Buzz

Buzz was a startup which goal was to make remote work less lonely as well as way smoother.
In this project, the focus was an animated video to be used on product hunt and in invite e-mails. It’s main purpose was to to introduce the product and pique the interest, showing that Buzz was not only a videoconferencing platform, but a whole online office.
To show the many functionalities of Buzz we needed a set of characters, which I designed.

CHARACTER DESIGN ✧ ILLUSTRATION & DESIGN FOR MOTION

The main target group was people aged around 30-40 that worked remotely.

I’ve designed fairly basic outfits and used color, hairstyle and accesories to add personality and visual interest.

To avoid using shadows and by that adding detail, I’ve decided to use gradients to delicately convey depth and create visual interest. I created the gradients using the colors that were close to each other to avoid visual chaos.

Process

01. Color palette
I came up with a saturated, but sleek color pallette that would look good against Buzz’s dark blues and blacks.

03. Sketches and value studies in the chosen style

02. First style experiments
At first, the client requested more realistic approach, but after first trials and more research, together we decided to go with something simpler. Since the client didn’t want a very simple style, I’ve simplified the first designs to make them more clean, but kept all the details that accentuated the facial features and made the designs appeal to a more mature, tech-savvy audience.

*This project was made during the Motion Creative program on Hyper Island. However, the client is real and the project was paid. Our team handled all the design work as well as the contact with the client.