Certinia · Patrick Fleming

Chapter 01

What I inherited

Heavy gradients, ten bright colours, a hundred slide layouts, and guidelines left in first draft.

I was part of the original FinancialForce to Certinia rebrand, creating the video content and carrying it through the transition. But the identity it produced was built like a lifestyle brand: heavy gradients, ten bright secondary colours, an ornate custom serif. And it was never finished.

The brand team was laid off with the guidelines still in first draft, overly broad and open to interpretation, so everyone read them differently. Outside agencies especially: each deliverable came back looking like a different brand.

The decks made the problem visible to everyone. We were selling enterprise software to professional-services companies on slides stacked with colourful gradients, which felt closer to a bag of Skittles than a software company. It was spread across roughly a hundred layouts nobody could choose between. Executives said there was too much choice, and teams agreed by not using it.

A page from the original guidelines: gradient type across a billboard. — One of the original identity’s own examples: gradient type across a billboard.

Page 1 of the eight from the original guidelines — The original identity in its own guide: a lifestyle brand, down to the merchandise.

Page 2 of the eight from the original guidelines — The original identity in its own guide: a lifestyle brand, down to the merchandise.

Next: Too many visions

Chapter 02

Too many visions

Four executives, four briefs, and an agency direction with no reasoning behind it.

Run the enterprise playbook.

The COO’s brief, and the plainest of the four.

When the team was cut to two, I took over running brand and creative, and new leadership asked for a refresh rather than another rebrand: keep the equity, fix the usability.

The executives each had their own vision for the brand. The CEO wanted high contrast, the CRO wanted the bright gradients and colours toned right down, and the CMO wanted gradients gone entirely. The COO’s brief said it plainest: run the enterprise playbook. Standard branding, easy for everyone to understand, nothing that alienates the audience we sold to.

CEO
“High contrast.”
Black and white lead
70 to 80% of every layout, for clarity
CRO
“Tone the bright gradients and colours right down.”
Ten bright colours cut to four
Cobalt, emerald, deep berry and graphite, used as accents
CMO
“Gradients gone entirely.”
Gradients calmed, not banned
Two or three weights of one colour, never opposites
COO
“Run the enterprise playbook.”
One standard system
A core set of slides in place of a hundred layouts

Four executive briefs, brought together in one set of rules.

Taking the brand over

The job was to turn four different briefs into one usable identity.

An agency had sold the full transformation package, branding included. Round after round, it came back with the same direction rearranged, and none of the choices had a reason you could trace back to the business.

So I took the brand work over: the palette, the typography, the guidance, and the strategy behind them. Each executive was pointing at a real problem: contrast held, gradients calmed rather than banned, and a standard system everyone could use.

Next: Taste, turned into rules

Chapter 03

Taste, turned into rules

Each executive complaint, turned into a rule anyone could apply.

Gradients, calmed

The reposition drove everything. The identity had to suit the professional-services firms we sold to, and read as a serious software partner to them.

The first call was the one the executives kept circling without quite articulating. The problem was never gradients themselves, it was harsh ones: colours far apart on the scale, so the transitions turned drastic. Gradients earn their place in a design, adding depth and texture, so instead of banning them the new guidelines set a limit. Keep a gradient within two or three weights of one colour, such as 700 to 900. Where two colours are needed, keep their weights similar, and never put different colours at opposite weights. The CMO, who had asked for gradients gone, agreed this answered the concern.

Before: the original gradient page, with bright colours far apart on the scale. — Before and after: the original gradient page, and the refresh’s rule of two or three weights.

After: the refreshed gradient page, with the rule of two or three weights and its dos and don’ts. — Before and after: the original gradient page, and the refresh’s rule of two or three weights.

Before: the original palette of ten bright secondary colours. — Before and after: ten bright secondary colours, and four chosen with a reason each.

After: the refreshed palette, four secondary colours with a reason each. — Before and after: ten bright secondary colours, and four chosen with a reason each.

Ten colours down to four

The palette was tightened the same way, and chosen with intent. Our competitors had converged on the same look, and the original rebrand had dropped us squarely in the middle of them. Every colour had a reason behind it: standing apart from that crowd, reading trusted and tenured rather than trend-led, and complementing Salesforce, whose ecosystem we sold in and ran joint campaigns with.

Type people could use

The ornate custom Bodoni, whose thin serifs fell apart at small sizes, gave way to two typefaces chosen for accessibility and compatibility: Plus Jakarta Sans for almost everything, and Libre Caslon Text for headers.

Both are Google Fonts. We ran on Google Workspace, so they worked in Slides and Docs with nothing to install. They were also free to download for other compatible tools, helping teams keep the typography consistent.

Before: the custom Bodoni type page. — Before and after: the custom Bodoni, and Plus Jakarta Sans with Libre Caslon Text.

After: the refreshed type page, Plus Jakarta Sans and Libre Caslon Text. — Before and after: the custom Bodoni, and Plus Jakarta Sans with Libre Caslon Text.

Next: Built to be used

Chapter 04

Built to be used

Guidelines split by who needs them, a deck system people could build with, and one brand across decks, documents, photography and the website.

A deck system people could build with

The deck system carried that thinking first. Harsh gradients gave way to clean, workable slides, and a hundred-odd layouts were cut to a core set people could actually build with, so picking the right slide stopped being a job in itself.

Layout 1 of the eight from the refreshed template — Eight layouts from the refreshed template, as shipped: clean, high-contrast, projector-safe.

Layout 2 of the eight from the refreshed template — Eight layouts from the refreshed template, as shipped: clean, high-contrast, projector-safe.

The old guide’s closing page: “we hope they inspire you”. — The old guide’s closing page, and the refresh’s opening: an enablement tool, not a rulebook.

The refresh’s opening page: the guidelines as an enablement tool. — The old guide’s closing page, and the refresh’s opening: an enablement tool, not a rulebook.

Guidelines split by who needs them

The guidelines were rebuilt to be used rather than interpreted, and split by who needs them. One overall brand guide carries what everyone working with Certinia should know, then there’s tailored guidance for each function: a design agency gets design, a video contractor gets media, a copywriter gets copy.

Photography that matched the strategy

The photography came from the same strategy. To read as trusted enterprise leaders, the imagery had to match, so instead of forced stock I directed a documentary-style shoot in the US: natural, unposed moments of people at work. I asked the models to bring clothes in the new palette where they could, so the colours carried from the site and the documents into the photographs too.

Writing by hand at a desk, in warm light. — From the shoot I directed: documentary and unposed, with the new palette in what people wore.

A row of people at their desks, seen side-on. — From the shoot I directed: documentary and unposed, with the new palette in what people wore.

The website, and the function behind it

We re-platformed the website off legacy WordPress onto Optimizely. I ran the brand side of it and shaped a lot of the design.

Through it I ran the creative function end to end: creative direction, resourcing and project management, brand enablement, and compliance.

Next: What changed

Chapter 05

What changed

Teams had a core set of slides they could build with, in place of a hundred they avoided. Agencies and contractors each got the part of the guidelines that applied to them. And every colour, gradient and typeface came with a reason someone could check. The same thinking, plus AI to scale it, is what I took to Dremio.

I’ve worked with Patrick for over 3 years, and he has consistently demonstrated an uncommon ability to balance creativity, strategy, and execution.

Gregory Smith VP of Product Marketing, Certinia

Next case Dremio