About the organization

Who is behind this project?

Open Collective is a financial management platform that enables grassroots groups to raise and spend money transparently.

I started working with Open Collective as an individual design contributor, then transitioned to a client relationship, and, a couple of projects and years later, I ended up leading the design operations of the organization.

The project that helped me solidify my position as a change-maker within Open Collective was the branding revamp I led to humanize the brand's digital presence. I partnered with an illustrator to augment the existing Open Collective logo with a unique visual system. This visual system enabled us to revamp the company's marketing presence, build internal and external communication resources (presentations, press releases, internal communication documents), and lay the foundation for the look and feel of the product.

Role:

Head of Design

Category:

Branding, Strategic Design, Web Design.

Collaborators:

Delfina Peydro, Bruna Dipp, Pia Mancini, Raúl Arellano, Rafael Machado, Dario Muñoz.

Project info

Designing a new visual system

A human brand that tells a story

The first step towards this brand transformation was driven by the need to be "less oriented towards tech and more towards humans".

We achieved this by introducing an illustrative, approachable, people-oriented style and articulating it with the existing logo and typography system.

With this update, the unique visual language of Open Collective began to emerge.

This was just the beginning...

These are some illustrations from the first round. This work laid the foundations of the brand update and subsequent unfolding in the product and company comms.

Implementing a marketing update

Visual comms strategy

Web Design

Creative Direction

Branding

With the first round of images ready, we began experimenting by translating parts of our messaging into visuals.

This combination provided an ideal canvas to articulate a compelling marketing message for building the new public website of Open Collective.

Through this project, we also refined some aspects from the initial set of imagery and set the stage for constant experimentation and improvement.

Brand facelift and product implementation

Integrated in the product experience

We all loved the illustrated look so much that we made it part of the OC brand.

A couple of years of maturing the visual system through a myriad of design and communication projects helped us define the final brand presence and implement it company-wide.

We refined the visual language an adapted it to different uses that built up the visual presence of the different projects of the OC ecosystem.

We all loved the illustrated look so much that we made it part of the OC brand.

A couple of years of maturing the visual system through a myriad of design and communication projects helped us define the final brand presence and implement it company-wide.

We refined the visual language an adapted it to different uses