Video summary

Building a Brand – Redesigning a Business Start to Finish

Main summary

Key takeaways

Business

Executive summary (business + brand transformation)

Mode (mechanical keyboards) hired Matthew as Chief Design Officer in 2025 to reimagine the brand and align it with product, marketing, and customer growth goals.

The rebrand is executed as a structured process using the double diamond framework (Discover → Define → Develop → Deliver), supported by customer research, competitive positioning, and a full website + identity system refresh.

The brand strategy centers on “warm tech”—making technology feel crafted, human, and joyful—and translating that into product design decisions and go-to-market improvements.

Presenters / sources (named in the subtitles)

  • Matthew Cena (Chief Design Officer; leads brand + product vision)
  • Ben Burns (creative collaborator; facilitates branding process)
  • Jacob (CEO)
  • Chris (Head of Marketing)
  • Andrew (Boston team member helping with studio/media setup)

Sponsor/source mentioned:

  • Shopify (sponsor; references Shopify tools and Shopify Capital)

Branding & strategy process (frameworks / playbooks)

The rebrand uses the Double Diamond framework:

Discovery (several weeks)

  • Research product/customer/market, including:
    • website traffic analysis
    • sales data analysis
    • keyboard community surveys
    • video interviews with community members
  • Segment and define user groups using:
    • personas
    • customer journeys
  • Conduct a brand audit using multiple lenses:
    • values & beliefs
    • features vs. benefits
    • voice & tone
    • look & feel
  • Competitive positioning via an X-Y map (opposing brand qualities)

Define

  • Synthesize insights into design challenges
  • Select brand direction and make portfolio decisions:
    • discontinue certain products to sharpen focus
    • plan overhaul of visual identity, messaging, website

Develop (expansive exploration)

  • Create stylescapes (curated mood boards) to test directions quickly
  • Build three directions, select best elements, then produce the final stylescape

Deliver

  • Produce brand strategy + identity system guidelines
  • Roll out over months and continue iterating

Key business goals & targets mentioned

  • Revenue growth goal: “increase revenue over the next 5 years”
  • Timeline/rollout notes:
    • Branding process is ~4 months in during the “final phase” segment
    • Website redesign rolled out slowly throughout the year
    • Eco-friendly packaging begins with the next run of the Encore keyboard releasing this summer
  • No explicit numeric KPIs (e.g., CAC/LTV, churn, revenue amount) were provided.

Customer research inputs (what they collected)

Quant + qualitative inputs

  • analyze website traffic
  • analyze sales data
  • run customer surveys in the keyboard community
  • conduct in-depth video interviews with community members

Outputs

  • create detailed user personas
  • map customer journeys
  • translate journey friction into:
    • design + UX requirements
    • product requirements

Persona examples & implications (actionable)

  • Tim (UX design manager; experienced researcher)

    • Wants: quality, community, “people behind the brands”
    • Needs: detailed product information + more visible community

  • Jay (young software engineer; time-poor, wants quick decision)

    • Wants: easy purchase, minimal searching
    • Decision drivers: influencer and publication recommendations
    • Needs: simpler purchase process, clear guidance, option for ready-to-use products

Actionable translation: the rebrand and website must support both discovery paths—community/story for researchers and fast decision flows for time-poor buyers.

Competitive positioning & brand differentiation (how they decided “what to change”)

  • Use an X-Y competitive map plotting Mode vs. competitors, and even adjacent industry brands
  • Evaluate brand qualities across axes such as:
    • understated vs. outspoken
    • opaque vs. transparent/human
    • warm/inviting vs. stark/industrial
    • curated/premium vs. raw/unedited or budget
  • Finding: Mode was “in a crowded pool” in some areas, so they refined positioning to carve out a distinct niche.

Brand direction output (what “warm tech” means in practice)

Chosen brand vision / north star

  • “Warm tech”: tech that feels crafted and human, not cold/manufactured
  • Mission framing:
    • bring joy to workspaces and everyday experiences
    • create products that “deserve to exist”
    • carve out a warm tech niche

“Furniture” analogy → product design principle

A “nice keyboard can be like a piece of furniture”—driving an approach that treats the keyboard as a centerpiece that elevates the space.

Visual identity & messaging system (Deliver phase)

Logo usage

  • Kept the existing logo for brand equity
  • Applied refinements and detailed usage rules

Typography mix

  • Serif + sans serif for header/body copy
  • Selective bitmap-style typefaces as a nod to computing/mechanical keyboard history
  • Monospace for technical copy to highlight engineering

Color system

  • Primary: deep green
  • Secondary accents for use across packaging + web

Photography direction

  • directional lighting
  • warm, natural tones
  • subtle film grain
  • “lived in but not messy” scenes
  • people featured without distracting from the product

Brand “alter ego” imagery

  • low-fi bitmap imagery (retro computing / keyboard history)
  • used for:
    • custom iconography
    • logo variant
    • playful photo-processing language

Voice/tone rules (messaging)

  • professional but not corporate; friendly but not fake
  • avoid technical jargon and marketing buzzwords
  • refine core messages in Notion
  • produce marketing-ready samples and a separate brand expressions guide for future assets/events

Product + portfolio changes linked to the rebrand

  • discontinue certain products to sharpen focus on better offerings
  • shift to a more curated product lineup
  • build a “thoughtfully designed ecosystem of keyboards and accessories”
  • ongoing “next generation” work:
    • finalizing product design
    • working with engineers for a full overhaul of components to strengthen innovation positioning

Go-to-market execution: website, marketing, community, and events

Website (largest asset)

  • build a site map and plan multiple user journeys
  • prototype with placeholder content for key pages before full build
  • emphasize:
    • typography, imagery, and color consistency with the new identity
    • simplified purchase experience (especially for personas like Jay)
    • expanded brand/story areas for research-driven customers like Tim
  • status/timeline:
    • “development is in progress” and will roll out slowly throughout the year
    • updates at modesigns.com

Marketing strategy changes

  • emphasize transparency
    • more story + behind-the-scenes content
    • introduce the team behind the brand
  • key insight: people connect when they experience and type on the keyboards (“aha moment”)
  • action:
    • attend more in-person creative and tech events to deepen connections and grow community

Operations & sustainability initiatives

  • Packaging update starting with the Encore line releasing this summer
    • move away from foam inserts
    • use recyclable molded pulp
    • apply the updated brand look to packaging
  • Studio/media operations:
    • Boston team builds a new studio setup for photos/videos
    • setup will roll out on the site and in future content

Example “playbook” outputs to reuse (implicitly captured)

  • Discovery → synthesize into personas + journeys
  • Brand audit using multiple lenses
  • Competitive differentiation using an X-Y positioning map
  • Generate and test multiple visual directions via stylescapes
  • Translate brand principles (“warm tech”) into:
    • website UX decisions
    • messaging rules
    • product/material decisions

Accounting for sponsorship (Shopify) — only as it relates to execution

Shopify was used as enabling infrastructure for:

  • e-commerce setup once started in 2019
  • managing cash flow via Shopify Capital (repays as sales happen) to fund inventory and production runs
  • store customization and selling natively on social platforms

Mentioned sources/presenters (repeat for completeness)

Matthew Cena; Ben Burns; Jacob (CEO); Chris (Head of Marketing); Andrew (Boston); Shopify (sponsor).

Original video