SQLI

Founded in 1990, SQLI is a European Customer Experience and Digital Transformation Services Group. With over 2000 employees across 12 countries, SQLI works with large and mid-sized enterprises, delivering their digital foundations, solving business problems, simplifying operations, and shaping customer experiences. In 2024 SQLI launched a rebranding initiative that brought together design teams from Germany, UK, Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden and Switzerland to tackle existing problems with legacy brand and develop more future-proof solution.

CDLX was part of SQLI between 2018 and 2025 and was after an internal design competition our team was selected to lead the Creative Development of the new SQLI brand. 

Previous SQLI Digital Experience Brand was launched in 2019 after a series of acquisitions of software companies all over Europe. It was visually striking with bold Futura logo and titles but also dated pretty quickly. The X symbol that was a legacy mark from even earlier brand iteration hadn't much to do with this refreshed brand look so eventually it was treated as a decorative element one can put here and there.

The main objective in the development of the new SQLI Brand was to define its personality and reflect it in the brand elements. Based on the Precis workshopped across teams, two key ingredients were identified that defined the direction we took: SQLI is equally Technology & Human Expertise.

The new logo itself is informed by this components. We decided to for a bold move to switch to lower case sqli to bring it closer to the handwriting. Then the letterforms reflect it too. Increased contrast in the “s” and “q” gives more organic, human touch, while the straightforward, geometric “l” and “i” point up, point towards building and growth.

The main logotype is short, slick and clean. But placing it in every visual output is too much. Although we didn't want to have a signet beside the logo, we felt that the brand would benefit of an additional recognizable visual element. The stems from “q” and “l” positioned side by side give natural upward direction which corresponds perfectly with the Elevate. Digitally, the new claim developed by the strategic communications team. We decided that the claim would always have the Ascenders by it, but the Ascenders can also work as an SQLI symbol on their own, referencing both the logo and the meaning behind the new tagline.

As you would expect from a B2B company, SQLI's real marketing is mostly invisible to individuals but it still needs a digital presence to build a strong image and recruit new talent. In such a diverse and distributed corporation, different teams have different communication needs. We have built a comprehensive and versatile social media component library to tackle those needs and developed set of rules for the cases we could not predict. Later, we also designed new merch, including bags, clothing, papeterie etc. where Ascenders played the main role – quiet but present. 

Another part of the project as important as external marketing was new approach to internal communications. We redesigned internal newsletters sent by different teams (cyber security, marketing, sales etc.) within specific countries but also across the whole SQLI group, so they speak with one voice and visual coherence, allowing for local differences. Another challenge was SharePoint based Intranet – we created a stylesheet that brought the system to the new look and consulted on the Information Architecture. 

We also developed new presentation templates and designed a new visual representation of the company's complex offering. Additionally, we designed templates for various documents, such as financial reports (including data visualisation system), resolutions, minutes etc. 

In the process of the brand development we proposed multiple ideas for the Brand's Key Visual (in the end we decided to not implement it in the final Brand Guidelines). Concept behind Fabrics of Elevation was based on the idea of multiple strands connecting, morphing, transitioning. One interpretation was about various SQLI teams and their competencies coming together from different countries to work on a project. The other was more business/technological, with strings reflecting tech stacks that adapt to client's circumstances and environment.