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Over three years, I partnered with Indeed’s Brand Systems and Internal Creative Agency to develop an illustration system that felt authentic to users and intuitive for designers. With 300+ components and comprehensive guidance, we built a human-centered style that integrates seamlessly into Indeed’s design ecosystem.
Inspired by the imperfect, tactile feel of paper, we developed “Paper Stories,” a style that brought depth and authenticity to our illustrations. By setting parameters for lighting, shadow, and texture, we made it easy for designers to create figures that felt 3D to the digital space, and ensured that the visuals grew seamlessly with the brand.
Indeed’s “Janus” design system started as a product-specific tool but gradually spread across the brand. An audit we conducted revealed that with no clear guidelines, different teams adapted it in their own ways, creating a scattered, inconsistent illustration style.
From circling want ads to handing in a résumé, paper has always been part of the job search. So we started with collage to explore how cut paper in particular, with its texture and imperfections, could add that human touch our early brand was missing.
Tonally, we wanted our illustrations to celebrate all stages of the jobseeker journey. We understood that the job search process is daunting, so our illustrations should make even small product moments (like setting up your inbox)feel special.
Authenticity was goal number one. We wanted to create an illustration brand that represented people as they are, and avoided tech tropes of the time. “No tubey purple people” became our shorthand for creating authentic characters.
To achieve this goal we went to the source, drawing directly from event photography to capture the essence of real job seekers. Realism became our north star, allowing us to create human illustrations that looked, well... human.
"The highlight of the project for me are the illustrations as they walk a fine line of being corporate and artsy through their more realistic depiction — no exaggerated limbs or missing noses or weird proportions — of people but filled in with a lovely texture and given some nice dimensionality with subtle shadowing."
One challenge of building 3D scenes in a 2D space is depth. While we didn’t want to go so far as to mimic a diorama (though we did try it early on), we did want our heroes and spots to have a sense of space.
Our solve: build out a robust library of branded shapes to ground illustrations. Smaller spot illustrations were designated by a single background shape, while larger heroes combined shapes to create bigger, more dynamic backgrounds.
A big part of bringing a believable sense of 3D space to our 2D product was light and shadow, which we achieved by setting parameters in figma for gradient, bevel, and shadow elements. This allowed for these elements to be applied easily and consistently at-scale.
Indeed’s early illustrations lacked functional guidelines, so for the rebrand, we focused on defining clear usage rules. We developed our spot illustration library using a Small–Large scale system, assigning each size to specific roles within the product.
As a global brand, Indeed needed an illustration system that resonated across markets. After defining our core style, we partnered with product teams in regions like Japan and India to understand local needs and adapt the system within the context of the rebrand.
All brands evolve—and ours was no exception. As we matured into our new product style, we gathered feedback from the teams using it and revisited key elements to strengthen the system. Evolving from a cut-paper-inspired look to one rooted in the textures of printmaking, we arrived at a direction that’s more flexible, scalable, mobile-friendly, and distinctly Indeed.