Is there a better way of working? According to Streamtime, project management has never been so good. But its identity and website needed an overhaul. We caught up with NB Studio to discover more about its refresh for the app.
We’re facing yet another challenging time. The creative industries are once again fighting tight budgets, ghosting clients, and unsettling quiet periods. Despite these difficulties, we’ve never been as organised as we are now, thanks to project management software, Streamtime.
This isn’t your average solution to managing our day-to-day workload, though. It’s been rethinking timesheets since 2002. Would you believe it? They’ve turned the old way of doing things into intuitive to-do lists and holistic features that actually support how creatives work.
But its new internal strategy, ‘Productive Wellbeing’ – which, to you and I, means “feeling good while doing great work” – called for a shift in how Streamline presents itself. Cue the need for a brand overhaul. And enter NB Studio.
It was Streamline’s CEO, Andy Wright, who approached the London agency about the project, bringing with him a refreshing social contract that set the tone for their collaboration. It included commitments like never using work they hadn’t paid for, respecting NB’s time by only contacting them during reasonable hours, and acknowledging their expertise in branding and creativity. How’s that for mirroring what they promise via the app? But honestly, shouldn’t that be the case with every partnership?
One could say that Streamline differs from its competitors. In that, it approaches productivity and wellbeing like no one else: at its core rather than a “nice-to-have”. But here’s the interesting thing: this whole ‘Productive Wellbeing’ was never about perfection. It’s about the real, messy tension between head and heart. The daily balancing act of creative work and the commercial realities of running a business. That’s something we can relate to.
So, how do you translate this noble sentiment to its new brand? Inspired by empathy for the creative community, NB Studio’s guiding idea, ‘Business Balance for Creative Chaos’, was the spark behind Streamtime’s digital transformation across multiple touchpoints.
The new identity system is centred around a dynamic set of abstract shapes based on the product’s current interface, but now more joyful, tactile, and slightly off-kilter. Influenced by the Kiki/Bouba effect, the forms mirror the emotional highs and lows of the messy creative process. There are seven core shapes, nodding to the days of the week.
“Our core shapes transform into expressive icons that capture a wide range of human emotion, explains NB. “These shape-based emojis reflect our different moods throughout the day with a sense of humour.”
Typography, meanwhile, is expressive by combining structure with personality. Layouts intentionally break grid rules by stacking paragraphs as if they could topple over. “We reject Newton’s laws of motion and replace them with our own rules of imperfect balance,” NB explains. “Never still and always doing the opposite.”
Then there are micro-interactions – subtle yet full of personality – that breathe life into the brand identity and reinforce the core idea throughout the website design. Working in collaboration with Webflow designer Koysor Abdul, hover, buttons, emo-shapes, and cards respond with playful tilts and wobbles, signalling “interactivity”. These movements are layered with stacking and falling effects, adding depth and energy to the whole experience.
A collage style throughout reimagines familiar stock photography with a gritty, photocopied texture. “Stripped of polish and perfection, these images reflect the raw, imperfect nature of creative work,” NB continues. “We embrace everyday office tropes, file drawers, notebooks, trophies and give them new meaning through bold, colourful shape overlays.”
Despite working across opposite hemispheres, Streamtime and NB Studio both wanted to rethink the typical agency and client dynamic. ‘Nothing to hide, everything to share’ became their guiding mantra for the entire project. “Sharing rough ideas early, capturing raw internal discussions in our regular meeting recordings, and prioritising openness over TA-DA perfection,” NB concludes. “That approach gave both sides space to challenge, experiment, and arrive at something more genuine.”
“When NB Studio pitched this concept, we were all in,” says Sarah Nguyen from Streamtime “You’ll see this idea in the shapes, the falling, the tilting and teetering and not-so-perfect movements… even in the quirky hover state for the buttons. My personal favourite little detail in this website execution!”
