Announcing Startpage’s refreshed brand

Startpage’s brand refresh brings a new logo and look to your homepage.

Privacy is finally going mainstream, and Startpage is helping to lead the charge.

Startpage was founded in 2006 as the first and most private search engine. From day one, our mission has been to protect people’s right to privacy and raise awareness on the importance of data privacy. Over the years, Startpage has continued to evolve as a company and product, as global and technological developments have brought privacy topics into the mainstream conversation.

Today we are happy to announce another milestone for Startpage: Our refreshed logo and new brand identity, which reflect the growing awakening of people’s right to privacy and the straightforward way to control their personal data by searching in private. 

Startpage’s updated branding represents the product enhancements we’ve made over the last few years, and the direction Startpage is speeding towards. Our goal of the brand refresh is to:

• Present a distinct, digital-first image of Startpage.
• Create instant recognition of our core offering – private search.
• Remind people worldwide to protect their privacy and “Start your search with Startpage.”

After months of hard work from our team working across multiple countries and timezones, as well as the time and help we received from our loyal Startpage Insiders focus group and the global Startpage community, we could not be happier with the result!

“We aimed to create a feeling and experience that reflects the calmness and confidence people have while searching on Startpage,” said Kelly Finnerty, Director of Brand and Content. Regarding the brand refresh, she states “New look, same privacy and as always the best search results.”

Please read on to see our new look and the full story!

What’s changed and what hasn’t

Changed:

• Logo: The refreshed logo has an updated swoosh underlining “Start” to reinforce “Start your search with Startpage to protect your privacy.” The new typeface created by Dutch designer Jeroen van Eerden is digital-first with distinct disappearing t’s to represent how Startpage anonymizes search online. 
• Icon: The new icon instantly depicts our core offering of private search while incorporating our brand colors and swoosh.
• Illustration and photography style: The evolved illustration involves a more elegantly hand-drawn style and a new pixelation theme across all visuals to express how anonymous a person is when searching on Startpage. Mary Evans Startpage’s lead Designer says, “We decided to play with pixels as a design element to represent anonymity while using Startpage. We carry them throughout our new illustrations used throughout our new site design and into treatments in photography that we will be using on our blog and across social media. Our new style across the board maintains a similar vibe to the old, but with a cleaner, refreshed approach.”

Hasn’t changed:

• Brand colors: The Startpage brand blue (#6563ff) is energetic and optimistic with the intention to juxtapose our blue against the primary blues that many Big Tech data offenders have used over the years.
  Furthermore, our private search engine creates a peaceful experience where everyone can rest assured that no one is watching or recording their thoughts. So the complementary colors of Whisper (white) and Midnight (almost black, blue) help create a relaxing atmosphere for people searching online.
• Privacy policy: We were the world’s first-ever private search engine. Since 2006 we have never saved or sold people’s personal data and are proud to say that fact will never change. Our privacy policy has remained untouched as well as our privacy processes. 

Making it official

You’ll see our newly refreshed branding go live across all versions of our product (web and mobile) in all available themes over the next weeks. We’ve also updated all of our online profiles and social media accounts, so please come find us and connect! We’d love to hear your feedback on our new design.

If you’d like to celebrate our new look with some Startpage swag, please email PrivacyPlease@startpage.com and request a branded webcam cover, sticker or BOTH. Just note what you’d like in your message and where we can mail it to. (At this time, we can only ship to people in the Netherlands, Germany and the United States.)