Brand design case studies
These are teardowns of how well-known companies actually build their visual systems: the color decisions, the typeface choices, the one distinctive move each brand defends everywhere.
They are written against a rule that most brand-design content on the web ignores. If a company does not publish a fact, we say so. Stripe has never published a hex code for its blurple. Spotify has never published a hex code for its green. Notion has never published a color specification at all. The values you find quoted with total confidence in every listicle come from third-party aggregators, and some of them are wrong.
The second rule: say what changed and when. Stripe replaced Camphor with Söhne in July 2020. Spotify replaced Circular with a bespoke typeface in May 2024. A large share of the brand teardowns ranking today are stale on exactly these facts, because they were copied from articles that were copied from articles.
What is left, once the invented specifics are stripped out, turns out to be more useful anyway. Every brand here concentrates its expression into one defensible idea and spends nothing on the rest. That pattern is transferable. A hex code is not.
All 3 guides
- Notion's design system, explainedHow Notion's design system works: monochrome restraint, Steinberg-inspired line illustration, and the color and type myths worth correcting.
- Spotify's brand identity, explainedHow Spotify's brand identity works: Spotify Mix, the 2024 bespoke typeface that replaced Circular, Encore, and which hex codes are actually official.
- Stripe's design system, explainedHow Stripe's design system works: the slate and blurple palette, the 2020 switch to Klim's Söhne, the spectrum gradient, and what Stripe really publishes.
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