Founded in 1996, Nagarro is a software consulting and development company known for its digital engineering capabilities. The company was acquired by the German group Allgeier in 2011. Now, Nagarro is on a new journey — spinning off in the public markets from their parent company. It was time for a new identity that represented the core of who Nagarro is.
Keeping it In-house
While Nagarro’s earlier brand identity was designed by an external agency, this time the company decided to develop it in-house. Says Peter Hammer, Brand Marketing Director, “The outcome of a branding programme is only as good as the interpretation of the brief. We have really strong marketing and design teams at Nagarro and we felt who better than us, to capture the spirit that we wanted the brand to be known for.”
The Brand Positioning
Nagarro has a surprisingly straightforward brand positioning: ‘Caring.’ The Nagarro team says that in a fast-changing world, having a partner or an employer that cares, is the difference between good and great, checking the box and pushing the bar. In fact, given the similar-sounding and ambiguous positioning statements that are the hallmark of the tech sector, Nagarro’s choice is almost bold because of its simplicity. Of course, it helps that Caring is an acronym for the company’s values: Client-centric, Agile, Responsible, Intelligent, Non-hierarchical and Global.
The Process
A design team, led by Head of Design, Noel Cunningham, set out to “make the positioning come to life.” Cunningham says that the process was run exactly as if it were a project given to an external agency. A set of stakeholders within the company were the ‘client,’ a brief was created, moodboards developed and brainstorming workshops held. At the core of the brief was the understanding that technology can seem complex and intimidating and therefore the Nagarro brand should feel friendly, human and easy-to-relate-to. The iterative process took close to five months before the team landed on the current identity that instantly felt ‘right’ to everyone.
Both Cunnigham and Hammer are clear that the process worked because Nagarro is non-hierarchical in nature and the design team drove the process independently. Once they had the right solution, they say, it was more a question of onboarding than seeking approval. So confident were the teams of the final solution, that they presented only the one option that design and marketing had unanimously agreed upon.
The Brand Identity
The new Nagarro logo is an ‘N’ letterform that contains within its form, a heart for ‘caring’ and an infinite knot for ‘partnerships.’ The result is an interesting, quite memorable symbol that feels fluid and humanistic.
The primary brand colors are mint green and petrol blue, supported by a secondary palette that allows for strong accents. The house fonts are We Equip and Equip Extended— a versatile type family with lots of variety in tone and playfulness.
An interesting addition to the identity system is a secondary visual device called ‘the scribble.’ The eccentric form complements the logo and perhaps signals that all breakthroughs start with a scribble. There is a detailed portfolio of icons and badges, all in the same style.
The new Nagarro brand reflects its evolution as a company – now more confident, even more global, but still humanistic, still informal, still intimate, still nerdy engineers and designers, still thinking breakthroughs!
Manas Fuloria, CEO, Nagarro
Team Nagarro says that the identity works well because it can be quirky and expressive when it needs to be, or more serious when the situation demands.. Either way, it is a welcome departure from the homogenous, flat design that is so ubiquitous amongst technology companies today.
Nagarro’s brand kit is publicly available and you can check it out at brandkit.nagarro.com
The logo resembles the Go Daddy new logo launched early this year. Is it only a coincidence?
Yes
This is a blatant copy of Airbnb branding, and go daddy also took the same route.
very well presented logo design journey.. liked the new logo!
Love this story and definitely the new look, especially the color theme..
Its a non IT company with brightest minds who are thinking breakthrough
Loved reading this interesting piece. Thanks for sharing.
Nice…! well thought…!
I dont think this works. I like the positioning of caring but the visual interpretation does not convey it. The brand mark logo is so complicated. The scribble only adds to the mess. Not a fan.
Loved the CEO’s nerdy engineer comment. Mgmt like that is why they were able to produce a good solution. Mostly corporates are a graveyard of good design solutions
Its becoming tougher and tougher for agencies. Has Nagarro ever used an external agency after they got these design and marketing teams? Asking to understand what role agencies will play in a future where companies can hire the best talent in-house
Wd be very interested to know the backgrounds of the marketing and design teams. From what little I have read, it feels like they coem from an agency background.
Nope they have extensive backgrounds. For e.g. Peter was in one of the worlds largest gaming studios and he was a marketeer not a developer. I haven’t heard of agency background as such. They are hard core UX folks.
Very different and interesting. Makes you look twice and certainly does not feel like a normal IT company
Sorry to drop in like this, but your comment really resonates. As someone who is at Nagarro, I can say that we definitely aren’t a normal IT company (or at the very least, we don’t think we are, and we work hard to make sure that we aren’t).
Hey is it the same naggaro where Mr. Manmohan is one of the co-founder?
Yes !
The is great – love the whole look