Design Archives · Kari Kay | Product Design Meets Brand Strategy

CloudMunch: Brand Extension

Role
Visual Designer, Copywriter

Duration
8 Weeks, Completed in 2016

CloudMunch is an ambitious team working to tame the complex world of DevOps with a unifying platform for cloud-based app deployment, including plugins and pipeline templates.

Opportunity. With the popularity of the cloud came a chance to transform how IT teams and app developers worked to test, deploy and maintain apps across their networks. In 2015, cloud applications were gaining traction, and tools to improve their efficiencies would be part of pushing adoption of cloud technologies from a meager 8% of enterprises to 82%. CloudMunch had recently redesigned their logo, and needed help extending their brand identity and tone of voice across their product and website.

Approach. I worked in sprints alongside CloudMunch's Engineering team, and designed within the constraints of their existing graphic style. Because of the quick turnaround to announce their upcoming product release, I made minimal updates to the existing color palette, and improve their copywriting for a US audience.

Outcome. CloudMunch successfully launched their app, and were acquired by JFrog a few months later.

I expanded their brand across both their product design and their marketing website, and created custom branded illustrations and icons to match their desired cartoony style.

CloudMunch_DevOps_Platform_Portfolio_AppCentric@2x

CloudMunch provided their logo and two brand colors, and requested a “rippling wave” motif throughout their product. I fleshed out their style guide and created a cohesive look across their product, marketing website and presentations.

I designed a series of product icons to work as both a minimalist UI element as well as a high-fidelity marketing illustration for dramatic effect.

I reimagined their infographics to explain the components of their three primary products and illustrate the structure of their app templates. These were used in various collateral, including their marketing website.

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CloudMunch: DevOps Platform

Visual Design

UI Design

Role
UI Designer, Visual Designer

Duration
8 Weeks, Completed in 2016

CloudMunch is an ambitious team working to tame the complex world of DevOps with a unifying platform for cloud-based app deployment, including plugins and pipeline templates.

Opportunity. With the popularity of the cloud came a chance to transform how IT teams and app developers worked to test, deploy and maintain apps across their networks. In 2015, cloud applications were gaining traction, and tools to improve their efficiencies would be part of pushing adoption of cloud technologies from a meager 8% of enterprises to 82%. CloudMunch saw the opportunity to utilize quality user experience design as a differentiator to attract more of the 18 million software developers to their tools.

Approach. I worked in sprints alongside CloudMunch's Engineering team through multiple iterations of their web app.

Outcome. CloudMunch successfully launched their app, and were acquired by JFrog a few months later.

Their range of DevOps tools was presented in three distinct parts to emphasize their value in supporting continuous app delivery and monitoring: the Workspace, Dashboard and Hub.

CloudMunch_Web_Assets_Workspace_hiRes_Workspace

The Workspace featured app delivery pipelines with at-a-glance monitoring. Pipelines are a popular tool for testing app stability and performance before updating them across multiple environments. From the Workspace, users could walk through a step-by-step approach to build each new pipeline with robust functionality and less manual effort.

CloudMunch_May20_AppOnboarding_SelectProduct2

CloudMunch_AppOnboarding_Mar2016_2_SelectTemplate 1

The Dashboard provided flexible insights displayed as individual modules. This allowed users to customize their focus to highlight key stats for current projects, and download reports as needed.

Cloudmunch_Sprint2_Dashboard_Rough1_Modal_Dashboard_Tiles 1 Small

A lightbox effect allowed users to view stats close-up and in isolation. By improving the color scheme, contrast levels and spacing of elements, the graphs became more readable while conveying complex detail.

The Hub served as a growing library of templates, tools and plugins for developers to incorporate into their projects. I created a system of iconography and labels to represent the various types of resources to increase findability.

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Logos Collection 2

Logo Collection 2

2017-2020

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Ictero

Ictero Medical

An ambitious digital health company pioneered a non-invasive approach to gallbladder surgery and sought out a sleek identity system to attract attention from top surgeons.

SERVICES
Brand Strategy, Graphic Design, Copywriting, Website Design, Website Development

PROJECT TYPE
Visual Identity Design Refresh, Marketing Collateral, Website Design & Development

Ictero Medical developed a unique, non-invasive cryoablation solution to offer at-risk patients a better option for treating gallbladder disease. We worked with the founders to develop a clean, minimalist design to bring their product to life and position them as a high-end, high quality tool for surgeons.

With the icy mist from the cryoablation process as a primary brand differentiator, we developed their visual theme around frosty scenery. The logo itself is rendered in cool blue hues, and repurposes the "o" and relocated dot from the "i" to form a subtle "zero degrees" at the end of their name.

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Junum

A determined, woman-led company sought to establish a strong brand with a mission to save lives and challenge misconceptions around the healing power of clinical nutrition.

SERVICES
Naming, Brand Strategy, Visual Identity Design, Graphic Design, Copywriting

PROJECT TYPE
Branding, Website Design, Website Development, Marketing Collateral

Selling to health systems is no easy feat. Advocating to change decades-old processes in a hospital setting is even tougher. But these women set out to do just that, backed by a compelling combination of evidenced-based medicine and firsthand health IT experience. We collaborated with the founder to perfect their message and create an upbeat brand to match the spirit of their mission.

