Brand Standards

Digitizing CubeSmart’s Brand Identity

Client: CubeSmart, LLC
Role: Sole UX/UI Designer
Tools: Figma, Standards.com
Timeline: 2025

Problem

CubeSmart needed a more efficient way to share its brand standards with both internal teams and external partners. The existing method—a static, 54-page PDF—was cumbersome, difficult to navigate, and prone to versioning confusion and misplacement. This outdated process created a significant obstacle to maintaining a consistent brand identity across all platforms.

The Solution

The solution was to transform this dense, manual document into a dynamic, accessible, and intuitive online resource. Oh, the timeline? I had two months from creation to launch to meet a National Meeting deadline.

The Results

The digital brand guidelines shifted CubeSmart from a reactive, high-touch support model to a seamless, self-service ecosystem. Within one year, the new platform successfully protected the brand's integrity while drastically cutting down operational friction.

Research - Company insights

What Matters in 54 Pages

Stakeholder Interviews

Since the brand effects all areas of the organization, I began by conducting stakeholder interviews across a variety of departments to identify the most critical information within the existing PDF.

I asked open-ended questions like "What is useful," "What is useless," and "What is missing". This helped inform what information most important to the end user and how they need to access it.

Font & colors

Be clear on what fonts to use in differing situations (printed materials vs. website vs. Microsoft Word). Define the primary color palette, as well as secondary/tertiary for situations requiring extended color use.

Tone & Lingo

When it comes to verbally or behaviorally representing the brand, content should be friendly to new hires, and be clear on what is/isn’t acceptable.

Do's & Dont's

Include what to avoid as far as logo treatments, messaging, and visuals.

Resource Guide

There should be links to branded documents and training materials for teammates to use.

Things To Remove

Reference to specific designs for printed materials, templates, etc. is not useful and should be omitted.

Brand Guideline & Standard Research

To benchmark best practices, I researched digital brand guidelines from a diverse range of companies, including competitors like ExtraSpace and unrelated brands such as SeatGeek, DevRev, and Starbucks.

This research provided valuable insights into effective navigation, interactive elements for showing color variants, and innovative ways to communicate brand voice and visual style.

Key Elements to include in the design:

Simple Navigation
Visuals to accompany text when appropriate
"Last Updated" status
Links to assets & documents
Password protect sensitive information.

SeatGeek

SeatGeek has a very simplistic left side navigation as well as a click to copy hex codes.

Starbucks

Starbucks leans into simplicity, with easy to understand visuals through interaction.

Ideation - Information architecture & Personas

Building an Interactive Blueprint

Design Strategy

The core design principle became “show, don’t tell.” This approach allowed me to communicate complex guidelines with simple, impactful visuals, condensing pages of information into easily digestible interactive content.

Having users interact with the content requires active learning, which engages multiple senses and parts of the brain for better retention.

Persona

Since this digital experience is used by every department in some capacity, I focused on the commonalities of those who will be using this document the most.

Internal Desktop users with little to no branding experience.

Information Architecture

I focused on creating an intuitive information architecture that would guide users seamlessly through the brand elements. I started with the same structure as the PDF, but needed to add pages after undergoing user tests (details below).

Lo-Fi Wire Frames

After I began by defining the main user task and flow, then created the first set of low-fidelity wireframes to run preliminary tests with users.

User Testing - Validation & iterative design

Breaking the Prototype

To validate the design, I conducted moderated user tests with 11 internal teammates who are the typical primary users. I created a series of tasks where participants had to find specific information with minimal assistance. I carefully observed their navigation paths, tracked task completion times, and noted any points of frustration.

The user testing revealed critical areas for improvement.

Adjust IA

The "Icons" and "Stores" sections needed their own dedicated tabs to be more easily discoverable.

Easier Navigation

There was a need anchor links acting as page descriptors; helping with navigating pages with multiple sections.

HIFI Wireframes - Branding & The Final Baked Product

The Single Source of Truth

Branding

The branding used CubeSmart's colors and fonts, established in the brand standards. Since this is a digital medium, I did incorporate their web style kit for headings, paragraphs, and buttons.

Hi-Fidelity Prototype

This prototype was used as the blueprint to build the real brand standards using Standards.com. Some design elements needed to change due to the platform's limitations.

The Results - Impact and KPIs

A Self-Service Ecosystem

The Result

The launch of the digital brand guidelines transformed CubeSmart’s brand management from a reactive, high-touch support model into a self-service ecosystem. One year post-launch, the platform has achieved significant, measurable success across three main pillars.

Operational Efficiency

~64% Reduction in Brand Inquiries

Maintained consistently throughout the year, freeing up an estimated 15–20 hours per week for the core marketing team.

48% Faster Vendor Onboarding

Agencies and third-party partners moved from days of back-and-forth emails to instant, self-directed onboarding.

Platform Adoption & Engagement

72% Internal Adoption Rate

Active user data shows regular monthly visits from across all key departments, including Operations, HR (for new hire training), and Facilities.

82% Faster Time-on-Task

Teammates located specific assets, hex codes, or guidelines in under 45 seconds (down from a 4.5-minute average scrolling through the old PDF).

Zero Version-Control Incidents

Centralizing the platform completely eliminated the legacy issue of teams using outdated, localized PDF versions.