The Moment
Modern culture's obsession with individualism has come at a cost: a lost sense of community and a measurable hit to wellbeing. In the Netherlands alone, long-term absenteeism rose 27% in the five years after Covid and cost the economy €18bn in 2022. Across Europe it costs roughly 2.5% of GDP. TrueTribe, a Dutch digital wellness platform built to measure and improve workplace wellbeing at both the individual and collective level, set out to change that.
The smart thinking behind the product was to build something truly holistic. This meant TrueTribe's brand needed to be equally holistic: emotive and flexible enough to capture the idea of 'the collective as tribe,' and to move fluidly between what the platform does for an individual and what it does for an organisation.
The founder had conceived of something genuinely differentiated. We got involved to bring the entire venture to life through an engagement that led to a much deeper app UX and UI assignment.
The Work
Early work surfaced the strategic foundations: a person's wellbeing is shaped by many interconnected factors, just as an organisation's wellbeing is the sum of its people's. Individual and collective aren't separate stories. They're the same story, told at different scales.
Creative gave that idea a face — literally. A colourful system of simple, expressive 'pebble faces' overlay and interact throughout the identity, each one distinct but part of a larger, harmonious whole. A warm, striking palette made the brand feel human and approachable while staying built for accessible digital interactivity.
The Outcome
Within six weeks of launch, TrueTribe was being piloted across 1,500+ employees at one organisation. It had signed two paying enterprise customers, and began negotiations with one of the UK's largest healthcare providers. In an early 900-person pilot, 32% of users completed a wellbeing scan for a personalised insights report, against a historical survey completion rate of roughly 17% — with dozens going on to book sessions directly with a psychologist or counsellor, on demand and in total confidence.
