We were engaged to rebrand Sequoia Capital, a 45-year-old top-tier venture capital firm in Silicon Valley that helps the daring build legendary companies—Apple, Airbnb, Dropbox, Yahoo!, Google, Oracle, Instagram, and LinkedIn, to name a few. Working with founders who are changing the way consumers engage with the world, Sequoia felt its branding wasn't current enough nor strong enough to support the strength of its mission and its founders’ goals.
The new brand identity reimagined the existing photo-realistic sequoia leaf as a contemporary symbol that leveraged Sequoia’s noteworthy heritage while conveying the energy, strength, and guidance that Sequoia brings to a founder’s journey. The symbol—an abstracted sequoia leaf built on an 8x8 pixel grid—punctuates the wordmark with upward trajectory, motion, and vitality.
The new mark informed Sequoia’s brand roll out (website, collateral, office interiors), was a catalyst for re-energized internal brand stewardship, and positioned Sequoia as a relevant, modern player in the youthful/tech-savvy VC space.