Dotmatics is a leading scientific software company focused on life sciences R&D.
I was hired to take the Dotmatics brand and expand it to create a design system that would incorporate all of the subsidiary brands.
When I was brought on, Dotmatics had just been acquired by Insightful Science. Insightful Science had a few brands that it owned, and Dotmatics had a few as well. The business decided that the Dotmatics brand was stronger and decided to drop the Insightful Science name and branding.
It can be difficult to bring all these businesses together and make them gel into one cohesive team. I've seen smaller companies struggle with inconsistent messaging when different departments within the same brand want to present their information in their own way. That's why creating a system that allows for each brand to be represented appropriately was so important. Trying to tailor the branding to each specific product is only going to make a disconnected group of individuals, rather than a united front.
Each of the subsidiary brands had its own branding. That meant different logos, typefaces, color palettes, graphics elements, and standards for their marketing materials. Each of the brands is a different product, which means different audiences and different strengths to highlight in their communication.
I gave every subsidiary brand room to build its own materials, inside a system strict enough to keep them all recognizably Dotmatics.
The way I solved the problem of each brand wanting to do its own thing was a combination of things. One important thing was to give them enough elements to work with so that they could create designs that work for their purposes, but the other thing was to give strict rules for how to implement those elements. For instance, I provided them with graphics to add intrigue to their materials, a pool of stock images to choose from, a deep bench of icons to add detail to dense material, and more. With this, they don't have to go out and make their own graphics, find icons, or download stock photos on their own. I have that all provided for them.
At the same time, I also created rules for how to implement each of those elements. The guidelines account for how to add graphics to a document, how they pair with imagery, and how large they should be in relation to other elements. The stock photography also has a detailed description of what to look for when trying to find new photography. I set standards for how their social media ads look, how their banners look, how their YouTube thumbnails look, their logos were systematized, and so on.
I built them an entire ecosystem in Figma where everything is easily accessible to everyone in the company.
As the business has expanded, I have added and subtracted things from this identity. Everything is designed to grow and change, but having a strong framework from which to build is essential to maintaining a uniform suite of brands.
The system scaled with the company, holding a dozen brands together through six years of growth and a $5.1 billion acquisition.
Over the last six years, that foundation has continued to grow into a fully developed ecosystem. I have led and expanded the visual direction across ebooks, one-pagers, presentations, websites, trade show booths, ad campaign assets, and a wide range of marketing materials. As the company evolved, the design system evolved with it, creating a more cohesive and recognizable presence across the entire organization.
The brand system helped support Dotmatics through a period of rapid growth, acquisitions, and global expansion. The company grew into a global platform serving more than two million scientists across 180+ countries and was ultimately acquired by Siemens in a $5.1 billion deal. As the company scaled, the design system I provided created the foundation that allowed for that growth.