Brief
Fable was a web-based motion design tool aimed at making animation more accessible to designers, marketers, and creatives, without requiring advanced software like After Effects.
When I joined Fable in 2022 it lacked a cohesive visual identity. I took on the role of Brand Motion Designer and set out to reign in our branding including typography, color, illustration and general art direction.
Color
My first priority was refining our color palette. While the original Fable colors were functional, they lacked the energy Fable aimed to convey. Rather than completely reinventing the brand’s identity, I focused on sharpening and refining its aesthetic.
I started by intensifying our primary colors to bring more vibrancy to the composition. Then, I expanded the palette with lively hues that complemented the core colors, adding depth and dynamism.
Original Palette
New Color Palette, Color Proportion and Color Interaction
Art Direction & Styleframes
Adjusting the colors was a great start, but the real challenge was translating this palette into compelling content.
I developed a series of illustrations to establish the visual identity of our illustrative content while also refining and testing the new color palette. My goal was to give Fable a clean, bold look while preserving the geometric qualities of the brand’s original artwork. I aimed for compositions that were engaging without relying on overly complex shapes or literal representations—abstract yet purposeful.
Brand Guide
With a significantly stronger brand direction in place, I updated our brand guide to incorporate fresh new color guidelines, such as color proportion and color interaction. Additionally, I refined our typography guidelines, streamlining our font choices to a select few weights for a simpler yet more efficient usage.
Motion
All of our branding efforts were put to the test with our next project: redesigning Fable’s website.
My primary focus was on designing and animating diverse content tailored to each section of the site. At this point our product team was still hard at work developing Fable’s updated UI so in this iteration of the site we wanted to keep things a little more abstract rather than showcasing soon-to-be-outdated UI.
The objective behind these animations was to spotlight some of Fable's capabilities in an engaging and colorful manner, striking a balance between fun and functionality without becoming overly literal.
My primary focus was on designing and animating diverse content tailored to each section of the site. At this point our product team was still hard at work developing Fable’s updated UI so in this iteration of the site we wanted to keep things a little more abstract rather than showcasing soon-to-be-outdated UI.
The objective behind these animations was to spotlight some of Fable's capabilities in an engaging and colorful manner, striking a balance between fun and functionality without becoming overly literal.
For the features page I crafted small illustrations to represent the various tools and functionalities within Fable. This was a good opportunity to let our secondary palette shine, but also to experiment with our design and ability to showcase complex tools with simple shapes.
The website redesign was a huge success and breathed new life into Fable's digital home. The vibrant colors, clean but bold designs and fun motion revitalized Fable's online identity increasing user engagement and duration of visits.
Thumbnails
Another recipient of our new branding were our multiple social platforms. New thumbnails were designed to give a fresh new look to our videos and keep a cohesive look and feel across all social media.
Emojis
Once it was all said and done I decided to take a bit of a detour and create some branded emojis for our slack channel. Did we need a bunch of new emojis? Probably not, but I thought it would be a nice exercise to create small designs that we could all use as a team.
At this point in time Fable has moved onto a third iteration of it’s website, and even though the design and content philosophy has shifted to a more mature aesthetic, I’m happy to have played a key role in shaping this brand's visual style and direction. I hope you enjoyed this little piece of our journey as much as I did!
