Is branding now a democracy? Along with Frontify, we take our questions to Feeld and Figma

Welcome to The Shift, a series presented in collaboration with one of the world’s leading brand-building platforms, Frontify. Here, we’ll dive deep into the realm of flexible, dynamic branding. We’ll be tapping into the sharpest minds in design – from visionary studios and brands to leading independent designers – to understand what it takes to build a dynamic identity. For our final chapter, we turn our attention to the evolving landscape of brand creation, studying how brands are increasingly involving their audiences in the design process. We were intrigued – why are brands leaning towards co-creation, giving their audiences a seat at the table? What value are they finding in either opening up their design process, or in allowing their communities to reinterpret and remix their visual identities? And what does this say about who can create a brand? We spoke to Feeld and Figma, who have been there, done that. When we first came across Feeld’s rebrand, what immediately jumped out to us was the fact that their refreshed identity was not just spearheaded by the teams at Feeld and Made Thought, but was intimately shaped by Feeld’s community members. Feeld handed over the tools, and its community ran with them, shaping everything from type to imagery. As a brand that’s constantly in conversation with its audience, this felt less like a marketing tactic and more like a natural evolution – an authentic extension of both its strategy and its ethos. “Feeld has grown mostly organically from inception to present, all thanks to our incredible community. Put simply, it was only right to continue to put the people who’ve made Feeld the special space that it’s become at the helm,” Lead Brand Designer Nyomi Warren tells us.