Note: Visuals for this case study are still in progress. Due to NDAs, any visual asset will be recreated or obfuscated before they're added.
Six months into the engagement, we hit a scope and timeline constraint. Building out a full graphing library to visualize progress would have pushed the launch date back too far. Rather than cut the feature or delay the release, I designed two illustrated characters, each with their own name, personality, and expressive states, to help users temporarily visualize their progress toward their water usage goals until we could implement the graphing library.
The characters were shared throughout the organization, and before we knew it, it caught fire: global marketing, TV ads, sales collateral, and reportedly even a plush toy. They ended up carrying the brand’s tone into places design never originally touched.
The mascots were eventually retired during a later brand refresh. But the character system I designed in 2020 as a six-month workaround outlived its original brief: one character’s name and personality carried forward, becoming the foundation of the company’s AI chatbot identity in 2025 — five years after a scrappy fix became lasting brand infrastructure.