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Resolution Health Collaborative

A popular Midwestern massage therapist expanded her practice into a wellness clinic, and rebranded with a dynamic design system to support their various service categories.

SERVICES
Brand Strategy, Design

PROJECT TYPE
Rebranding, Visual Identity Design, Marketing Collateral

Resolution Health Collaborative grew out of a solo practitioner's therapeutic massage business into a personalized wellness clinic and integrative fitness center. We collaborated with the founder to establish a look and feel that sets them apart from spa-like experiences by emphasizing their high-quality, high-impact therapeutic services.

For their logo, I generated concepts around safety, healing and nature. I noticed the way the veins of a leaf—which transport vital nutrients and remove waste for a plant—complemented the shape of a shield and mimicked the muscles of a person's back. Bringing together these components created a simple, memorable shape that expressed strength and elegance.

As their list of service offerings grew, so did the need to bring awareness to their breadth of expertise without diluting their message. I created a series of patterns to differentiate each of the four service categories, highlighting their individual benefits. Displaying them together established the concept of an integrated, multi-pronged approach to promoting wellness.

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Roland Foods

An 84-year-old food importing company rediscovers its original voice while changing with the times.

SERVICES
Brand Strategy, Identity Design Refresh, Responsive Website Design, Copywriting, Photography, Printed and Digital Marketing Campaigns

PROJECT TYPE
Brand Refresh, Brand Expansion, Website Design, Marketing Support

Roland Foods began with a powerful story of a man who fled Nazi Germany to America and built a company on a hunch about the desirability of dried French mushrooms. After years of dedication, good taste and natural relationship-building, the company grew from a husband-and-wife team sitting in a tiny New York office, to an internationally acclaimed standard in quality commercial ingredients.

Sifting through decades of photos, documents and label artwork, I discovered over 170 iterations of their company logo. Their most recent versions lacked the warmth and vigor that was so evident in their story and colorful illustrated packaging. We resurrected the label artwork and hand drew a new logo from scratch influenced by handwriting and typographic styles of the 1930s.

As a result of our work together, the founder's son shared his gratitude for seeing his parents' legacy honored through the visuals and content on the website. The CEO remarked that I had "helped move the brand forward 20 years," which helped Roland Foods reposition their company from mere importers to strategic partners in food service and product development.

They were now armed with a new identity to use on a variety of marketing collateral and product packaging. I oversaw the design and development of their custom responsive WordPress website, marketing email templates, promotional gift boxes, onboarding documents, presentation templates, and enviable company swag. For continuity after my portion of work was completed, I met with their in-house design team to introduce the brand guidelines and provide the assets to facilitate their continued work on the brand.

To kick off the brand rollout, I printed branded t-shirts, mugs and tote bags for staff and top customers.

I helped to reposition their company from mere importers to strategic partners in food service and product development. Original vintage label artwork served as an endearing visual backdrop, bridging the old with the new, emphasizing dedication to their craft and their loyalty to vendors.

I collaborated with various department heads, from marketing to sales and operations, to develop brand consistency and breathe new life into customer onboarding documents, brand guidelines and marketing collateral.

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Lean Design for Startups

A startup for startups, Lean Design teaches entrepreneurs the importance of clarifying their message from day one and using their limited resources to their full potential.

SERVICES
Product Validation, Branding, Identity, Website Design, Copywriting, Printed and Digital Marketing Collateral

PROJECT TYPE
Branding, Visual Identity Design, Website Design, Marketing Collateral, Educational Course Design

Lean Design for Startups is one of our Founder's favorite pet projects. After helping dozens of startups launch and iterate on their products, Kari saw how a lack of understanding about the creative process was costing entrepreneurs precious time and unnecessary heartache.

Kari developed the Lean Design™ brand and wrote, designed and organized the educational content from scratch. She is continually developing new materials to help entrepreneurs design their businesses and products to fit their lifestyle, personality and talents.

This growing collection of educational content is both an exercise in "eating your own dog food" as well as a service to ambitious tech-savvy entrepreneurs. Boiling down over a decade of branding and design expertise into bite-size exercises for the design-challenged has been an incredible experience that has strengthened Kari's love for the design process and its ability to serve people in practical and often life-changing ways.

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OgdenGlazer Legal

A growing, down-to-earth legal team helps innovative companies protect their assets and maintain sanity in the rocky world of business.

SERVICES
Visual Identity Refresh, Digital Marketing Collateral

PROJECT TYPE
Visual Identity, Brand Extension

After a brief conversation with a member of the OgdenGlazer team, you know you can look forward to straightforward, "plain English" answers to even your most complicated legal questions. With a focus on the technology and food & beverage industries, this growing legal team understands the creative effort and sacrifice required to make these companies profitable. They take time to know their clients and guide them through protecting their intellectual property from day one.

Wanting to retain their existing logomark as much as possible, we worked together to fine-tune their eclectic image and extend their identity into a responsive website, business cards and presentation templates.

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Logos

Logo Collection 1

2013-2016