Our homes are our refuge, the place we go to feel safe and free to be ourselves without worry. But sometimes, we feel vulnerable and look to protect our homes to ensure our family’s safety. SimpliSafe knows this and is the leading brand in smart home security, offering whole home protection with live agent support across the United States and the United Kingdom.
Pentagram’s Eddie Opara and team collaborated with SimpliSafe to create a brand identity system that would capture customers’ attention immediately with a trusted, mature visual framework that conveys the company’s best-in-class tech with its standout differentiator: people on the other end of the line, 24/7, to help in any emergency, at any time. They needed a memorable rebrand that would speak directly to future customers, people who feel deeply responsible for their family’s safety.
The Challenge
SimpliSafe sought the #1 spot for unaided brand awareness—to be noticed, remembered and talked about. Because when asked, consumers today can only name two security brands. They face a visually indistinguishable set of options for home security when they walk into an electronic store to row upon row of blue branded shields with locks, sensors, keypads and cameras packaged in white boxes. SimpliSafe knew that, visually, it didn’t stand out.
“Our goal is to develop a timeless, effective visual identity system that aligns with who we are,” says Brenda Bynarowicz, Head of Customer Marketing and Growth at SimpliSafe. “It needed to be memorable and appealing, help grow our brand awareness, and propel SimpliSafe confidently into the future.”
The previous identity felt impersonal, lacking charisma, when, in fact, the humanity of SimpliSafe’s service offerings, combined with its tech and singular focus on safety, is what truly sets it apart.
The Strategy
To be instantly recognized and widely known as the ultimate home security brand required a cohesive brand identity system that would stand out in the blue sea of sameness by highlighting what makes SimpliSafe’s product offerings different than the others, people + tech.
Collaborating with key stakeholders and leadership to explore existing strategy and positioning through extensive audits, interviews and dialogues, the central commitment to a human experience emerged. Pentagram set out to capture this essential aspect of the brand.
"We keep you and your family safe. This is our core focus,” said Chad and Eleanor Laurans, leaders at SimpliSafe. It is not a search engine or a retail platform, SimpliSafe’s sole focus is home security.
A focus Pentagram knew would come alive with a more robust visual system and versatile toolbox that could flex and scale in any channel. Bolder modern typography to inspire trust and confidence, an ownable warmer primary color to grab attention, personable lifestyle photography to connect, iconic and instantly recognizable packaging, simple iconography and messaging that captures the simplicity and humanity at the center of this brand.
The Solution
With a warmth that reveals SimpliSafe’s human differentiator, the rebrand needed to capture and communicate that there is someone on the other end of the line who has your back and is watching out for you. Safety is the inspiration, a sense of being held securely, warmly and confidently comes across in every aspect of the brand’s identity.
To convey the humanity central to the brand, Opara, with his deep understanding of color, knew that a warm yellow would be a major piece of the rebrand, achieving the goal of instant, ownable recognition. Yellow is vibrant yet calming, about safety and wisdom. It’s associated with school buses and yellow cabs across the U.S. and the U.K., where the brand operates. And nobody was using it.
“Brands ignore it,” says Opara. “When this exceedingly warm color signals honesty, joy and safety. It instantly differentiates SimpliSafe within the marketplace and can be seen from very far away.”
The team at SimpliSafe, however, was reluctant. Perhaps yellow was too bold a step outside the security market’s standard blue. Opara persisted. After an extensive color study, the reaction to the golden yellow became clear to everyone.
“The response was unanimous,” said Brenda Bynarowicz at SimpliSafe. “Everyone loved it!”
With its new bespoke Safety Yellow, SimpliSafe can now be known globally as the “yellow brand.” A refreshed color palette, with a deep, new calming blue, creates a cohesive color story that transmits a more relatable tenor used within its logotype.
The new wordmark, which became the visual kernel for every other element, personifies warmth and the brand’s singular purpose, safety. A two-tone coloration and a confident new shape take form with a slightly custom-drawn humanist font.
“It’s very inviting, not brutal or homogenous,” explains Opara. It originates from Arizona Sans with a softly flared solid type, a simplified “a” and slight rounding to project a safer feel.
Flowing from the logotype, SimpliSafe’s approachable tone continues with two new fonts: Arizona Sans, a flared display typeface with a pure, crafted and contemporary feel, and Neptune, from the Indian Type Foundry, a geometric sans serif with a customized uppercase Q that feels almost childlike.
Inspired by Neptune’s playful silhouette with its flat edges, thick strokes, and visual space, Pentagram designed a clear icon framework, building out SimpliSafe’s new, easily understood and trustworthy visual toolbox.
Combining color, wordmark, typography, iconography and graphic assets, packaging now instantly draws customers’ attention. We see products come to life with rounded, elongated squares and circles in bold colors, creating depth, texture and warmth. With the flexibility to scale across mediums and channels, these graphic elements are held within an invisible grid built from a repeating rounded square inspired by the product’s base station silhouette, a piece central to every home security offering.
Shapes and colors consistently echo throughout every aspect of the brand identity system to create a warm, trustworthy, cohesive feel that stands out confidently. Online lifestyle photography captures the calm retreat of a simple environment, with natural lighting and organic materials that add texture and movement, subtly using the brand colors, design and details of the products.
We see the warmth of the brand’s identity come to life with people at its center in everyday moments, connecting with an immediate feel of what we all want: A beautiful home where our lives unfold, entirely held. Simply. Safely.
