Stareable | Branding & Identity

When Ajay approached me to join him on his startup adventure, Stareable was nothing more than an idea (“a platform for web series creators”) and some Google docs. I had the rare but exciting opportunity to build a brand from the ground up.

DESIGN LEAD / stareable, 2016–2019

brand logo

The Stareable logo references a video scrubber—an element common to media players; hinting at our product offering. Since the word stareable isn’t exactly part of our vernacular (yet), I added visual emphasis on “stare” to make an awkward word more approachable. (In our defense, all the good domains were taken…)

brand font

Open Sans is a friendly font that is optimized for legibility across digital interfaces. This font family is used across the entire site, and was also used in creating the Stareable logo. We also use Museo as our secondary font—mostly for marketing materials and sub-brand logos (such as Stareable Fest).

brand colors

I saw color as an opportunity to differentiate Stareable from common streaming platforms, such as neutral YouTube and dark Netflix. As we hosted meet-ups to get to know our community, we noticed some common traits start to surface. The majority of the creators we connected with were young, light-hearted, risk-taking, playful, and just a bit irreverent. Our brand colors are a reflection of these qualities. Plus, what’s more “stareable” than bright yellow?!

forget the box podcast

I designed the logo for our podcast, as well as the episode art that we use to promote across our social media channels. “Forget the Box” is a nod to our mission to help creators bypass the filters of traditional television.

stareable fest 2018

Our inaugural web series festival took place in July 2018. As the new kid on the film festival block, we wanted to make a splash. (Having a bright yellow step-and-repeat helped!) I designed everything from the festival badges, to the signage, to the programs.

year in review

2018 was a biggie: we organized our first festival; we moved into our first office; we launched several new features; we all made Stareable our full-time job. These are some illustrations I made to commemorate some of our milestones:

new year, new look

As our platform became more sophisticated, I felt restricted by our minimal color palette. In keeping with our playful vibe, I developed a more versatile set of colors to use across our products and marketing materials. (Yellow and grapefruit remain our primary brand colors.)

At the beginning of 2019, I re-designed the Stareable landing page to highlight our new tools and drive web series creators to join our community. I also refreshed our “About Us” page to better align with our new look and feel.