Brilliant Brand Refresh: Evolving the Visual Voice

The Brilliant Brand Refresh began as an effort to update how the brand was perceived. Originally, Brilliant felt like a product made for everyone. But as we honed in on a clearer definition of our core audience, it became essential that the brand matured in parallel with our evolving mission.

While users frequently praised our distinctive visual identity and playful characters, we began to notice that our mascot—though friendly—often came across as too hyper and youthful for our increasingly focused audience.

Introducing Koji

Enter Koji: a sentient particle, lifelong learner, and spiritual successor to our original mascot, Blorb. Created by the brand agency Koto, Koji was imagined as a being born from the Big Bang, with 13.7 billion years of experience. Koji’s role was to gently guide learners through complex ideas, easing the anxiety that often comes with tackling hard concepts.

Koji would soon replace Blorb across all product surfaces. (Read more about Koto’s work on the brand refresh here.)

The Challenge

After Koto established the new visual direction, I joined the internal effort alongside two peers to translate that vision into tangible assets. Early on, we realized we hadn’t fully accounted for how many surfaces Blorb had touched across the product.

To solve this, I took the lead in cataloging all instances of Blorb in the product, documenting every asset in need of an update. With this inventory in hand, I built a production schedule to match our ambitious timeline: a full rollout in just over a month.

The Execution

Working collaboratively with my team, I created and updated illustrations, responding to weekly feedback from design reviews. I also ensured our work would scale by polishing and componentizing each asset—making them modular, reusable, and easy to find in Figma.

In cases requiring animation, I drafted quick storyboards to give our animator a clear vision to build from.

The Outcome

  1. 150+ reusable assets produced in just over a month and a half.

  2. A new illustration library used across Product, Growth, and User Marketing teams

  3. A cohesive visual system aligned with Brilliant’s refreshed brand identity