CASE STUDY: LINEATE
When a big, well-known brand steals your company’s name
After a decade of success, Ben Engber’s company hit a rather unusual snag: A newer, bigger, consumer-facing brand was using the same name. Thumbtack—the online service that matches customers with local professionals—wasn’t competing with Ben’s custom software development company, Thumbtack Technology. But the name was starting to cause problems.
Thumbtack Technology website prior to rebranding
Ben and his team decided to the best solution was to rename Thumbtack Technology. Heirloom explored over 1,000 name ideas that conveyed ideas like extracting answers, connecting dots, and simplifying. The new name is “Lineate,” suggesting delineating—outlining and clarifying (also a real word meaning “marked with lines”). Based on the new name and the company’s strategy, we then created a full visual identity system, including logo, typography, color palette, iconography, and imagery style.
In a blog post announcing the name, Ben wrote “We feel that Lineate is both more descriptive and more distinctive.” Elizabeth Gallagher, CRO of Lineate, wrote “Thanks for the wonderful work. … I am so over the moon and happy with what you’ve provided. … We are all very happy with our new brand and … get a great response from customers old and new on the name and ID work you did for us.”
NAMING AND VISUAL IDENTITY DESIGN: HEIRLOOM