Author: admin

After writing about design for some decades now, it sometimes feels like I’ve seen it all. But here’s a rebrand that really made me go ‘Wow!’. So I was keen to chat to Nabiha Syed, executive director of Mozilla Foundation, about how it came into being.

First, though, what exactly is the Mozilla Foundation? Well, to get technical, it’s distinct from Mozilla the company, which operates the Firefox browser on a day-to-day basis. Mozilla Foundation, in turn, is the umbrella, non-profit organisation that exists to support and collectively lead the open-source Mozilla project overall.

Mozilla, the company, has to worry about keeping up with rivals like Chrome and making money. The Mozilla Foundation, however, gets to focus on longer-term questions like “How do we make sure big tech companies don’t control everything?” and “What would a more human internet look like?”

For two decades, most of this work has gone on behind the scenes. Now, though, the Mozilla Foundation has stepped into the spotlight, with a bold new brand identity that positions it as a distinct voice in the technology landscape.

Break from the norm

The rebrand, crafted in partnership with Natasha Jen at Pentagram, deliberately breaks from conventional tech aesthetics to champion what executive director Nabiha Syed calls “defiant optimism” about humanity’s relationship with technology.

This stemmed directly from Nabiha’s vision for the project. “I wanted something that evoked textiles,” she recalls. “A textile is many strands woven together, with patterns that vary across cultures and times. It’s both beautiful and functional, and resonates worldwide.”

But the textile concept goes deeper than mere visual inspiration. As Nabiha explains it: “Setting aside the corporate structure, which is eminently Googleable, we are the parent of the corporation. The lived reality is that while the corporation builds a browser for the market conditions of the time, the foundation has the joy of having a wider aperture on what the future should be.”

Her concept resonated immediately with Natasha Jen at Pentagram, who understood Nabiha’s desire to connect Mozilla’s 25-year heritage with something that felt both global and tactile. The resulting visual system is built around modular “building blocks” traced from the negative spaces within the logotype, creating what Nabiha describes as elements that can be “rewoven and still be recognisable”.

The approach deliberately rejected conventional technology motifs. “We collectively wanted to pull out of the default tech visual language,” explains Natasha. “Instead of pixels and gradients, we looked at textiles, colour, and systems of meaning that sit outside Western tech. That shift shaped everything. The identity started to feel less like a brand and more like something built, layered, global, and a little rough in a good way. Not sleek. Not polished. But open, expressive, and human.”

Family resemblance

Despite the dramatic visual departure from tech design norms, the new branding maintains clear connections to the broader Mozilla ecosystem. “We’re family members,” Nabiha explains. “Enough of a resemblance that you can see the relationship, but still our own personality, dreams, and aspirations.”

Shared typography serves as the primary link, with both entities using the same font but expressing it differently. “We’re united by the Mozilla Manifesto, which has guided us for 25 years. The font is the through-line: both the corporation and the foundation use it. But while the corporation’s expression is tech-focused—black, white, minimal—the foundation takes the same font and gives it a human angle. That linkage is there, but our expression puts humans front and centre.”

A human-centred approach

The rebrand reflects a fundamental shift in how the Mozilla Foundation positions itself in wider society. “At this moment in technological development, it’s most necessary to remind people: why are we doing any of this?” Nabiha points out. “It’s not for cool new tech or to see what a chatbot can say. It’s to uplift and serve humans.”

In this light, Nabiha wanted more than just a visual refresh. “So what would it look like to have a design identity—verbal and visual—that was about humans? That had hand-scribbled elements, was bright and colourful, and incorporated a kind of defiant optimism, a belief that there will be humans in the future and that tech can be great if we keep building it with care. We wanted that human-centric approach to be immediately apparent when you saw what we were about.”

The timing of this message feels particularly resonant, given all the AI-fuelled upheaval we’ve been experiencing lately. “I had the joy and luxury of thinking about who I wanted Mozilla to be in this new era, where conversations about what it means to be human are central to discussions about technology,” says Nabiha. “This felt like the right moment to connect human history—like innovations in textiles—to how we think about tech today. I’m not sure it would have resonated the same way 10 years ago, but now it feels right.”

Collaborative design process

The project unfolded over eight months, from Nabiha’s arrival in July 2024 through to launch. After recognising the need for a visual revamp by December, initial conversations with Pentagram began in January.

“What I loved about working with Pentagram was how much they helped me translate ideas into design language, which is not my forte,” recalls Nabiha. “I’d say ‘interwoven’ and they’d show me literal, conceptual, and other interpretations. They’d ask, ‘When you say colourful, what do you mean?’ and help refine that. That back-and-forth was as informative for our overall strategy as it was for the visual identity.”

The collaborative process proved intensive but rewarding. “The meatiest bit was refining the concept, especially since we were developing the organisation’s strategy at the same time. Once that was set, the rest fell into place fairly quickly.”

Despite the relatively tight timeline, Nabiha felt the process had room to breathe. “I came in last July, realised quickly we needed a visual revamp, and by December we were talking to Pentagram. We started in January and launched just recently. It wasn’t the luxury of endless time, but Pentagram found ways to make it feel spacious, even within the schedule.”

Living identity system

The new identity is designed to evolve continuously, reflecting Mozilla Foundation’s open-source heritage. Nabiha describes the visual system as feeling “alive—like textiles that can be rewoven and still be recognisable.” The modular building blocks can be reconfigured across different applications whilst maintaining coherence.

“Because we’re open source and iterative, there will be constant evolution,” Nabiha explains. “We’re launching a counterculture tech magazine later this year with its own identity rooted in ours. The heart of the joyful internet is constant iteration, and we designed this identity to feel alive, like textiles that can be rewoven and still be recognisable.”

This approach reflects Mozilla’s broader philosophy about technology development. As Nabiha puts it, “This is a fantastic base with plenty of room to play. We have great ingredients—we don’t need new ones.”

Advice for non-profits

So what advice does Nabiha have for other non-profits considering similar projects? “I’d say the opposite of the advice I got,” she smiles. “People told me: ‘Know what you want it to look like’. I’d say: know who you are. Know your soul and be able to convey it. Then trust your partners to understand it and bring it to life.”

It’s a philosophy, indeed, that underpins Mozilla Foundation’s entire approach—focusing first on clarifying mission and values before translating these into visual form.

The result is an identity that authentically represents the organisation’s commitment to building technology that serves humanity. And with its textile-inspired aesthetic and modular building blocks, the new branding suggests an organisation ready to weave together diverse voices in service of a more human internet.

As Nabiha puts it, the foundation can now “be seen clearly, on its own terms—with a voice, a design system, and a presence that reflects the scale and urgency of its mission.” After two decades in the background, Mozilla Foundation is finally ready for its close-up.