The idea of Inbox Monster came together from a group of some people I’ve known for over a decade. They wanted to create a new kind of tool in the email space—something that covers everything from before you hit send to reporting at the very end.

It’s truly a “monster” tool built to help you get the best results from your email programs. Most of our clients are enterprise brands—think major airlines and retailers—sending millions of emails daily. Getting it right matters, and our platform makes sure they can.

The brand’s origin was always about being epic and unique, with a tool designed to help people do better email. The first “monster” was purple, and over time it evolved from a single character into multiple monsters—each representing a unique expression in our growing repertoire.

In the beginning, we were working with a pretty generic font—something you’d see everywhere in tech branding. It’s like buying a new car and then realizing every other car on the road looks the same.

The font worked for tech, but it wasn’t unique. Our illustration style had personality, but we weren’t truly putting the product front and center in a way that stood out. We had great elements, but the platform itself is constantly evolving, and the brand wasn’t keeping pace with that evolution.

After a couple of years of patching things together, I knew it was time to dig deeper. I made the case: “I want to tackle this branding and create something that truly reflects how amazing this product is.”

That’s when the rebrand became a priority.

Handling someone’s email program—millions of emails—means we deal with a very serious, sometimes even legally sensitive part of their business. Clients need to trust us.

At the same time, email can be intimidating, which is why we leaned into three core brand traits: Expert, Fun, and Epic.

In the rebrand, we explored what happens when you “dial up” each of these traits. Push fun too high, and you risk losing authority. Push the expert too high, and it feels cold. We experimented visually, adjusted the balance, and ultimately landed on a mix where the expert stays strong, fun is dialed up enough to be engaging, and epic brings scale and energy.

Monstie has always been part of our logo, and we wanted to keep that continuity because it’s a recognizable piece of our brand. That recognition was important to keep, but having Monstie stuck inside an envelope was limiting.

For the rebrand, we gave Monstie more freedom—and more personalities. We introduced different expressions, colors, and even an entire “army” of Monsties to showcase the range of emotions and creativity our brand embodies. It’s a way of showing our community more of who we are.

We also expanded our color palette to give Monstie a range of vibrant looks that work beautifully with our new animation style. Every variation brings a different tone—while still staying true to the brand.

Of course, you can build a whole backstory around them. Sending emails can be scary, but everyone has an “inbox monster” inside that’s ready to come out. We’re here to help unleash it—giving people the tools, data, and insights to do it right.

I’ve worked with custom typefaces before, and I think of them as a silent ambassador for the brand. People don’t always realize it, but it makes a huge impact.

In our case, the old typeface felt generic—it was everywhere. Once we pulled together the rest of the visual elements—photography, colors, the mascot, patterns—we realized something was missing. A custom typeface could tie it all together.

We explored historical typefaces for inspiration, then added subtle monster elements: the smile line in Monstie’s eye, the horns in our character matching the horn lines in the type. We even tried bolder ideas—like an eyeball detail—but it felt too cheesy. We came back to something more understated: a chunky, playful typeface that still carried the brand’s personality.

Alongside the typeface, we also introduced new textures and patterns that work with the Monster Mark. This gave our design system far more flexibility—especially for creating branded assets—compared to the more limited set we had before.

Choosing an agency is always tough—especially coming from an agency background myself, I know the challenges. I follow a writer who had worked with Verve on Miro’s branding, and I loved the result. That made me want to find an agency that specializes in B2B SaaS, especially for growing brands.

I researched, reviewed Miro’s case study, spoke to other agencies, and ultimately decided Verve was the right fit. The biggest challenge with any branding agency is making sure the work translates into something practical you can actually use. Verve nailed it—they brought style and wit but kept everything usable in the real world.

We kicked off with them in November, finalized the brand by the end of January, and presented it to the whole Inbox Monster team in person. From there, we spent the next five months translating the brand across all our properties—building the website, creating branded assets, and finalizing the custom font.

Despite the time zone differences, collaboration was seamless. It truly felt like one team working together, and by June, the new brand was ready to launch.

The rebrand gives us such a fun foundation to expand our content strategy and strengthen our voice in the community. That’s the next focus—using all this personality and character we’ve built to create helpful, engaging content that invites the community to participate.

As for the promise? It’s simple: epic emails, every time. That’s the idea we rally around, and that’s what we want to be known for in five years.

For me, it was creating the brand story video. We managed to capture the entire story in one short piece, and then we launched it alongside the website.

Seeing everything come together in that 30-second video—after months of work—felt big, emotional, and incredibly rewarding.