Brand and Creative Requests

Branding

• Brand management, brand identity design, logos, lockups, colors, etc.
• Brand strategy, naming, positioning, packaging, narrative and market research See Naming Process Guide for more information on naming features, products, programs and initiatives
• Maintain and update Sourcegraph brand guidelines and brand assets

Design

• Graphic design for print and digital media
• Illustrations, iconography, infographics
• Motion design and animation
• Presentation graphics, layout and design
• Print design and production, marketing collateral, swag
• Swag procurement, design, and fulfillment

Photo/Video Production

• Video production, shooting (location and studio), storyboarding, proj. management
• Sound design, audio production, mixing, sampling, mastering
• VR/AR, 360º films, CGI, motion graphics, and animation
• Photography, editing, retouching, and archiving

Website/Digital Experience

• Maintain and update website, incl. integrations, testing and SEO
• Website design, page design, campaign and landing pages, microsites
• Interactive design, incl. data visualization and infographics
• Email design and development
• Digital marketing stack and B guidance, strategy, and execution

Events

• Event planning, strategy and design
• Booth, stage or environmental design and production
• Swag design and fulfillment planning. See our Gifting Guidelines

Tier 1: Large-scale, high-priority external projects that require creative strategy development

This tier precludes the need for a brand-new creative concept, with strategy, measurement and production timelines built-in. Upon receiving a green light, the requestor must meet with the Director of Brand Design to initiate the project, as early in its incubation state as possible. If the project requires high-production assets (especially video, websites and pages, 360º or multichannel campaigns), anticipate around 6 weeks be allotted, sometimes longer

Examples: a video production schedule could take 4 weeks to 4 months depending on the story and characters involved, travel or travel restrictions, scheduling; a new narrative for a business unit or at the company level can potentially be completed in a 90-day sprint depending on availability of stakeholder and user interviews; a major website redesign or migration could take 6–9 months based on research, planning, architecture, development, testing, and so on).

If the request for a Tier 1 designated project comes in with several complex elements, some of the desired outcomes may be scoped into a Phase 2, or perhaps pared down, and some work will be assigned to an agency partner within our Preferred Vendor Network to scale our support capability.

If the latter happens, we will coordinate with the vendor and help manage the project as if they are an extension of our team, including them in recurring meetings, adding to Slack channels, and translating feedback from team members while ensuring adherence to Sourcegraph brand standards. These projects will begin with an exploratory meeting between the requestor(s) and the Director of Brand Design and Creative, along with the appropriate stakeholders from Marketing or cross-functional teams. Information gathered during this meeting will be used to create a first draft of the creative brief and circulate with the rest of the team for commenting before commencing work.

If the deadline, budget, and request are in alignment with resources, we will assign team members from Brand and/or vendor support to the project and schedule a meeting cadence to manage the day-to-day work leading to delivery date. The Brand team Project Coordinator will create a card in Asana to manage the project and ensure all necessary updates are filed and milestones met. Tier 1 may also include direct requests from Sourcegraph’s leadership team, i.e. board decks, public speaking engagements, and so on.

Tier 2 – Externally-facing but lower-priority; previously-approved concept but new deliverable; new concept internal projects

May include one or more individual assets that require extensive collaboration across team(s) and/or various vendors/contributors. Examples would be complex, interactive creative assets that may require design, animation, production, copywriting and/or multimedia; mini campaigns for an event or announcement; individual short videos (not part of larger campaigns) such as for HR, internal, or lighter-visibility announcements; some event planning and/or signage design; multi-page booklets or brochures; complex but straightforward presentation deck builds from scratch; brand design extensions; and so on. May incorporate use of existing creative, templates, components, or design systems.

For these projects, it is advised to sync with the Director of Brand Design and Creative to allocate resourcing and help ensure brand adherence. The Brand team will work with you to create a brief and initiate a project plan, and support directly via our in-house team or with the help of our Creative Network. If the project also requires Naming, that could add 1–2 weeks at a minimum even if no legal review is required due to trademarking.

Tier 3 – Templated/formulaic work, or testing revisions to an existing asset or campaign

This would be a project that may require some scoping, some strategy, and some creative direction in the beginning, but then is generally able to be executed on and managed by the IC working on the task. After submitting the request, the Project Coordinator and Project Lead will follow-up to schedule an exploratory meeting, and determine if a full brief is needed or simply the “lite” version (see below). Expect anywhere from a few days up to a few weeks for typical Tier 3 turnarounds, depending on complexity and current resources allocation to Tier 1 and 2 projects.

Tier 3 projects are not usually part of a larger campaign, and are unlikely to need a full brief because the background and scoping portion are redundant. Instead, these tasks will follow a “straight to Asana” format with the following checklist items filled out in the card description by the IC leading the work: request, reason, deadline, audience, format, key message, and ideally at least one measurable metric so we can determine the success or failure of the project. This tier would also include ongoing brand asset build-outs, such as additional icon designs or social media toolkits for example. The bulk of internal creative work usually ends up as Tier 3 over a long enough time span (think bell curve).

Tier 4 – Production design and brand management

This is typically more of a pure production piece such as easily repeatable or templated items (slide clean-ups, swag reorders and updates, templated preview images for social, etc.). We may route these through contract or freelance designers if the in-house team is assigned to higher-tier work. If time permits, our in-house team will execute on them in-house due to the potential for a fast turnaround at a low cost. Tier 4 projects will be tracked in Asana for volume reporting at EOQ/EOY, but usually do not require a full creative brief (or even a checklist) to be completed. Tier 4 also allows for members of the Brand team to help review and ensure alignment with brand and messaging standards.

Tier 5 – Self-serve or automated work

This includes design work that can be done by the individual, such as business cards and PowerPoint and Google Slides presentations. Typically this is work that the brand team does not take on directly, but has set up a process to manage the work (e.g., creating PPT templates, print and swag order forms, finding brand assets, etc.). Keep this page bookmarked for quick access to new templates, processes and forms all designed to make your life easier and get you what you need quicker. The Brand/Creative team does not track or manage self-serve projects in Asana.