Pendant Branding

Pendant
2023

Name, logo, branding, strategy, art direction, and ongoing brand management for Pendant, the new HR product from Banzai.

After freelancing full-time for two years, I returned to Banzai in 2021 to work on a new HR- and employee benefits-related product. It would have an entirely new name and brand, though I was told it should still feel like it came from the people who made Banzai. As product lead, I was responsible for leading branding and product design on what would become Pendant.

My process in the early days of working on Pendant was a holistic one, with the branding influencing the product design and vice versa.

I chose GT Flexa as the brand type family for a few reasons: it’s beautifully drawn and tonally distinct, its endless flexibility would be suitable for the wide range of use cases we’d need it for, and its unique character lent the brand a friendly voice. Flexa is the backbone of the brand, giving Pendant a voice that is inviting and decisive; this is especially important because Pendant, being a product about employee benefits, would need to be a trustworthy resource during people’s difficult life changes, like having a baby or leaving a job.

The color palette is bright and saturated, with colors reminiscent of light refracted through a prism.

I worked with Pendant’s in-house illustrator Cristi Flores to nail down the illustration style. Cristi’s illustration work brings the brand to life with organic shapes and delicate application of Pendant’s color palette.

I also worked with photographer Trevor Christensen on a set of employee portraits for Pendant. Their heavy use of black draws focus to the subjects’ faces and makes the photos harmonize with the rest of Pendant’s color palette.

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Development
Kendall Buchanan, Zac Boswell, Mardo Del Cid, Austin Finlinson, Curtis Summers

Project Management
Jeff Lord

Copywriting
Nikole Rios

Illustration
Cristi Flores

Additional Design
Chelsea Miller, Greg Soper

Photography
Trevor Christensen