Firefox Beta Branding

Company: Mozilla - Internal project
Role: Head of Design
Year: 2020

Overview

The Beta Branding System was created to give internal early-stage Firefox products a distinct visual identity during their beta phase—clearly separating them from fully launched products in the Firefox suite and minimizing user confusion.

The Challenge

As Mozilla incubated new products under the Firefox umbrella, it became essential to distinguish between experimental offerings and final, fully branded products. Without a clear visual system, beta products risked diluting the Firefox brand and confusing users about product maturity and stability.

The Solution

We developed a modular visual identity system specifically for beta-phase products. This system enables product teams to:

Launch quickly while maintaining a clear distinction from core Firefox products
Focus on finding product-market fit without prematurely locking in branding
Operate independently while remaining loosely connected to the parent brand

The visual system provides a temporary identity that includes a Beta badge and a unique icon. Once a product shows success and moves toward full launch:

It adopts the Firefox rainbow ribbon iconography, signaling its inclusion in the core suite.
The Beta badge is removed, and a final product icon is introduced—aligned with our broader visual identity system.

Color gradients

Shapes variations examples

The Impact

This approach balanced agility and brand integrity. It allowed product and design teams to move at different paces, enabling experimentation without sacrificing long-term brand coherence. At the time, over 15 experiments leveraged this solution.