Athletics updates Salesforce’s brand to mark its move into agentic AI

As the world’s leading customer relationship management platform, Salesforce will be a household name for many of us. It was founded by Marc Benioff in 1999 on the idea that enterprise software could be delivered through the cloud, which at the time, was far from the norm. The company’s move into agentic AI, with its Agentforce platform, saw Salesforce turn to New York-based studio Athletics for a timely evolution of its brand, including the research, creative strategy, identity, art direction, brand voice and motion graphics. The identity revolves around a concept Athletics labelled the ‘Atmosphere of Possibility’ – depth and three-dimensional space put to work on the 360-degree experience of the agentic platform, where data, agents and humans come together. The system’s shapes come back to the circle at the heart of the original Salesforce cloud mark. “Round forms carry approachability across the whole brand, all the way down into the typography,” explains Creative Director Daniel Irizarry. “But the circle is the grammar, not the idea. The system is rooted in the space beyond the cloud where Salesforce clients transform their businesses on the platform. Geometry gives us the form. The atmosphere concept gives us meaning.” A suite of core shapes came out of the circle, from 360-degree panoramas to framing devices, which Athletics tested across marketing collateral to check whether the system holds together and if a piece is functional or expressive. The palette starts from Cloud Blue – the colour Salesforce is already known for – brightened to be digital-first and extended into a set of teal, yellow, pink and violet. Alongside it sits a 3D icon system that moves outward from the Salesforce product suite – with each icon drawn to represent a customer’s challenge, ambition or win.