. Mainly because it resonated more with the brand they wanted to become and partly because nothing else in their category looks remotely like it.
Merch Applications
Then we got to have fun. MentorCruise runs an actual merch store, so the brand went on everything, including playing cards where people trade brains and a shark sticker that says “We’re gonna need a bigger team.”
Yes, you can test branding and not lose the soul
It's hard to get assurance about whether or not your rebrand will be effective.
I think MentorCruise balanced the two elements of that wonderfully, having the conviction to know what they want people to feel and not caring so much about whether people liked their new brand, but whether it helped them achieve the perception they desired for themselves.
Next time you test a brand, don’t ask people what they like. Ask them how it makes them feel.
— Zach
