Evernote (2018)Copied

Evernote turned ten in June 2018 and unveiled a refreshed brand and an evolved mission that August. Creative Bloq reported that the company partnered with DesignStudio on a long exploration of what the brand meant, aiming for a design that signalled change without reducing recognition.

The result, in the magazine's words, is a polished yet contrasting version of the previous logo: a purer colour palette, a refined shape and a more sophisticated font. The team tested every decision against three questions. Is it distinct? Does it embody the brand's DNA? Is it better than what we already have? Those questions also shaped new typography, textures and photography across the app and site.

Nothing was safe during the process. Creative Bloq noted that even the familiar elephant mascot almost got the chop in favour of a different logomark. It survived.

Chief executive Chris O'Neill framed the update on the company blog as a reflection of optimism, clarity and confidence, and of a company modernising how it designs and builds products. Evernote began as a place to remember everything, he wrote, and that will never go away, but bringing ideas to action and helping people work together had become equally important. The brand, he said, was a public declaration of excitement about the future.

O'Neill tied the brand to three words he had set out at the start of the year: Engage, Extend and Explore. Under the first, he pointed to enhanced integrations with Apple, Slack, Salesforce and Microsoft and a polished look and feel, so people could focus on their thoughts without interrupting their flow. He also described Evernote as helping people manage information overload and find their focus. Three alliterative verbs are a strategy deck's idea of a brand, but the focus promise at least gives the cleaner design something to live up to.

It is a sensible refresh with a slightly anxious subtext. In 2018 Evernote needed to look like a company with momentum, and a crisper elephant is a cheap way to signal that. The design is cleaner and more confident than before. Keeping the elephant was the best decision in the project. It is one of the few app mascots people actually recognise, and swapping it for an abstract mark would have thrown away a decade of memory to buy a moment of novelty.