Our Engagement

As the company rapidly scaled, entered new markets, and prepared for its IPO, Markforged engaged IfThen to evolve its brand identity for a broader global audience. The goal was to elevate the brand from a smart, engineering-led startup to one with iconic presence — without losing the grit, precision, and innovation that defined its early success.

The Approach

Our partnership began with a complete immersion into Markforged’s origin story, product platform, and engineering culture. We surfaced the tension between their bold technological vision and the understated, utilitarian tone of their existing brand. From there, we crafted a strategy and identity system expansion that honored the sophistication of their platform while making the Markforged experience more confident and cohesive.

Expansion of the visual identity unfolded over a three-year engagement marked by continuous testing and refinement. Rather than a static redesign, the system evolved in real time—adapting to the needs of product launches, technical documentation, global campaigns, and high-impact brand moments, including Markforged’s public IPO listing. This flexible, iterative process allowed the identity to prove itself across a wide spectrum of communication scenarios while maintaining cohesion and clarity at every touchpoint.

The redesigned website positions Markforged as a category leader and end-to-end solution provider — bringing cohesion across product storytelling, customer use cases, and application-specific content. The site is built to perform across global markets, driving clarity for engineers while elevating the brand for investors, media, and partners. Interactions and micro-animations signal high-tech precision, while bold product photography and manufacturing imagery root the brand in the physical world.

The resulting image library gives Markforged the ability to speak with visual clarity across every touchpoint — from investor decks to product pages. Designed to be modular and adaptable, the photography system balances sharp detail with atmospheric realism, ensuring the brand feels both advanced and grounded. Across contexts, the imagery reinforces the physicality, performance, and confidence of the Markforged platform.

The renewed modular packaging system that brought clarity, care, and cohesion to a wide range of products. A flexible color-labeling structure enabled quick, scannable identification across materials and components, supporting both operational ease and brand clarity. The packaging system was also designed to work in sync with broader brand storytelling — coordinated with product launches, web content, and social media to deliver a seamless, end-to-end experience that connected the physical and digital expression of the brand.

Markforged’s most powerful printer to date, the FX20, deserved a launch that matched its ambition. We created the full go-to-market creative — including messaging, visual language, film direction, and launch materials. A cinematic product teaser, bold product imagery, and launch-day digital activations helped position the FX20 as the future of industrial 3D printing.

Boston Awareness Campaign
To build regional brand awareness and recruit top engineering talent, we created a Boston-focused campaign celebrating Markforged’s roots and relevance. The campaign featured imaginative future scenarios made possible through Markforged technology, pairing street-level placements with digital activations to introduce Markforged to a broader audience beyond the factory floor.

Markforged IPO Day
For the company’s historic IPO on the NYSE, we developed a celebratory brand system that wrapped Times Square and Wall Street in the Markforged visual system. From the opening bell to internal communications, we helped bring the IPO to life with cohesion, energy, and brand presence.