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Context
Start by Alura is a company that teaches logic and programming through distance learning to public school children aged 6–17 in various states across Brazil.
The teachers felt that the content lacked a fun, visual aid to support younger students. This led to the idea of developing mascots for the brand.
The mascots would be used in video lessons, animations, and activities. They would also be featured in marketing and social media campaigns.
Day 90
The background of this project heavily influenced the final outcome.
The mascots were developed by a team without a specialization in this area, which worked on the project for three months. When the second version of the characters was delivered, we were brought in to participate as stakeholders.
The brief called for a duo of laid-back characters with no specific gender markers, using the brand's colors. As soon as we took over, we noticed some areas for improvement and developed two more versions that still didn't quite fit the proposal.
My Turn
The baton was passed to me. With one week until the deadline, I redid the benchmarking research, used the Duolingo characters as a primary reference, analyzed areas for improvement in the current character designs, and reviewed all project requirements.
After this analysis, I was able to redesign the characters based on the pre-existing design, aiming to rejuvenate them with more organic shapes tailored to a younger audience.
Once the sketches were approved, I made the final adjustments, and that's how the mascots we know today were born: vibrant characters with distinct features and shapes that share the same visual language and are complementary and versatile.
Impact
Today, the mascots are present in over seven thousand schools, both public and private, throughout Brazil.
They help in the delivery of technology content, appearing in animations, feedback, activities, giveaways, and social media, in addition to various internal company communications.
