Brand & Content Offsite, October 2025

OST Session on Scaling Design

• Teaching the brand
• Maintaining consistency
• While also maintaining creative evolution

1. Teaching and transmitting the brand

CHALLENGE: How do we teach new hires?

(especially designers and illustrators) what is “PostHog design”?

CURRENT STATE:

• Brand fragmentation across website, app, and marketing materials.
• Multiple visual elements in play (crests, hedgehogs, pixel art).
• No shared documentation defining the PostHog design persona.

NEED:

• Define 3–5 immovable brand elements that describe PostHog’s design identity.
• Document consistent design rules (stroke widths, proportions, etc.).
• Clarify how new designers learn and apply these principles.

2. Brand Consistency and Creative Evolution

DISCUSSION 1: the Website as Source of Truth:

Cory: The website should anchor brand consistency.

Lottie & Joe: That’s too limiting — other functions (like merch or marketing) need creative freedom.

Cory: Agrees, as long as new materials still align with overall brand direction.

DISCUSSION 2: Design Flexibility:

• The brand should not become a fixed “design system.”
• Desire to balance creativity with cohesion.
• James has expressed interest in the past for “opinionated/punchy” artwork.

DISCUSSION 3: Design Crits

PURPOSE:

• Not an approval process — a forum for feedback, learning, and alignment.
• Helps centralize design decisions and prevent drift.
• Supports cross-discipline awareness (web, merch, illustration, ads).

FORMAT PROPOSAL:

• Weekly 1-hour session:
• 75% on active design work.
• 25% on company-wide design output review.
• Record and summarize each session (Granola).
• Make recordings/report public for broader design education.

COMMUNICATION GUIDELINES:

• Feedback should be specific and actionable.
• Example: Don’t say “it doesn’t feel right.”
• Suggest concrete improvements or alternatives.

DISTINGUISH BETWEEN:

• Feedback vs blockers (discussion vs halting work).
• Emergencies vs improvements (urgent vs iterative feedback).

DECISIONS FROM DISCUSSIONS:

• Add weekly design crit sessions to the company agenda immediately (“make it perfect later”).

• Design team will run a live design crit session this week while the team is co-located.

• Daniel requires consistent design direction — “vibes” feedback is not actionable.

• Record and summarize crits for transparency and reference.

3. Quality Control & Post-Mortems

• Some external creative output has been below standard (“embarrassing” quality).
• Establish a 70% minimum quality threshold; below that, trigger a post-mortem, not pre-approval.
  -Crits will help raise baseline consistency and provide a mechanism for course correction.

4. Next Steps

• Schedule a brand definition session this week to document key visual tenets.
• Review and document core brand elements via the website and Figma.
• Launch weekly design crits with public recordings.
• Build a lightweight design feedback guide for all contributors.
• Begin drafting brand onboarding materials for new designers.