ecobee
Brand Evolution & Design System
Brand Evolution & Design System
Design Director/
Principal Graphic Designer
Principal Graphic Designer
Challenge
As ecobee expanded its smart home ecosystem and joined the Generac family, years of independent growth had created fragmented brand standards, design systems, and creative assets. Teams were frequently recreating work, resulting in inconsistent experiences across marketing, digital products, retail, packaging, and partner channels.
Opportunity
Create a unified visual language supported by centralized brand guidelines, a scalable design system, shared Figma libraries, and a governance model that could align teams, accelerate production, and support future multi-brand growth.
Role
I led the evolution and unification of ecobee's visual identity and design system, establishing a scalable visual foundation that connected Brand, Marketing, Sales, and Product across every customer touchpoint.
As ecobee expanded its smart home ecosystem and joined the Generac family, years of independent growth had created fragmented brand standards, design systems, and creative assets. Teams were frequently recreating work, resulting in inconsistent experiences across marketing, digital products, retail, packaging, and partner channels.
Opportunity
Create a unified visual language supported by centralized brand guidelines, a scalable design system, shared Figma libraries, and a governance model that could align teams, accelerate production, and support future multi-brand growth.
Role
I led the evolution and unification of ecobee's visual identity and design system, establishing a scalable visual foundation that connected Brand, Marketing, Sales, and Product across every customer touchpoint.
Working across Brand, Marketing, and Product, we rebuilt ecobee's visual language from the ground up, stress testing it across every major touchpoint while ensuring accessibility was built into the foundation.
The new system included:
Together, these foundations created a cohesive visual language capable of supporting an expanding ecosystem of products, services, and customer experiences.
- Variable ecobee wordmark optimized for digital environments
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Multi-platform typography system with brand variants
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Accessible multi-brand colour system
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Layout foundations including spacing, radius, surfaces, light and dark mode, buttons, and controls
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Unified iconography and illustration systems with shared libraries and governance
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Photography and rendering standards
- Motion principles and guidance
- Product architecture, sub-brand identities, and launch frameworks for consumer, B2B, Smart Security (SaaS), and partner co-branding
Together, these foundations created a cohesive visual language capable of supporting an expanding ecosystem of products, services, and customer experiences.
To scale the system across the organization, we developed two connected platforms.
Brand Platform
A centralized source of truth for Brand, Marketing, and Sales teams that consolidated brand strategy, identity standards, messaging guidance, visual assets, B2B frameworks, partner guidelines, templates, photography, video resources, and implementation tools into a single living resource.
Design System
A scalable framework that aligned brand and product experiences through shared principles, accessible foundations, reusable patterns, and co-branding standards. As ecobee and Generac explored deeper integration, the system established a foundation for future multi-brand experiences while preserving the distinct identity of each brand.
Governance
To ensure long-term success, we introduced governance processes that supported adoption, maintenance, and continuous evolution. Through a collaborative contribution model, teams could propose, review, and publish new assets and components while maintaining consistency and quality across the ecosystem.
A centralized source of truth for Brand, Marketing, and Sales teams that consolidated brand strategy, identity standards, messaging guidance, visual assets, B2B frameworks, partner guidelines, templates, photography, video resources, and implementation tools into a single living resource.
Design System
A scalable framework that aligned brand and product experiences through shared principles, accessible foundations, reusable patterns, and co-branding standards. As ecobee and Generac explored deeper integration, the system established a foundation for future multi-brand experiences while preserving the distinct identity of each brand.
Governance
To ensure long-term success, we introduced governance processes that supported adoption, maintenance, and continuous evolution. Through a collaborative contribution model, teams could propose, review, and publish new assets and components while maintaining consistency and quality across the ecosystem.
The result was a connected design ecosystem that aligned Brand, Marketing, Sales, and Product around a shared visual foundation.
Impact
- Established a single source of truth for brand standards and design assets
- Improved consistency across marketing, product, retail, packaging, B2B, and partner experiences
- Accelerated creative production through reusable components, templates, and shared patterns
- Improved accessibility, governance, and long-term scalability
- Supported product launches across consumer, B2B, and SaaS offerings
- Enabled consistent execution across every touchpoint, from websites and mobile apps to hardware, packaging, installation guides, marketing campaigns, corporate and sales presentations, retail, events, and partner experiences
- Created a unified end-to-end customer journey across the ecobee ecosystem
- Built a scalable foundation for the future evolution of both ecobee and Generac