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PROBLEM
THE OLD MASTERY BRAND WAS CREATED WITH AN INTERNAL AUDIENCE IN MIND AND WAS NOT FITTING FOR THE GLOBAL AUDIENCE THE EXTERNALIZATION OF SKILLSHOP WOULD BRING ABOUT.
SOLUTION
REFRESH THE MASTERY BRAND WITH EVERYONE IN MIND WHILE STILL PRESERVING THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF THE OLD STYLE IN ORDER TO CONTINUE TO BE ABLE TO USE THE EXISTING ASSET LIBRARY.
MY ROLE: DESIGNER
I TOOK PART IN THE CONCEPTING, TESTING, AND CREATION OF THE STYLE GUIDE FOR THE NEW MASTERY BRAND. ONCE THE STYLE GUIDE WAS FINALIZED, I ALSO OVERLOOKED HOW THE BRAND WAS USED IN ORDER TO ENSURE IT WAS CONSISTENT.
THE CREATIVE TEAM
1x CREATIVE LEAD
5x DESIGNERS
2020 / GOOGLE
GOOGLE MASTERY REBRAND
Google's Mastery team developed internal e-learning courses for sellers, focused on product training as well as skillset improvement.
As the team prepared to make this content to a wider, external audience, Mastery evolved into Skillshop. With that transition, the visual identity needed a reimagining.
The new Skillshop brand is crafted so it can resonate globally while still drawing from the familiar building blocks of the original style, allowing us to leverage the existing asset library and maintain consistency.
OLD MASTERY BRAND
These are some of the illustrations that were part of the old Mastery brand. Though they worked for an internal audience, some tweaks had to be made in order to fit a global audience.
Another caveat to keep in mind is the team had build a large asset repository, so we still wanted to preserve the illustration foundations in order to continue using it.
Some of the things we tried to move away from in the new brand are:
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Excessive use of color
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Decorative use of characters so they don't appear childish
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Gradients, shadows, and too much detail so as to not outdate the brand
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Overall, making sure every design decision is intentional
THE CREATIVE TEAM
CREATIVE LEAD - KATE MUFFET
DESIGNERS - PAUL ANTONSON, NANCY BUTTERWORTH, LIZ HAGAN, AARON WILLIAMS, TATIANA AYAZO, CARO TURCIOS
MY ROLE: DESIGNER
I TOOK PART IN THE CONCEPTING, TESTING, AND CREATION OF THE STYLE GUIDE FOR THE NEW MASTERY BRAND. ONCE THE STYLE GUIDE WAS FINALIZED, I ALSO OVERLOOKED HOW THE BRAND WAS USED IN ORDER TO ENSURE IT WAS CONSISTENT.
THE OLD MASTERY BRAND WAS CREATED WITH AN INTERNAL AUDIENCE IN MIND AND WAS NOT FITTING FOR THE GLOBAL AUDIENCE THE EXTERNALIZATION OF SKILLSHOP WOULD BRING ABOUT.
PROBLEM
REFRESH THE MASTERY BRAND WITH EVERYONE IN MIND WHILE STILL PRESERVING THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF THE OLD STYLE IN ORDER TO CONTINUE TO BE ABLE TO USE THE EXISTING ASSET LIBRARY.
SOLUTION
MY ROLE: DESIGNER
I TOOK PART IN THE CONCEPTING, TESTING, AND CREATION OF THE STYLE GUIDE FOR THE NEW MASTERY BRAND. ONCE THE STYLE GUIDE WAS FINALIZED, I ALSO OVERLOOKED HOW THE BRAND WAS USED IN ORDER TO ENSURE IT WAS CONSISTENT.
THE CREATIVE TEAM
CREATIVE LEAD - KATE MUFFET
DESIGNERS - PAUL ANTONSON, NANCY BUTTERWORTH, LIZ HAGAN, AARON WILLIAMS, TATIANA AYAZO, CARO TURCIOS
To add to the human feel, we also have a range of expressions that we can swap in in order to fit the course content.
The character’s face and body should move according to the pose to show the range of motion.
Character Guidelines
To keep characters consistent, we use tools like a height chart to ensure accurate sizing across scenes.
Skin and hair color remain consistent, while hairstyles, outfits, and accessories can vary.
