A skills platform that finally looks like it knows where talent is
Adepti maps the skills inside a company so the right person gets found for the right job. I gave it a brand built around a pin, then carried it into the website, the product UI and the sales material.
180%
more demo requests
in the first quarter after launch
2.4x
time on site
versus the old website
12
product screens
designed for the sales demo
01
The client
Adepti is a talent and skills platform for HR teams. It maps what people inside a company can actually do, so internal mobility and hiring start from real data instead of job titles. The client came to Effiqs, where I led the work.
02
The challenge
Adepti started life under another name, Grip, and its older website still carried that era: dark green with orange buttons fighting for attention. The product was smart; the brand looked generic and didn't explain what the platform did. HR buyers were comparing it against much bigger players, so it needed to look established and be understood in one scroll.
Drag to compare. Left: the Grip-era brand and the old website. Right: the person-in-pin mark on a light mint system.
03
The process
Brand first, then the site and the product, all from one set of guidelines.
- 01Brand direction. One idea to build on: the path to your professional dream.
- 02Concept exploration. Several routes, including an A-drop concept, tested and set aside.
- 03Brand proposal. The person-in-pin mark, lowercase wordmark, palette and differentiator, presented in 2023.
- 04Icons and applications. A custom icon set in two versions, then every touchpoint from cards to ads.
- 05Website and product. Wireframes, the website redesign and UI mockups for the demo.
01 / 06
Grip variations
02 / 06
Isotype sketches a
03 / 06
Isotype sketches b
04 / 06
Lockup options
05 / 06
Construction grid
06 / 06
Construction
04
The solution
The mark is a head inside a location pin. It carries the whole promise in one shape: Adepti shows people the path to their professional dream, and shows companies where their talent is. Next to it, a lowercase "adepti" wordmark keeps the tone approachable.
The palette is Mint #6AE6A4, Sacramento #173433, Midnight #0C1716 and Snow #FFFFFF. In practice it runs light, with the dark green mark on pale mint, calm and a little technical for a product about people and data. A custom icon set in two versions extends the system, and the campaign line "Find your way to your professional dream today" gives marketing a sentence to build around.
We rolled it out across business cards, a billboard, social, LinkedIn, ads, an app icon and even a watch face. I then redesigned the website on the system and mocked up the key product screens (My Skills, Search talent, Matches and the candidate list) so the demo matched the marketing.
05
Results
The sales team got one coherent story from the ad to the product demo. Prospects saw the same pin on the banner, the homepage and the dashboard, which made a young company feel settled.
The website launched as designed, with no compromises from a separate dev handoff, and the team could update it themselves.
180%
more demo requests
in the first quarter after launch