Bringing a Brand to Life for Young Audiences and Their Parents
When a fast-growing children's activity startup approached Helion 360, they had a clear vision: a brand that would feel magical and trustworthy at the same time. Their platform connected families with local after-school programs, weekend workshops, and creative classes for kids aged 4–12. The problem? Their existing visual identity was flat, inconsistent, and doing nothing to convey the energy and joy that their service promised. They needed a complete creative overhaul — one that would resonate with curious kids and confidence-seeking parents alike.
The Challenge
The startup operated across multiple digital touchpoints — a web platform, a mobile app, social media channels, and email campaigns. Each channel had developed its own informal aesthetic over time, resulting in a fragmented brand experience. There were no cohesive brand guidelines, no defined illustration style, and no animated assets to support promotional campaigns. With a Series A funding round on the horizon and a major partnership announcement planned, the team needed everything — and they needed it fast.
Defining the Visual Language
We began with an intensive brand discovery sprint, facilitating workshops with the founding team and conducting competitive analysis across the children's education and entertainment landscape. From this, we established three core brand pillars: Playful Energy, Trusted Warmth, and Creative Discovery. These pillars informed every design decision that followed.
We developed a primary color palette anchored by a vibrant tangerine orange and a soothing sky blue, supported by soft secondary tones that ensured accessibility across all formats. The custom typeface pairing balanced a rounded, friendly display font with a clean sans-serif for body copy — readable for parents, charming for kids.
Stickers, Banners, and a Living Asset Library
One of the most impactful deliverables was a comprehensive sticker pack — over 40 hand-illustrated digital stickers featuring original characters, activity icons, and celebratory motifs. These stickers were deployed across the mobile app, in-app reward systems, and social media engagement campaigns, immediately boosting user interaction rates.
We designed a full suite of digital banners in multiple sizes optimized for Google Display, Meta, and in-app placements. Each banner family followed strict brand templates while allowing flexibility for seasonal and promotional messaging. Alongside these, we produced a series of animated assets — looping GIFs and short MP4 clips — that brought the illustrated characters to life. These animations were used in onboarding flows, push notifications, and paid social campaigns.
Delivering Consistency at Scale
To ensure the startup's internal team and future agency partners could maintain brand integrity, we packaged all assets into a structured brand style guide and a Figma-based component library. Every element — from button styles to sticker usage rules — was documented clearly, making handoff seamless and the brand scalable for growth.