SYLVAIN on preserving Etsy’s equity while evolving its identity

The Brand Identity: For most of its 20-year existence, Etsy occupied a specific place in people’s online habits – the site you went to when you wanted something handmade, vintage or slightly unusual. But by the time SYLVAIN was brought in, that position had narrowed. Research revealed that shoppers were arriving with a specific purchase already in mind, browsing less and discovering less. The platform that had once thrived as a destination for open-ended exploration was being used like any other online shop. The issue wasn’t that Etsy had lost customers – it was that the broader landscape had shifted around it.

“There was a ubiquitousness around tailored online shopping and a lack of curiosity across the landscape overall,” explains Courtney Perets, Lead Designer at SYLVAIN. The New York-based strategy and design company was tasked with rebuilding the brand’s visual and verbal language from the ground up, all while preserving the recognition that two decades of community had earned.

The project also involved sister agency Upstatement, who worked alongside SYLVAIN to integrate the new system directly into Etsy’s digital product experience. The strategic response crystallised around a phrase that would anchor every design decision: A starting point for special. The idea positioned Etsy not as a marketplace full of products but as a gateway – a place where both shoppers and sellers could begin something.

SYLVAIN wanted to capture the vastness and diversity of Etsy’s community through something they called ‘The Universe of Special,’ a framework that tied the brand’s energy back to human curiosity and the specific, personal quality of what its sellers create. That framework found its physical expression in a simple shape: the square. “It was one of those fortuitous moments where strategy and design collided at just the right time,” recalls Daniel Edmundson, Partner of Design at SYLVAIN. “Strategically, we knew that Etsy needed to represent a starting point.

Shoppers and sellers had both become overwhelmed with the online experience and needed an inspirational gateway.” The creative team, meanwhile, had been exploring ways to contain Etsy’s vast world within a single, ownable graphic element. The square answered both needs at once – it functioned as a ‘square one,’ a place to begin, and as a container for everything the brand encompasses. In a digital landscape obsessed with rounded corners, SYLVAIN saw an opportunity to own the most elemental geometric form and find new expressions within it. Inside that square sits a bespoke wordmark, evolved from Etsy’s existing logotype.

The identity system is rooted in Otto, a serif typeface. “We chose it for the warmth and approachability in its short cap height and soft curves,” Perets explains. “To us, it embodies the language of craft and making, helping bring humanity to a technological space.” The wordmark received careful optical refinement.

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The article discusses a significant rebranding effort of Etsy, a well-known brand, which is highly relevant to brand strategy professionals looking to balance brand equity with innovation.