Manuscript: rebranding a 17-year-old product

Fog Creek Software

In 2018 FogBugz was re-branded to Manuscript and was backed by a big marketing effort to re-establish it as the best project management tool for software teams.

I established a new brand identity that set the ground work for our marketing and communications, and designed and developed a whole new component library that enabled our teams to update our product and develop new features.

A new brand identity (and a bittersweet goodbye)

FogBug'z original logo, which included a cute illustration of a kiwi bird.

We set out to create a new brand and visual identity for our 17-year-old product. While FogBugz's kiwi mascot was close and dear to our hearts, it wasn't performing and resonating as expected with our ever-evolving audience.

I worked closely with our marketing experts and leadership, and explored several directions that spoke to the vision we had for the product.

After several rounds of feedback and iteration, we landed on a version that resonated with our stakeholders and that we used as the basis to create a brand new visual language and component library:

Varios elements of the Manuscript final brand direction, including a logo and mark.

A new visual language and component library

We used our new visual identity as the basis to create a new design language for Manuscript. This included a component library that the team used as a reference to start updating the app and building new features.

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