Case Study

Dropbox

Finding your true worth to unlock expansion.

Industry
Enterprise SaaS
Stage
Enterprise

Dropbox is the leading file hosting platform. With an IPO planned, executive leadership needed to position the business for a successful debut. Business and consumer expansion topp...

Dropbox is the leading file hosting platform. With an IPO planned, executive leadership needed to position the business for a successful debut. Business and consumer expansion topped the agenda. Leadership invited COLLINS to help figure out how.

Dropbox’s management had identified the creative community as its target value pool. But how could a file hosting platform appeal to creative professionals while retaining its current customer base? How could this drive successful and coherent product expansion?

The best approach in these instances is to extrapolate a beloved characteristic in the product into a larger value sought by a diversity of customer segments. We found it in the core product feature on which Dropbox had built its appeal: easily synching files. Creativity is a messy, dynamic, iterative collaboration between many people using many different tools. Synching those people, files, and processes is challenging – especially when project scale and complexity grows. This was a pain point many knowledge workers – creative or otherwise – experienced as well.

With line of sight into Dropbox’s product roadmap, we saw a path to expanding the company’s value story — from syncing files to syncing teams. Well synched teams create superior work.

We visualized this value story through co-creation, and constantly evolving, unexpected combinations. The system emphasizes non-conventional collisions; celebrating what’s possible when unexpected combinations of ideas, color, typography, art, illustration and photography are brought together.

IMPACT

Dropbox IPO soared 35% on its first day of trading. Two years later, Dropbox's 2020 revenue was $1.91b, an increase from $1.661b in 2019. The company also reached 700 million users in 2020, up from 600 million in 2019. Dropbox has added 100 million new users each year since 2018.

COLLINS
Ian AronsonCaroline BagleyBrian CollinsJump JirakaweekulMichele KimMatt LuckhurstDavid NguyenAnna SternoffJules TardyThomas Wilder
Instrument
Dropbox Brand Studio
Sharp Type
Animade
72andSunny

Augments

Augments are add-on components or properties that enhance a design system’s performance. They introduce new capabilities, expand functionality and improve how the system works across contexts.

Augments

Augments are add-on components or properties that enhance a design system’s performance. They introduce new capabilities, expand functionality and improve how the system works across contexts.

Isometric Design

The redesigned Dropbox logo is built from a set of identical diamond shapes that fit together to form a larger, unified mark. The simple geometry isn’t just decorative—it reflects the idea that when people work together, the result is greater than the sum of its parts. It’s a visual expression of Dropbox’s belief in collaboration and shared creation.

Motion Signature

A signature animation style that transforms static brand elements into instantly recognizable kinetic expressions. By creating a consistent motion language, it amplifies brand distinctiveness, deepens recall and makes digital experiences more captivating and memorable.

Validated Versatility

We pressure test our designs across every touchpoint and context—from app tiles to billboards, screens to swag. This rigorous performance testing ensures that your brand remains consistent, recognizable and effective everywhere it lives for as long as it lives.

Flex Deck

A logic function embedded in the identity system to ensure brand coherence across diverse applications—critical for any high-performance system, as research shows coherent brands are 2.1 times more likely to achieve salience.

High Expressive Ratio

A performance property that signals a brand system’s ability to generate vast expressive range from minimal elements, resulting in a presence that is both concentrated and expansive.

Extensibility

A performance property that ensures identity systems can integrate future innovations and modules without losing coherence.

Impact

Shifted Perception from Tool to Platform

The rebrand reframed Dropbox as a connected workspace, opening the door to broader team-based workflows and integrations.

Increased Brand Distinctiveness

The new identity equipped Dropbox with memorable, ownable brand assets—boosting mental availability in visually homogenous tech landscape.

700M

User Base Milestone

Dropbox grew !100 million new users annually since the rebrand—attracting over 700 million users by 2020.

300M

Revenue Expansion

As a team synchronization platform, the company grew from $1.66B to $1.91B in annual revenue between 2019 and 2020.

35%

IPO Pop

Dropbox enjoyed a 35% jump in price during its IPO, confirming that the market saw its high-growth future as a platform for team-based work.

Unlocked Expansion Credibility

The repositioning paved the way for innovation and market acceptance of new product lines, including Dash, Replay and Studio.

Press

It's Nice That

The Dropbox rebrand features a logo update, new typography and vibrant illustration collaborations

Tech Crunch

Dropbox brand update streamlines its logo and takes aim at creatives

Dropbox Blog

Dropbox unveils colorful new look and global brand campaign focusing on creative energy