LaunchDarkly
Building the Brand That Defined Feature Management
*Partner project
Overview
Company Information
Founded in 2014
Private
Series D
Raised $330.3M
Services
Brand Identity & Strategy
Website Design
Marketing Design & Strategy
Product Design
Collaborators
Co-Founder & CTO
CMO / CRO / CPO
Marketing, Sales, Customer
Success, Engineering, Product Teams
Press
8 Up-and-Coming Businesses Capitalizing on a Forward-Thinking Business Model
LaunchDarkly closes $44 million in series C funding round led by Bessemer Venture Partners
LaunchDarkly is named to the 2022 Forbes Cloud 100
Challenge
A Startup on the Verge of Something Big
By year three, LaunchDarkly had outgrown its startup branding. Their product was changing how software was built, but their identity wasn’t keeping up. They weren’t just another SaaS platform anymore—they were creating a category.
The mission?
Build a brand, voice, and strategy that would cement LaunchDarkly as the leader in Feature Management—before anyone else even knew they needed it.
Our mission?
Build a brand, voice, and strategy that would cement LaunchDarkly as the leader in Feature Management—before anyone else even knew they needed it.
Solution
Brand Strategy: Defining a New Category
Before LaunchDarkly, “feature management” wasn’t a thing. The company had built a product that let developers deploy features without fear—but to own the space, they needed more than just a great tool.
They needed a story.
We listened. Developers told us how LaunchDarkly made their work faster, safer, and less stressful—an antidote to 3 AM deployments and weekend rollbacks. So we gave it a name: Feature Management.
To stake their claim as the undisputed leader, we built a messaging framework that spoke developer-first, then expanded outward:
Developers → You can move faster and break fewer things.
Teams → You can collaborate better and release with confidence.
Enterprises → You can scale innovation without the chaos.
This wasn’t just a rebrand. It was a movement.
Visual Identity: From Midnight Launches to Limitless Possibility
LaunchDarkly’s name comes from “dark launching”—a term for deploying software in the dead of night, hoping nothing breaks. It was a pain point developers knew all too well.
We leaned into this identity, not as a burden, but as a launchpad.
A Cosmic Theme – The NASA, Star Wars, and space exploration aesthetic that fueled LaunchDarkly’s internal culture became part of the brand itself.
A Universe of Possibilities – Just like space, Feature Management unlocked endless experimentation—developers could push boundaries without risk.
A Modernized Mark – We evolved the original logo, keeping its spirit while refining the execution to signal maturity, trust, and playfulness.
The result? A visual language that stayed true to its developer fan base, while signaling stability and leadership to a broader audience.
Messaging Strategy: No Fluff, No BS—Just Confidence
We kept the voice direct, clear, and developer-friendly.
Software should be faster, easier, and less risky.
LaunchDarkly lets teams ship code without stress.
So you can sleep at night.
The brand spoke with clarity and conviction, backed by meticulous design and a visual identity that felt as innovative as the product itself.
Designing a Developer-First Experience
Building a developer tool is one thing. Designing a seamless, intuitive experience for developers, teams, and enterprises? That’s a challenge.
The existing product’s information hierarchy didn’t match the way developers actually worked. Through research, user interviews, and experimentation, we:
Restructured the UI to align with developer workflows.
Designed for enterprise scale, without sacrificing usability.
Created a design system flexible enough to evolve with the product.
The result? A dev tool that wasn’t just functional—it felt tailored for developers, built for teams, and powerful enough for enterprises.
Impact
A Brand That Built a Market
LaunchDarkly became synonymous with Feature Management.
$330.3M raised in venture funding.
Forbes Cloud 100 recognition.
A brand that turned early adopters into evangelists.
This wasn’t just about design. It was about positioning a company to lead.
Need a Brand That Moves Markets?
We didn’t just create a brand and walk away. We’re still working alongside Aembit, advising, optimizing, and ensuring their brand continues to evolve as they reach new heights.
Because that’s what we do. We didn’t just create a brand and walk away. We’re still working alongside Aembit, advising, optimizing, and ensuring their brand continues to evolve as they reach new heights.
Because that’s what we do. We design for momentum.
