The Simple
Joy of Design
For most people, when they think about Design (with a capital ‘D’) it can feel intimidating. Today’s popular design software is intricate, expensive, and requires months, if not years, of training. In a sense, Design becomes out of reach for a lot of creators and entrepreneurs who lack the technical know-how, time to learn, or access to those tools. That’s where Picsart can help.
For 150 million monthly active users worldwide, Picsart has become a home for any design need: editing a photo; creating a logo; promoting an online shop; designing an album cover, poster, and card; or just churning out memes. With smart tools, unique templates, and a vibrant community, it’s easy to create in Picsart without feeling overwhelmed. And, I would argue that when it’s easy to create, it makes the process itself way more enjoyable.
Together with The New Company and Hermit we created a new visual system that retains the spirit of the company, while introducing a more consistent and elevated visual language. Our research and strategy informed the extent of our work to ensure a cohesive brand expressed through, voice, design, motion and photography.
Roles and Contributions: Creative Director, Strategy and Positioning, Producer, Tone of Voice, Brand Photography.
Goodbye PicsArt.
Hello Picsart.
When kicking off our rebrand work, we had to be brutally honest: the old wordmark was a little too close to Comic Sans for comfort, especially for a company in the design business.
After lots of iterations, we landed on a look that felt like a natural evolution from the previous one. The geometric shapes make the new wordmark feel modern without appearing too complex or overly sophisticated.
Photography as a Canvas
As a photographer myself, I’m amazed and inspired by the creativity of the Picsart community. I’ve seen countless examples of creators taking a seemingly boring image and remixing it into something fantastical and surreal.
During our research we noticed that instead of beginning with a blank white canvas, the majority of Picsart’s community uses photography as a starting point. So we chose to emulate the process by building our own repository of brand imagery as a starting point for the in-house design team, with the help of photographer Jacq Harriet.
Product Design: Every Moment as a ‘Brand Moment’
As we were developing our visual direction, we onboarded a team from product design to ensure we’re thinking about all aspects of the brand as one cohesive user journey - from marketing down to the app icon.
For example, the two primary brand colors looked slick in marketing, but product needed more “wiggle room” when it came to buttons and callouts . Similarly, the UI elements look great in print but needed to be used sparingly in product to avoid creators thinking that certain elements are interactive when they are not.
Tone of Voice:
The ‘Rebel Art Teacher’
Another important part of any successful brand that often gets overlooked is the Tone and Voice. Who is your brand as a person? What kind of personality does it have, and how do you approach it in your writing? We couldn’t have done it without the gracious help of the team at Hermit.
As we were developing our own tone, we imagined an art teacher with a rebellious flair. A mentor and a misfit. Someone who always sees your potential, and encourages you to go beyond what you think you might be capable of – and then some.
International: Going Beyond The ‘Silicon Valley Look’
Every culture gravitates towards a different style of design, and every country has their own set of associations when it comes to symbols and colors. The color red, for example, has a very different ‘feel’ in Spain compared to China.
With the majority of Picsart creators based outside of North America, being a global design brand became one of our core principals. The last thing we wanted was to come across as another Western leaning company, with a typical ‘Silicon Valley’ tech company look. We worked together with country managers across the globe to hone in our designs for each country, and create bespoke compositions, campaigns, and principals for each culture.
Giving Art a Frame
Whether it’s fancy black and white photography or bold, frenetic collage art, we wanted to make sure Picsart is a welcoming home for any type of self expression or passion. While it’s amazing to witness a global community contributing their own edits, remixes, and perspectives on design, creating a visual system out of it can be chaotic.
One of the immediate things we wanted to solve with the new brand was how to continue championing all the different editing styles on the platform, while maintaining a consistent look that is immediately recognizable. Ultimately, our approach was inspired by art museums and galleries. They have a similar problem – each gallery hosts different artists and styles, and yet there needs to be a common thread throughout the entire space. So how do museums do it? What ties all of the art together? Picture frames.
Our ‘frame’ is a bespoke background gradient that is created by borrowing three prominent colors from each creation we feature. That way, every design has a unique look while staying consistent overall.
OOH: Turning the Public Space Into an Art Gallery
As we started exploring a variety of OOH mediums, we wanted to lean into what made our brand so captivating: bright and vibrant imagery, coupled with our distinct tone of voice.
Using our brand photography, my challenge to the team was that viewers in every city would never encounter the same image twice. Our designers probably hate me for that 😅 That approach proved out to be pretty effective though, with early data results pointing at a x4 increase in awareness above industry benchmarks.
Partnerships: Exclusive Collabs with Artists we Admire
Introducing creators to Picsart was priority number one. But after someone joins, what will keep them coming back for more? We decided to partner with artists our community admired to release every few months exclusive content drops available only on the platform.
To us, it was a win-win: we get to support and promote upcoming artists, and our community got a chance to create their very own content with bespoke templates, stickers, and background tailored for their needs.
