Getting the strategy right was the first step in the process — and everything else grew from there. We quickly identified the limitations of the existing brand experience during an in-depth discovery and research process including an onsite kickoff with Thoma Bravo managing partners and executives. This experience helped us to intimately understand the dynamics of the company and the core values that we needed to address in the rebranding project.

Knowing how to be a brand that effectively speaks to both CEOs and investors, resulting in a successful partnership for all is a challenge — but it’s made easier if you understand the high level business goals, and how every external-facing touchpoint ties in to those goals.

The brand discovery work revealed what makes Thoma Bravo truly unique in their market. We recognized that in order to differentiate Thoma Bravo from other firms in the market, we needed a brand that embodied the core value they deliver. The new positioning is grounded in the belief that Thoma Bravo are true partners in supporting their portfolio companies to shape the future. And because Thoma Bravo's accomplishments couldn’t be separated from its clients, we designed the brand's marketing touch points to prominently include their relationships with CEOs from their portfolio of companies.

From this idea, we transformed the brand’s identity using a bold, editorial, and iconic approach that captures Thoma Bravo’s humble personality and their expertise in the business. The design system was conceived to feel both sturdy and visionary, with clean simplicity and deliberate juxtaposition that communicates the concept of “two complementary entities working together towards a common goal”. A bold color palette and candid photography style was crafted to emphasize the energetic and approachable nature shown by the people of Thoma Bravo.

In recreating a brand worthy of the Thoma Bravo caché, we quickly realized the need to replace the current enclosure and the accompanying logotype. We endeavored to create an identity that honors the Thoma Bravo history but projects a strong vision of the future. Our team honed in on a story that accentuated partnership, and told it in a way that spoke to the next generation of private equity.

So the longstanding blue enclosure evolved into a new dynamic element that was introduced in the form of the ‘Partnership Pillars’, a mark in perpetual motion that symbolize the agile ways Thoma Bravo works together with CEO teams, to achieve maximum efficiencies, and acceleration. The Partnership Pillars mark also resolves into a short-form icon. The core of the identity remains blue – but a new ‘Thoma Bravo tech green’, introduced contrast, helping differentiate from the competition, and cut through the visual noise we all interact with every day.

We named the Thoma Bravo mark "Partnership Pillars:" a nod to the company ethos and the balance of complimentary entities working together towards a common goal. — a perfect fit for their commitment to partnership.

Most noticeably, the existing website was unrefined and outdated with boxy formatting, lackluster photography, and dull colors. It was overdue for a redesign, that could differentiate Thoma Bravo to reflect their leadership position in the private equity space, but it also needed to be a true resource for company CEOs, Limited Partners, and potential new hires looking to learn more. 

Through the look, feel, and voice, we elevated the Thoma Bravo brand to match their top-tier reputation and the caliber of companies they partner with. Ultimately, we were able to promote their partner focused company culture, and design a fluid website that could communicate their rapid pace of success, and how innovative their firm is — while capturing everything Thoma Bravo delivers.

The site is built on Hubspot, which we love for its scalability and performance insights. We developed the HTML, CSS, and Javascript in a manner that allowed for modularity and reuse, but was also easy to customize on a page-by-page basis. This created a front-end system that was simple to build on, enabling admins to quickly add new pages and additional content into the future. We also optimized for responsive situations so content could be consumed on virtually any screen size or resolution.

We laid the foundation for custom photography with a photo style guide. It outlined a visual language and target personality, then articulated the unique visual opportunities within the brand strategy and how to shoot for them. Before the on-location shoot, we created and tested sample imagery in-house to hone the style and direction.

To capture the Thoma Bravo culture, we conducted onsite photo sessions in San Francisco, and Chicago. We scouted for the photo style and strategy, then shot with the Thoma Bravo team over multiple days at both locations. Custom portrait photography was a great way to raise the believability an authenticity bar on the new Thoma Bravo website.

Because of the unique culture of Thoma Bravo, we felt company videos would distinguish them from others in the private equity space. The approach we took was to merge the company's personality, professionalism, and ethic into forward-facing promotional videos that deepens their footprint while allowing potential partners to look into their culture. We wanted to give Thoma Bravo something ownable and consistent with the new brand identity.