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



Illustrations by Cristi Flores




MultiVersus

Warner Bros. Games
2022

UI design work and iconography for Multiversus, the Warner Bros. platform fighter developed by Player First Games.

I worked as a contract UI designer on Multiversus. I helped define the look and feel of the game’s interface, typography, and color palette. I also drew a set of icons which can be seen throughout Multiversus’ UI and marketing collateral.

Multiversus won Best Fighting Game at the 2022 Game Awards.

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Lead UX / UI Designer
Kevin Kvalstad

Principal UI Artist
Ricky Linn


Game screens by WB Games / Player First Games ↯

Mark

Dragon Quest Monsters

Self-initiated
2021 → 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-001Mushroom Kingdom Pixels

Mark

My Famicase Exhibition

METEOR
2017 → Ongoing
Cartridges for My Famicase Exhibition, an art exhibition in Tokyo where artists and designers create art for fictional Famicom (NES) games.

2022 → fuchsia 800
2021 → fuchsia 400
2020 → Plastic Tactics®
2019 → Echo Breaker™
2018 → A Faraway Place
2017 → If Winter Ends

If Winter Ends was featured on Kotaku in 2017.

Photos courtesy of METEOR.





Mark

A Handheld History

Lost in Cult
2022

Design work for A Handheld History, a book chronicling the history of handheld videogame consoles.

I worked as part of the design team on AHH to bring the book to life. I contributed imagery, layouts, and art direction.

A Handheld History is available for purchase now → Lost in Cult shop

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Editorial
Lost in Cult

Cover Illustration
Stephen Maurice Graham

Design Team
Nat King
Josh Lanphear
Dan Clarke


Mark
©2023 Jeff Wiggins