CASE STUDY

Neo4j - Rebrand

Interior view featuring a "neo4j" sign with illuminated text, surrounded by green plants.

Role highlights:

• Brand Evolution
• Design Systems
• Team Building
• Stakeholder Alignment
• Digital Integration
• Creative Direction

Neo4j logo in blue and black versions with a connected nodes symbol.

Brief: At Neo4j, I led a full brand refresh that redefined the company’s visual identity, voice, and digital presence. This included revamping neo4j.com, producing award-level videos, and evolving brand systems—all while aligning the updated design across products and platforms to reflect Neo4j’s leadership in graph technology.

Audience: Our audience spanned NASA engineers, investigative journalists, enterprise CTOs, and the global developer community—each seeking powerful tools to surface meaningful connections through data. The brand needed to signal innovation, trust, and accessibility to both technical and non-technical users across varied industries.

Approach: I guided a collaborative, research-informed process involving interviews, audits, and brand workshops. We defined the core theme of “connectedness” and evolved the visual identity from logo to language. Working with stakeholders across design, marketing, and product, we embedded the new brand into the design system and digital experience.

Outcome: The brand refresh led to a 135% increase in annual engagement and raised our BlueOcean score to 185 (“Best in Class”). The new identity resonated with 95% of stakeholders and was embraced across product, sales, and marketing—positioning Neo4j as the clear leader in a growing competitive landscape.

Entire Brand Architecture including Brand

Entire brand architecture, including brand identity, products, and events.

Hero Variant 1

Neo4j website homepage showcasing the "Fastest Path to Graph" platform for developers and data scientists, featuring options to start free for each group, and a book offer on knowledge graphs.

Hero Variant 2

Neo4j website overview highlighting a graph data platform with performance metrics and success stories from Allianz, NASA, Meredith, and others. It includes buttons for free access for developers and data scientists.
  • Promotional graphic for Neo4j Graph Data Science with white and yellow circles on a blue background.

    Social: Graph Data Science

  • Animated blue room with empty shelves filling with databases and graphs, Neo4j logo at top left.

    Social: Under the Hood - Explainer

  • Pandora Papers graphic with Neo4j and ICIJ logos, globe illustration, and text.

    Social: ICIJ - Panama Papers

  • Promotional image for a keynote by Neo4j at GraphConnect with the text "Helping the World Make Sense of Data," scheduled for June 7, 2022, at 9 AM CT, on a blue background with circular and line elements.

    Social: GraphConnect

  • Mars rover on desert-like terrain with film festival laurels, showcasing a short film by Richard Koscher and Riccardo Vecchio, official selections at Austrian Filmfestival 2022 and Portland Film Festival 2022. Music by Rakel Sigurðardóttir.

    Social: Graph Your Story

Dashboard showing comparison of two companies' performance scores, "Neo4j" and "Snowflake." Neo4j is rated 123 (Good) and Snowflake 130 (Great) with line graphs depicting their respective scores over time. Score categories range from Poor (<49) to Best in Class (150+). Below, "Top Drivers" sections highlight metrics related to customer promotion and engagement, with scores and graphical representations of trends.

Our social media efforts delivered outstanding results, driving a 135% annual increase in engagement and significantly boosting our brand presence. We achieved a remarkable jump in our BlueOcean social score—from 123 to 185—earning a coveted “Best in Class” status. Additionally, our content resonated more than ever, with shares rising by 45% year over year. These metrics reflect the strength of our strategy, the power of compelling creative, and a deep understanding of our audience.

Nighttime view of a brightly lit street with a large digital billboard displaying an advertisement for "neo4j" aimed at data scientists and analysts. In the background is a building with "Treasure Island" signage and a CVS store is visible on the street level.

Leading the Neo4j brand refresh during the height of COVID meant building and managing a fully remote, globally distributed team. With limited in-office collaboration, I coordinated across time zones—from U.S. stakeholders to offshore creatives in Europe and Asia. I implemented structured workflows and clear communication channels, ensuring alignment despite the distance. This approach fostered a tight-knit, highly efficient creative team that delivered a unified, modern brand presence—proving that strong leadership transcends location and circumstance.

Smiling man with glasses and short hair

Emil Eifrem, CEO & Founder, Neo4j

“I am so proud of the new logo. Whenever I see it, whether in print or on the building, it stands out compared to where we were before. I am so happy with it. Richard was deeply involved, putting in a huge amount of work, and we did it at just the right moment, right before the fundraising.”