Since 2012, Instacart had steadily grown as a leader in the grocery technology space. However, the global pandemic completely transformed the delivery landscape overnight. As shopping shifted predominantly online, our brand faced a sudden and rising tide of competition. Our mission was to evolve our brand from a functional grocery application into a recognized, multi-category delivery leader.

Our primary friction point was moving beyond our single-product identity of just grocery delivery. We needed a brand framework that could stretch and flex to encompass a much wider range of products, from home improvement to cosmetics. Additionally, we needed to elevate our role in people's lives from merely transactional to deeply inspirational and emotional.

To solve this, I led our team in close collaboration with the agency Wolff Olins to find a strategic foundation that balanced utility with emotion. We rallied the organization around a new dual ethos: 'Shop + Savor'. 'Shop' captured the effortless efficiency of our core product, while 'Savor' captured the moments of joy, connection, and nourishment our service empowers.

Early in the process, we explored entirely abandoning our heritage carrot symbol to look like a category-agnostic logistics platform. However, this direction felt too clinical, basic, and unplaceable, moving us away from the warmth our users loved. We realized we could not afford to lose our established brand equity, leading us to pivot and dynamically evolve our existing symbol instead.

I led the development of a comprehensive, food-first design system rooted heavily in our new duality. We transformed our beloved carrot into a functional symbol where the green top doubles as a downward arrow representing cart efficiency, while the orange root symbolizes the enjoyment of food. I anchored our aesthetic in a fresh, modern color palette of 'Kale' and 'Cashew', using a vibrant 'Carrot' orange to cut through digital noise.

We applied these strategic design choices across every touchpoint to directly address our business challenges. I directed our new bespoke typography to flex across use cases, utilizing Instacart Sans for clean product efficiency and Instacart Contrast for expressive, savor-focused headlines. To ensure we never felt like a cold technology platform, I guided our photography and illustration systems to prioritize craveable, authentic human moments and effortless wit.

The new brand system successfully energized our internal teams and empowered our strategic expansion to over 1,100 retail banners and nearly 6,000 CPG brands. Immediately following the launch, we saw a 153% increase in online mentions and a double-digit percentage increase in new site visits. The work was heavily celebrated within the industry, earning a prestigious D&AD Yellow Pencil, Clio Awards, and being named 2022's #1 Icon and Logo Evolution by Brand New.