STRIPE BRAND REFRESH
[Client]
STRIPE
[Industry]
FINTECH
[Year] 2025
info
At the end of 2024, Stripe's Brand Studio approached us to collaborate on an R&D phase around two of their most iconic visual motifs, the Wave and the Parallelogram. The goal was clear: to unify their visual language across all marketing channels and build a system that could scale, flex, and hold together as a cohesive whole.
The R&D phase was a space to pressure-test ideas and explore how far the system could stretch before moving into execution. Working closely with the Brand Studio team, we moved through different visual directions guided by two core principles: quiet confidence, and optimism reflected through color.
The Wave had always been part of Stripe's identity. Our job was to evolve it. Rather than continuing the flat, wide-angle expressions of the past, we pursued a tighter, more immersive perspective, one that pulls the viewer in rather than presenting the wave from a distance. We developed dynamic hero wave assets that live not just in color and texture, but in z-space. Depth of field carries the viewer through the wave, making it feel less like a graphic and more like an environment. The result sits somewhere between ambient and cinematic, light piercing through a surface that feels physical, dimensional, and unmistakably alive.
The Parallelogram was developed in parallel as a supporting element, sharing the same material language, color palette, and surface quality as the wave, so both motifs could work independently or together without losing their connection to each other. Originally designed by Stripe's in-house team as a core brand symbol, our role was to explore how far it could be pushed and where its limits were within the system. For Stripe, the shape has always carried meaning: a dynamic, ever-evolving symbol that points up and to the right. Our work gave it the depth and craft to match that ambition.
The outcome is a set of hero brand assets that hold a distinct point of view, considered, expressive, and built to scale across every context the brand operates in. Alongside the assets, we developed brand guidelines to ensure the Wave and Parallelogram could be used consistently and intentionally across the system going forward.
The R&D phase was a space to pressure-test ideas and explore how far the system could stretch before moving into execution. Working closely with the Brand Studio team, we moved through different visual directions guided by two core principles: quiet confidence, and optimism reflected through color.
The Wave had always been part of Stripe's identity. Our job was to evolve it. Rather than continuing the flat, wide-angle expressions of the past, we pursued a tighter, more immersive perspective, one that pulls the viewer in rather than presenting the wave from a distance. We developed dynamic hero wave assets that live not just in color and texture, but in z-space. Depth of field carries the viewer through the wave, making it feel less like a graphic and more like an environment. The result sits somewhere between ambient and cinematic, light piercing through a surface that feels physical, dimensional, and unmistakably alive.
The Parallelogram was developed in parallel as a supporting element, sharing the same material language, color palette, and surface quality as the wave, so both motifs could work independently or together without losing their connection to each other. Originally designed by Stripe's in-house team as a core brand symbol, our role was to explore how far it could be pushed and where its limits were within the system. For Stripe, the shape has always carried meaning: a dynamic, ever-evolving symbol that points up and to the right. Our work gave it the depth and craft to match that ambition.
The outcome is a set of hero brand assets that hold a distinct point of view, considered, expressive, and built to scale across every context the brand operates in. Alongside the assets, we developed brand guidelines to ensure the Wave and Parallelogram could be used consistently and intentionally across the system going forward.
credits
Creative Direction: ESTUDI-IMAGE
3D Design & Animation: Nachei Sanchez, David Padilla, Edgar Ferrer, Thais Altes, Nil Estany, Roberto Juarez, Steffen Knoesgaard, Sasha Gudkova
Graphic Design: Marta Ribas
Stripe: John Moon, Olivia Chernoff, Ren Chen, Dominic Baron-Chartrand, Jonny Naismith
3D Design & Animation: Nachei Sanchez, David Padilla, Edgar Ferrer, Thais Altes, Nil Estany, Roberto Juarez, Steffen Knoesgaard, Sasha Gudkova
Graphic Design: Marta Ribas
Stripe: John Moon, Olivia Chernoff, Ren Chen, Dominic Baron-Chartrand, Jonny Naismith
