Lavalier

Challenge

Showing AI hiring is built on evidence, not automation.

Talent leaders have been burned. Black-box scoring tools, bias lawsuits and tightening regulation around automated employment decisions have made AI seem like a liability when it comes to hiring.

Lavalier was built as the opposite. It does not score, rank or recommend candidates.

Still, that’s not how many people view products in this category. Dark gradients, robot motifs and dashboard-style screens all signal the exact black box Lavalier is designed to replace. Thus, Lavalier needed a brand that would read as both rigorous and human — and it had to carry forward Textio’s hard-won credibility without looking exactly like the parent brand.

Solution

A vibrant identity to make a splash in the market.

We opened with discovery to pressure-test brand preferences, then developed several logo routes for Lavalier to pursue, each paired with a moodboard to explore the visual world around it. After Lavalier picked a direction, we built it out in full: logo, color palette, typography, iconography, photography direction, illustration styles, graphic devices and application samples showing the system in real-world contexts. We documented all of this in 43 pages of brand guidelines.

Then, we made the brand highly user friendly. That included a brand starter kit with templates and other assets that Lavalier’s team can easily adapt to fit a variety of needs. We also designed a new website that looks sharp, can house more content and aims squarely at conversions.

Finally, we concepted two brand awareness campaigns, each with its own central message and proof-of-concept mockups to ensure Lavalier would launch with impact.

Results

A brand that breaks through.

Lavalier has debuted as its own brand — distinct enough to compete on its own terms but still connected to Textio as a well-known HR tech leader. Now, it has a brand campaign for building awareness, refreshed social channels for driving engagement, a website for capturing leads and a suite of branded assets for nurturing prospects into paying customers.