Black Jays: an illustrated identity built on the subtle chaos of family life
Black Jays is a New York venture fund investing in consumer companies building the future of family: dental care, pet care, education and family investments. Its portfolio includes Fi, Oula, Ceremonia and Two Front. HEX Studio rebranded the fund across its identity, messaging, website, pitch deck, internal collateral and illustration system.
The brand is built around what makes families special: subtle chaos. Family life is loud, overlapping and full of small moving parts, and yet it holds together. The identity holds the same balance, calm on the surface and lively in the details.
We refreshed the Jay mark, widened the palette into bright oranges and yellows over cream and dark brown, and paired a readable serif with a more decorative one. Jonathan Calugi's interlocking line illustrations carry the idea furthest: every figure connects to the next, like a close-knit family. Playful without getting loud, and classy without getting stiff.
- Services
- Brand Identity: Strategy, Art Direction, Visual Identity, Logomark, Illustration System, Brand Guidelines
Website: Copywriting, Sitemap, Responsive Design, Webflow Development, CMS, SEO
Collateral: Pitch Deck, Social Media Templates, Core Asset Development - Press
- Creative Boom
- Website
- blackjays.vc
- Year
- 2024
Iconography for Family Life
A full icon set covers the everyday surface of family life: home, school, weather, transport, pet care, dental care and self-care. Set in bright yellow and orange against cream and dark brown, the palette stays warm but subdued.
Playful illustrative system by Jonathan Calugi
The brand needed an illustration system as lively as family life itself. We brought in the one and only Jonathan Calugi, who translated Black Jays' thesis into a custom set of connected line characters and scenes for the industries the fund invests in. The drawings interlock the way a close-knit family does.
Photography by Marcella Winograd
Black Jays brought in Marcella Winograd, an interdisciplinary designer and photographer, to shoot a new series of images for the fund.
She reshot Black Jays' imagery to the new brand guidelines and produced a gallery of assets for internal and external use.
A Website for the Fund
We designed and built blackjays.vc in Webflow, with a CMS for portfolio news and the blog. The Jay mark works in every color of the palette, and Calugi's line work runs from mobile layouts to print, merch and totes.
“Ayush is awesome. He was super creative and patient with us throughout the design process. Iterated quickly on our feedback and responsive to feedback even as we sometimes twisted and turned in our 'ask'. Handover was clean and efficient. I would definitely work with him again and highly recommend him to anyone looking for creative/design work.”
Credits
HEX: Ayush
Illustration: Jonathan Calugi
Photography: Marcella Winograd
Black Jays: Amit, Jay
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