Natural, relaxed poses help characters feel more human.
Height Chart
Hands
Hands are key to posing and adding humanity, organized by detail level for different uses.
Simple Hands
Used on fully detailed character(s) and scenes with background depth. Only 4 fingers are shown and they don't need to be fully defined
Medium Hands
These are not shown with characters, instead they are incorporated in spot illustrations or scenes to add a human element. They have 5 fingers and are depicted with minimal color depth and some defining strokes.
Detailed Hands
Meant to be used in fully detailed hero illustrations where they are more prominent. They have 5 fingers and are shown with full color depth as well as details such as jewelry or painted nails.
Mastery creative foundations
Build from White
White should take the majority of the image.
Gradients and lighter shades can help create an environment without the need of using color.
Use Color Effectively
Create points of focus with color.
Ensure illustrations are legible against color backgrounds.
If all four colors are used, make sure they are balanced and each is given equal weight.
Dark and light tones can be used to show shading and depth, but they should never dominate an image.
Build for Everyone
No text on images
Text on images can't be translated to another language, so visuals stay text-free
No currency signs
Money is represented with neutral notes and coins to keep it universal
No language-specific imagery
We avoid English- only expressions to keep content clear in all languages
No culturally defining imagery
We avoid culture-specific themes like animals, music, sports or weather to remain inclusive
Always Resolve Imagery
Illustrations should blend with content, avoiding cutoffs or floating elements
This can be done by smoothly transitioning through gradients...
...or by incorporating a grounding element like a floor, shadow, or background environment.
...or enclosing within a shape...
Icon
No shadows or details, flat
Low to High Fidelity Image Categories
A fidelity system scales illustration detail by size and limits high-detail use, keeping visuals purposeful, balanced, and provide moments of delight.
Spot Illustration
Depth, shading and line details, single objects
Scene
1 or 2 characters or multiple objects, no detailed backgrounds
Hero
Fully detailed character(s) and scenes with background depth
Scaling
Resizing keeps the message intact by stripping away nonessentials.
Original Hero Illustration
A detailed scene including character(s), an office background,and a whiteboard showing a positive bar graph
Scene
Characters no longer have facial features,clothing flattened to a single color, accents removed,graph is enlarged and simplified.
Spot Illustration
The whiteboard with the bar graph was pulledout since it was the most important element in the original illustration.
Icon
The graph is pulled out since its the main focus
Google's Visual Core Guidelines
Color Palette
Typography
GOOGLE'S BRAND FOUNDATIONS
The Google brand foundations are meant to help create content, imagery, or subrands that are Google-y and fall in line with the overarching Google brand. These were our North Star for this project and helped us navigate the making of a more specific set of guidelines that would be crafted particularly for Mastery.
NEW MASTERY BRAND STYLE GUIDE
Keeping Google's brand foundations top of mind and through lots of concepting and testing, we came up with a brand that was inclusive, airy, inviting and purposeful while still serving moments of delight for the learner.
These are some of the key sections that formed the foundational building blocks of the new Mastery brand.
CHARACTERS
Google is for everyone, which is why we focused on having a diverse cast of characters that would be used throughout our courses and collateral.
To align with our new standards, we made sure the usage of characters is intentional and not used as props. The overuse of characters risks distraction, so an alternative to humanize course assets is to use hands instead.
SKILLSHOP
With a fresh new look and feel, the new Mastery brand was implemented to its new home: Skillshop.
Skillshop is a Google training platform that you can use to grow your skills on Google's tools and solutions. The brand can be seen throughout the website navigation as well as the online courses.
I oversaw the use of the brand to make sure it was used properly as well as created assets for courses, making sure they were custom made for the intended space.
2020 / GOOGLE
GOOGLE MASTERY REBRAND
Google's Mastery team specializes in creating internal e-learning courses for Google sellers focused on product training as well as skillset improvement. As the team prepared to make this content available for an external audience with the launch of Skillshop, the Mastery brand felt in need of a rebrand. I worked alongside a small group of designers develop this new brand that fulfills the needs of reaching a global audience.
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CREATIVE LEAD
KATE MUFFET
DESIGN
PAUL ANTONSON
NANCY BUTTERWORTH
LIZ HAGAN
AARON WILLIAMS
TATIANA AYAZO
CARO TURCIOS
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