Google Xi: Designing a Brand System for the Future of Experience
The Google Experience Institute (Xi) is equal parts think tank and experimental lab with a mission to improve the shared human experience. ROOM FOR MAGIC was brought in to develop a new brand identity for Xi, a visual system that could flex into whatever Xi-ers dreamed up, while coexisting within Google’s broader ecosystem. We then brought the system to life through Xi Days 2026, a multi-day internal conference built around the theme of Alchemy.
The Challenge
Google Xi operates at an unusual scale of ambiguity. It’s not a product, a team, or a single initiative; it’s a platform for inquiry and experimentation, spanning disciplines and departments across Google’s broader workplace ecosystem and beyond. Our challenge was to build an identity system that could hold complexity with clarity, invite participation without collapsing into noise, and flex across audiences and contexts, while sitting comfortably alongside the Google brand and the other sub-brands that share its house.
“RFM is the perfect extension of our internal team, pushing us to consider new questions and think more expansively about our brand and what it evokes in others. They are incredibly creative, yet elegant. Nothing feels regurgitated or like a reaction to fads. We absolutely love working this team of artists. We love them.”
— Megan Henshall (Founder and Co-Lead of The Google Experience Institute)
Approach
We began by helping the Xi team articulate its purpose. Through stakeholder alignment, brand audit, and a focused sprint process, we established a clear vision, mission, values, and tone of voice for the initiative. This foundation ensured every design decision that followed was rooted in meaning and a shared vision.
From there, we developed a visual identity built not around a single mark, but a system-first approach. Xi is not an icon; Xi is a container. The brand intentionally recedes, creating space for research, collaboration, and cultural expression to come forward.
Brand Identity
With Xi living inside Google’s ecosystem, the identity had to be distinctive on its own terms while remaining coherent within a family of existing brands. The logo lockup was designed for restraint and confidence. The wordmark functions like punctuation, subtle but essential for holding the system together.
Every element of the system: typography, grid, color, and motion, was built to expand and contract across media, channels, and partners. The result is a modular framework with room to breathe, adapt, and scale to accommodate whatever Xi can imagine.
The custom Graphic pattern System grows, repeats, and reshapes in response to the container, mirroring how insight evolves through iteration and collective input.
Xi Days 2026
Xi Days is Xi’s annual internal conference, and for 2026 the theme was Alchemy. RFM developed a distinct sub-brand for the event that translated this theme into a bold, expressive visual language—own color palette, typographic voice, and motion cues—while remaining clearly tethered to the core Xi identity.
The conference brought together workshops, keynotes, panels, roundtables, screenings, games, and exhibits. The design system was built to flex across the digital and physical—with consistency, presence, and a visual energy that matched the ambition and enchantment of the theme.
Outcome
The final identity positions Google Xi as both platform and provocation. At once, an Infrastructure for belonging, and a catalyst for experimentation. The brand eschews the spotlight to become the vessel. A framework that creates the conditions for insight, participation, and shared authorship to emerge.
