Leaf — Rebrand & Flexible Brand System
+ Creative Direction
+ Branding
+ Graphic Design
+ Brand Guidelines
A complete rebrand transforming Leaf’s identity into a flexible, human-centred system — evolving the Leaf Orb and visual language across every platform.
Year
2024 / 2025
Client
Leaf
Website
www.leafgrow.io
Overview
Leaf’s rebrand was an organic evolution — a transformation shaped by the company’s growth and shifting vision. The brand had outgrown its original identity: a bold, masculine aesthetic that no longer reflected its collaborative and forward-thinking nature.
In 2024, after two years of incremental refinement and internal advocacy, I led a complete rebrand — redefining the logo, typography, and colour system while building a flexible visual language for all sub-brands and digital platforms.
Challenge
Leaf’s original identity — built around the Leaf Orb and a Poppins uppercase logotype — had become rigid and overused. Its tone no longer reflected the brand’s human, curious, and creative spirit.
The challenge was to retain recognisability while fully reimagining the visual foundation. Beyond the core brand, the rebrand needed to extend into five sub-brands — including Leaf’s products, podcast, blog, and web services — with capacity for future expansion.
One further constraint: the typeface had to be selected from Google Fonts, narrowing the options while still demanding a distinctive and characterful tone.
Approach & Process
The process began with a comprehensive brand audit and a typographic research workshop.
I explored a wide range of typefaces — from Google Fonts to independent foundries — testing each for legibility, tone, and balance alongside the Leaf Orb, the circular symbol at the heart of the logo.
A subtle but defining consideration was the form of the dot. I compared typefaces with circular and square terminals, seeking visual harmony with the Orb’s geometry and rhythm. The circular structure felt instinctively right — echoing the Orb’s energy and motion, while the square forms introduced unnecessary tension.
After extensive trials and iterative feedback with the founders, Mona Sans emerged as the perfect fit: clear, modern, and rounded, it complemented the Leaf Orb’s softness while maintaining a confident and professional presence.
With typography defined, I restructured the entire visual language — introducing a refreshed colour palette, refined grid systems, and a modular approach for digital and social communication.
I designed over seven adaptable templates — for blog features, podcasts, events, client testimonials, case studies, and new partnerships — ensuring every asset aligned within the same cohesive system.
In parallel, I developed a comprehensive brand book detailing logo usage, colour and type hierarchy, sub-brand architecture, and visual direction — ensuring the identity could evolve fluidly as Leaf continues to grow.
Research & Exploration
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System & Sub-brand architecture
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Social & content templates
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Outcome
Impact & Reflection
This rebrand repositioned Leaf as mature, confident, and credible — blending professionalism with warmth, continuity with reinvention.
What began in 2022 as a subtle internal push matured into a full transformation, touching every communication layer from design and strategy to daily application. This project exemplifies how thoughtful design can shepherd change over time — turning evolution into lasting coherence.