In 2022, 3D printing leaders MakerBot and Ultimaker joined forces to form one company with the mission to accelerate 3D printing innovation across industries. The merger sparked the need for the new company to create a distinct and fresh brand identity while still remaining recognizable to its global customer base.

By combining "Ulti" from the Ultimaker name with "Maker" from MakerBot, a new name was formed: UltiMaker. Needing a strong partner to develop this new brand, UltiMaker partnered with Moving Brands to help position it for growth, stand out in a crowded space, rally employees around a shared vision and drive new customer sales.

A simple yet robust brand architecture

In building a new brand architecture, it was important that UltiMaker simplified the portfolio, enabling future customers to understand clearly what products are best for their specific applications. In speaking with customers and analyzing the two brands' legacies, it was clear that Ultimaker had a strong brand equity among professionals and MakerBot truly shined in the K-12 educational space.

Under the new UltiMaker brand, the S and Method series 3D printers will support manufacturing, product development and other professional applications. As one of the world's most popular professional 3D printers, the S series will continue to offer the widest variety of materials on the market, making it flexible for a multitude of uses, while the Method series will focus on more specific manufacturing applications that can benefit from access to a heated chamber, specialty high thermoplastics materials, and a high level of dimensional accuracy.

Meanwhile, the MakerBot brand will remain operational as a sub-brand within the education sector, with the MakerBot Sketch Series targeted at K-12 learning. The launch of the Sketch Large last year strengthened MakerBot's offerings for educators and students, with a comprehensive education ecosystem that they can utilize.

The new brand architecture is designed to ensure that customers can easily find the products and applications best suited to their needs.

Welcome to the new UltiMaker

A visual language that honors the past and heralds the future

UltiMaker also set out to create a shared design language that would leverage the strength of both brands while creating a new unified brand structure moving forward.

Before merging, MakerBot and Ultimaker had distinct visual languages, art direction styles and color palettes. In designing the new identity, it was important to carefully create a flexible system that would work for the new brand architecture.

The new logo takes inspiration from the forms of the hardware and mechanics of 3D printing, with a shape that can look like a U and an M. Rounded corners from the symbol are echoed in the wordmark, which features contrasting corners in its letterforms to convey the balance of fluidity and precision.

The flexible color palette honors both the red and blue of the previous brand identities, adding secondary palettes to modernize the new brand and provide space for future iterations.

An exciting future ahead

UltiMaker's mission is to shape the future of manufacturing and product development, offering customers excellent solutions and services for 3D printing across the globe.

The new brand builds on the combined strengths of both companies' legacies, ensuring existing and future customers are fully supported, as it continues to build the world's leading 3D printing ecosystem—which promises to enable limitless innovation across industrial sectors.