case study - design, illustration

Grow with Google - Mindfulness IG Stories

overview

During the pandemic, Grow with Google and @lifeatgoogle interviewed Google employees for mindfulness tips they used to cope with working from home. By sharing these tips as a series of illustrated Instagram stories, they hoped to help people working from home everywhere.

Team

Art Direction - Diogo Montes
Design - Taylor Baldry, Diana Liu

Task

We were given the written responses and had to adapt them into illustrations. Client particularly liked the hand writing style, as it adds a personal touch to the series. In the early days of the pandemic when many people were isolated, it was important to make people feel the human connection.

Process

We used a simple and bold illustration style since these stories are only 30 seconds long. In order to illustrate abstract concepts such as mindfulness, stress, and relaxation, we broke apart the scenes to bring in a touch of abstraction that borders magical realism. The overall color scheme was pastel, setting a soothing, relaxed tone to the series. We used bright colors only sparingly, to add a bit of light-heartedness during a really stressful time. The text was written by hand in Procreate.

Series 1 -

The first series of IG stories featuring illustrations and hand-written responses were well received by Google’s viewers. Many people related to the tips and found them useful. It was also helpful for people to see others who were experiencing similar issues. The team followed up with further questions on Instagram.

Series 2 -

A second series of IG stories were developed based on the responses we received from Series 1. We picked the 4 most popular answers for this series. Since this series has less text, it allowed for greater freedom for the illustrations.

Series 3 -

The first 2 series performed well, and Google planned for a 3rd series with responses from new Google interns (hence the Noogler hats on photos). For many people, it was a confusing experience to start a new internship completely remote, having to learn new tasks while never meeting your team members. It was helpful for the interns develop a sense of community by sharing these tips. Since this series targeted a younger audience, the illustration took on more fluid shapes and fun elements.