The story
What was broken
The landing page audit made the problem concrete fast. Over ten pages, Ghostie appeared in at least as many different forms - flat icon-derived shapes with no depth, experimental color variants that had drifted from the brand palette, one full 3D render that had no relationship to anything else on the site. None of it was documented. No one had signed off on a direction. Each version had been created in isolation, for a specific project, and left in place.
The downstream effects were predictable. Without a defined character, every new campaign required a bespoke illustration built from scratch. Without guidelines, whoever created it made their own call on style, color, and expression. The result was visual drift at scale - a mascot that looked different depending on which team had last touched it and when.
The character itself had real limitations too. The original Ghostie was derived directly from the logo icon - a shape optimized for a single small application, not for storytelling. It had almost no emotional range, which made it a poor fit for campaigns that needed to express humor, empathy, or seasonal themes. Flat rendering made it look dated in premium contexts. And without a library of poses, every expression had to be invented from scratch.
What I decided and why
The core decision was to redesign Ghostie entirely rather than attempt to reconcile the existing variants. There was no version worth standardizing on - the right move was a clean foundation that the brand could actually scale from.
The harder conversation was about what to do with everything already out there. The stakeholders were genuinely excited about the new direction - the updated Ghostie had personality the original lacked, and that translated directly to marketing. But replacing every existing asset across channels, campaigns, and landing pages was a real concern. The question on the table was whether doing it right would delay active projects.
My answer was to sequence it. New projects got the new Ghostie from day one. Existing assets got replaced progressively, worked into the natural cadence of updates and redesigns rather than treated as a separate replacement project. That framing got the stakeholders on board - it wasn't a delay, it was a rollout. Within three months, 90% of asset requests were coming through the new system.
The design itself kept the core silhouette - the shape was recognizable and worth protecting - while rebuilding everything else. Modular body shapes, dynamic poses, a defined set of expressions built from customizable eye shapes and facial cues. Consistent shading with a single light source. A prop and accessory system for themed campaigns. And a mascot style guide that gave every team, including the illustration team, a single reference to work from.
I personally produced the initial redesign and over 300 illustration variations before the system was handed off. The illustrators who came on later extended it well - adding hand motion variations, character animation, and a more dynamic body range - but the foundation held.
What shipped
A complete illustration system: redesigned Ghostie, modular pose and expression library, themed props, usage guidelines, and a categorized internal asset library any designer could pull from. Over 600 assets deployed across affiliate, social, product, and growth channels. Production time down 40%, measured against Jira task data. And a mascot that the brand's marketing has continued to build on.
