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In October 2020 HR and payroll company Justworks rolled out an updated logo, typeface and colours. Business Insider reported that subtlety was one of the objectives, that the rebrand had been discussed for years, and that the team was fine-tuning the plan when the pandemic hit. After interviewing agencies and studios, the company chose Order, a design studio in Brooklyn, New York.

The Brand Identity explained the concept. Order were Justworks customers themselves and said they had seen first hand the company's obsession with customer service and support, so they built a type-driven identity around that single idea. At its core is Oately, a functional but characterful typeface named after the Justworks founder, developed with Colophon Foundry.

Colour was evolved rather than replaced. Elementary colours act as an evolution of the previous palette, combined with a rigorous typographic system. Order says the typeface was designed to perform best on screen inside the Justworks application, where most customers meet the brand.

This is a deliberately quiet rebrand, and that suits the category. Payroll software is not supposed to be exciting; it is supposed to be right every time. A type-led identity with a utilitarian typeface says precision and dependability more convincingly than any illustration style could.

Justworks' blog called the refresh TLC, for typography, logo and colour, and said the company had stood for confidence since 2012. Brand design manager Katherine Rowe and senior product designer Chris Carbo took the brief to ten design agencies in New York before choosing a partner by December 2019. Then the pandemic hit, and the post described small business owners' confidence all but disappearing as the company turned to guiding customers through the CARES Act, PPP loans and remote work. Launching a brand about confidence in that moment was either brave or awkward; the plain, steady identity makes it read as brave, and as a promise the company meant to keep for customers in trouble.

Naming the typeface after the founder is a nice touch that customers will never notice, which is the point. The best detail in the project is invisible, and that is exactly how Justworks wants its payroll to feel.