HR Tech Brand Identity UK
UCVME is a UK-based HR technology startup built around a genuinely useful idea: that the traditional CV is no longer enough. In a competitive job market where employers receive hundreds of applications for every role, and job seekers have limited ways to differentiate themselves beyond a document, UCVME built a platform that adds dimension, video profiles, expertly written content, psychometric testing, a ratings and review system, and a job search and application engine, all in one place. Mike Rock Studio built the complete brand: identity, custom typeface, iconography, and guidelines for a startup that needed to communicate credibility, confidence, and the energy of a platform that changes how hiring works.
The Challenge:
The HR technology market in the UK is mature and crowded. LinkedIn, Indeed, and a proliferation of specialist platforms have established visual conventions that most new entrants follow without questioning — professional blues, clean sans-serifs, the visual language of corporate trustworthiness applied uniformly across the sector. For a startup with a genuinely differentiated product proposition, following those conventions was a form of invisibility.
UCVME's dual audience added complexity. Job seekers, individuals navigating a competitive market, often anxious about the process, looking for something that gives them a genuine edge needed a brand that felt empowering, energetic, and on their side. Employers, HR professionals and hiring managers evaluating a new platform needed a brand that communicated reliability, sophistication, and the professional credibility of a serious technology product. Both audiences, one brand, two completely different emotional registers.
The name itself, UCVME, "you see me" was the most important creative asset. It contained the entire platform proposition in four letters: visibility, recognition, the desire to be seen as more than a document. The brand needed to build on that name with the same clarity and confidence.
The Approach
The "you see me" reading of UCVME gave the creative direction its foundation. This is a platform built on the conviction that every candidate is more than their CV that there is a person behind the document who deserves to be seen, evaluated, and given a fair opportunity. That conviction is also a commercial proposition: employers who can see more of a candidate make better hiring decisions. The brand needed to carry both readings, the human and the commercial simultaneously.
The custom typeface was the most significant typographic decision of the project. A bespoke letterform system designed specifically for UCVME gives the platform a typographic voice that is entirely its own — distinct from the generic sans-serifs of the HR tech sector, and built on the same visual intelligence as the iconography system. In a category where most brands use the same small set of typefaces, a custom font is an immediate signal of creative investment and brand seriousness.
The iconography system was developed to serve the platform's feature range - video profile, written CV, psychometric testing, the Vault, ratings and reviews, job search each element represented with a visual coherence that communicates the platform as a complete, considered system rather than a collection of disparate features.
The Work:
Brand Identity:
A complete visual identity for UCVME: logomark, colour system, and the visual language of a UK HR technology startup built on the conviction that candidates deserve to be seen as more than a document. Energetic, credible, and entirely distinct from the visual conventions of the sector.
Custom Typeface:
A bespoke typeface designed exclusively for UCVME — giving the platform a typographic voice that belongs to it alone, built on the same geometric and expressive logic as the wider identity system.
Iconography:
A cohesive iconography system covering the full range of UCVME's platform features, video profile, written CV, psychometric testing, the Vault, ratings and reviews, and job search each icon precise, consistent, and part of a complete visual language.
Brand Guidelines:
A comprehensive guidelines document covering every application of the UCVME identity across digital, marketing, and product contexts ensuring consistency as the platform grows across the UK market and beyond.
The Outcome:
UCVME launched with a brand identity that communicates the energy, confidence, and genuine differentiation of its platform proposition. The custom typeface and iconography system give the brand a visual presence that is immediately distinctive in a sector that has standardised its own aesthetic. A UK HR tech startup with a brand built to be seen which is, after all, the entire point.
\#GetAheadWithUCVME.
Project Details:
Services: Brand Identity · Custom Typeface · Iconography · Brand Guidelines
Industry: HR Technology · Recruitment · SaaS
Location: United Kingdom
Market: UK Job Seekers · UK Employers · HR Technology
