Fountain is a San Francisco-based hiring platform focused on high-volume recruitment of hourly and frontline workers. The company was founded in 2014 and originally operated under the name OnboardIQ before rebranding to Fountain in 2017.[1][2]
Design and History
Fountain began life as OnboardIQ, a name that reflected its initial focus on onboarding new hourly hires. Co-founder Jeremy Cai later explained that the company outgrew the name as customers began using the platform across the entire hiring stack, from sourcing candidates to screening and ongoing workforce management.[1] The rebrand to Fountain was announced in September 2017, shortly after the company raised a $9.1 million Series A round led by Origin Ventures.[2]
In June 2022, Fountain unveiled a significant rebrand alongside the announcement of a $100 million Series C extension. The company described the refresh as featuring a new logo and expanded color palette, created to support its international expansion and differentiate it in the HR technology market.[3]
The 2022 visual identity was developed by the Atlanta-based branding agency Matchstic. The agency partnered with Fountain to reposition the brand as a leader in enterprise-level hiring technology for hourly workers, introducing what it described as a kinetic visual identity with dynamic gradients and a refreshed color palette.[4][5]
Meaning and Symbolism
Matchstic described the kinetic gradients in the new identity as illustrating the overflowing sea of candidates Fountain provides, giving the brand a sense of depth and movement through color.[4] The agency also noted that introducing purple into the palette allowed Fountain to own a more distinct color in the market while maintaining the equity it had built in its original blue.[4]
The rebrand came during a labor shortage sparked by the pandemic, a period when employers were struggling to fill positions and hourly workers felt undervalued. Matchstic developed both a new visual and verbal identity for Fountain, centered on the message of helping clients “Outpace Hourly.”[4]
Typography and Design
Fountain’s official newsroom states that the company logo is available in two colors: blue for lighter backgrounds and white for dark backgrounds. The guidelines note that the logo should not be altered in any way.[6]
Beyond the logo itself, the 2022 rebrand extended across Fountain’s digital presence. Matchstic partnered with the digital agency Whiteboard to overhaul the Fountain website, designing a branded user interface that incorporated photography of hourly workers to bring a sense of humanity to the platform.[4]
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