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.
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
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.Related projects → Pendant Icons, Pendant Brand Guidelines ---- 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
Set of 150+ icons for Pendant, the new HR product from Banzai. I drew the icons as part of Pendant’s larger brand package; although their primary purpose is to quickly communicate ideas in the product, I also wanted them to embody Pendant’s sense of playfulness and good humor.My other stylistic concern was that they harmonize with GT Flexa, Pendant’s brand type family: for that reason, the icons use a simple geometric base with little refinement. Square shapes maintain their sharp corners, and round shapes use an exaggerated ‘squircle’ form that mirrors Flexa’s circular glyphs.
As with all my icon projects, I’ve developed an underlying grid system and ruleset to maintain consistency across the whole icon set, regardless of who adds to it in the future.
Related projects → Pendant Branding, Pendant Brand Guidelines, Banzai Icons
Brand guidelines for Pendant. The guidelines outline proper usage of Pendant’s brand assets, including logo, color, typography, and so on.
Unlike past style guide projects I’ve worked on—which were simple PDFs I wrote and laid out in InDesign—I built this document in Figma with the intention of publishing and sharing it online.
You can view some samples below, or view the guidelines on the Figma community site.
Related projects → Pendant Branding, Pendant Icons
Cartridges for My Famicase Exhibition, an art exhibition in Tokyo where artists and designers create art for fictional Famicom (NES) games.
2023 → FS-01 — Ploomish
2022 → fuchsia 800
2021 → fuchsia 400
2020 → Plastic Tactics®
2019 → Echo Breaker™
2018 → A Faraway Place
2017 → If Winter Ends
FS-01 — Ploomish was featured on Kotaku in 2023. If Winter Ends was featured in 2017. Photos courtesy of METEOR.
2022 → fuchsia 800
2021 → fuchsia 400
2020 → Plastic Tactics®
2019 → Echo Breaker™
2018 → A Faraway Place
2017 → If Winter Ends
FS-01 — Ploomish was featured on Kotaku in 2023. If Winter Ends was featured in 2017. Photos courtesy of METEOR.
Dragon Quest Monsters
Self-initiated2021 → Ongoing
Animated pixel art loops of various monsters from the Dragon Quest series. Done for fun to celebrate my favorite game series’ 35th anniversary.
The perspective, animation, and styling are meant to mimic Dragon Quest’s battle scenes.
Illustrated and animated in Aseprite. Monsters originally designed by Akira Toriyama.💧 Work in progress. More images coming soon. 💧 Related projects → DQ-001, Mushroom Kingdom Pixels
Illustrated and animated in Aseprite. Monsters originally designed by Akira Toriyama.💧 Work in progress. More images coming soon. 💧 Related projects → DQ-001, Mushroom Kingdom Pixels
