Founded initially as Hirefreehands, they focused on connecting global companies with African remote talent. However, Propel soon realized the limits of this model. This led to an audacious pivot to build a support ecosystem for communities and their members. Through strengthening communities, they are reimagining a future where work is genuinely borderless and everyone has equal access to global opportunities.
Propel needed to stand out in a highly competitive market dominated by giants like Indeed, Deel, and Toptal. While most of its competitors have a core focus on talent matching, Propel is taking a different approach by nurturing the entire ecosystem that produces talent. They needed a strategy that correctly encapsulated this unique positioning.
Over the coming weeks, we had discovery sessions with the Propel team. To transform their business, we needed to walk in their shoes and understand their business needs.
First, A Great Name For Take-off
The Hirefreehands name no longer reflected Propel's identity. Considering their new mission, defining their audience, and testing different iterations, the name ‘Propel’ was unearthed.
Propel /prəˈpel/. Take-off, Elevate, Push Limits, Unending Possibilities.
Stepping on Stacked Bricks to Access Opportunity
With community at the center, we made the Propel logomark to reflect their goals. We created an abstract illustration of “Stacked Bricks” which literally implies building and metaphorically represents the Propel brand promise to be the reliable bridge between communities, their talent, and the best global opportunities.
In The Propelverse Lies The Key
We overhauled the previous visual identity and created an entire universe to perfectly capture the new visual system defined for Propel. This ranged from colours to typography, brand patterns, illustrations, iconography, and imagery direction.
We intentionally created bold, authentic, future-centric, and exploratory brand elements, which are the core attributes of Propel’s personality. We carefully merged this personality with a tone and voice that resonates with their target audience - people and companies seeking growth.
What We Did
Naming | Verbal Identity | Visual Identity | Brand Strategy | Communications Design | Website Design | Web Development
The Results
Since the rebrand, Propel has gone on to expand its reach and currently partners with over:
- 100 talent communities across the continent currently serving over 500,000 members.
- While also onboarding over 20 new clients, most notably Mercedes Benz, Porsche, Farfetch and Defined.Ai.
- Propel was also selected to be a part of the Black Founders Fund by Google for Startups EU.
- Raised $2.75 million in seed-round funding, with No Such Ventures, a Dutch venture capital firm, leading the round
