Designing an Illustration System
Designing Air, the mascot for Airlearn, was an unusually high-stakes challenge. We were entering a space already dominated by a deeply charismatic and culturally embedded character in Duolingo’s owl.
The goal was not to out-entertain or imitate, but to clearly differentiate. Air needed to feel warm, human, and emotionally present, without leaning into gimmicks or visual noise. From day one, the brief was precise: build a character that could carry trust, motivation, and long-term companionship across a serious learning journey, not just short-term delight.
Iterating Toward Emotional Clarity.
Reaching that balance required extensive iteration. We explored dozens of directions across form, expression, proportions, color, and emotional range, testing everything from more illustrative and expressive variants to quieter, minimal forms. Each iteration was evaluated not just on visual appeal, but on scalability across product surfaces: onboarding, empty states, streak moments, emotional nudges, and celebratory milestones. Small decisions, such as eye shape, facial geometry, or how much detail was “too much,” had outsized impact on how the character felt at scale and over repeated use.
From Character to Brand System.
The final version of Air emerged as a deliberately restrained yet expressive design. Clean, minimal, and instantly readable, Air was built to be emotionally adaptive without becoming distracting. This restraint became the foundation of Airlearn’s broader branding system, influencing illustration style, tone, motion, and storytelling across the product. What began as a mascot design exercise ultimately shaped a cohesive visual language, one that prioritizes clarity, warmth, and longevity in a crowded and highly competitive learning space.
