HOMER’s Makeover
My first task as Design Director was to rebrand HOMER. It was done entirely in-house and on an ambitious timeline coinciding with a relaunch of HOMER’s flagship product that would bring HOMER from being a single learn-to-read app to a more holistic early learning solution. New additional content and brand characters were being developed concurrently. During this time we often used the phrase “building the plane at the same time as we are flying it”.
The goal was to modernize the brand creative, emphasize HOMER’s intrinsic learning approach and mission to foster a lifelong love of learning. We turned the “O” in HOMER into a portal, transporting kids into a world of fun adventures. The portal was also designed to create a robust framework and to tie together a wide variety of app content, brand imagery as well as bridging an illustrated imaginary world with a photorealistic one.
My Role:
Design Director & Brand Market Design Lead
A portal into fun learning adventures
The portal was created from the letter O in HOMER and framed both app content and brand images.
Each of the four brand colors came in a dark and light shade to give the sense of dimension. Brand shapes were created from geometric and organic forms that resemble building blocks. They illustrate kids’ curiosity and natural desire to learn.
Brand pattern & brand shapes
Shapes drew inspiration from building blocks and got a unique character by mixing geometric and organic forms. The brand pattern were used in bold colors or single color, tone one tone as backgrounds.
Brand waves
The HOMER brand wave gave images a distinct crop, brought a sense of whimsical fun and motion into imagery.