Greenplaces: Illustrating a Brand Built on People
How I created an illustration system that humanized a brand built on its people
Illustration systems
Brand identity
The short version
I built an illustration system to make Greenplaces feel human, as part of Final Final's rebrand.
Greenplaces helps everyday businesses, like restaurants, coffee shops, and startups, measure and cut their carbon footprint. Its competitors look like enterprise software; its advantage is its people.
It started with one character, Littlefoot, and grew into seven kinds of illustration drawn with one hand. After handoff, the Greenplaces team kept using it on their own.
THE CHALLENGE
People are the advantage
The climate software space looks cold: glossy enterprise platforms, big numbers, stock photos of forests and data centers.
Greenplaces is different. It's for businesses without a sustainability team, and its edge is the people behind it, who guide customers through every step.
The brand needed to feel like those people: warm, approachable, a little funny, and never preachy.
THE CHARACTER
Hello, Littlefoot
The Greenplaces founder had been toying with the idea of a bigfoot mascot. I designed her, and made her a lady.
She has a snaggle tooth, fur, a prominent brow, eyelashes, and four fingers and toes on each hand and foot.
Hello Littlefoot!
She started with a round, green body and cartoonish legs in the first week. Within another week the face kit had grown from a couple of eyes and mouths into a full set of expressions, so the character could react to anything. The only problem? Littlefoot really needed some realistic feet to sell the idea.
Early sketches from November 2023, and the face kit.
She's very expressive, so I built her as a kit: a full turnaround and a set of faces, arms, and poses, so the team could put her in any situation without redrawing her.
The turnaround.
Faces.
Arms and hands.
Legs and feet.
Littlefoot, skateboarding to work.
PUTTING HER TO WORK
Tiny climate acts
To show how Littlefoot could carry a message, I put her to work on small, doable climate actions, like "Bring your own bag" and "Skateboard to work."
Bring your own bag.
THE STYLE
Everything from one marker
Every illustration has a hand-crafted marker texture, so the brand feels human and approachable.
No fine lines: everything should look like it came from the same marker. Three drawing rules keep it consistent, no matter who's drawing:
Broken lines
Small breaks give a sketched feel.
Overdrawn lines
Lines that run past each other feel hand-made.
Imperfect shapes
People don't draw perfect circles, so neither do we.
THE SYSTEM
A rule for every size
I organized the system into seven types, from tiny to full scene, each with its own size, stroke weight, color rules, and how often it can appear. Littlefoot is the first.
Seven kinds of illustration, one hand.
HEROES
Full-color scenes for banners and editorial
Full-color scenes with 2–6px strokes for depth. One per section.
SPOT ILLUSTRATIONS
Line drawings for empty states and big ideas
Line drawings with 2–3 colors, for empty states and complex ideas. One per section.
Heroes.
Spot illustrations.
MARKETING ICONS
One color, one 4px stroke
1-color line drawings for simple ideas, plus a library organized by the industries Greenplaces serves, from restaurants and retail to transportation and energy.
MINIS
48px add-ons for context and delight
Tiny add-ons, like sparkles and symbols, that add context or delight to icons.
Marketing icons.
The minis.
The minis customize the larger icons.
Icons for every industry Greenplaces serves.
HIGHLIGHTS
Freehand underlines and circles
Scribbles that draw attention to words. One or two per section.
DOODLES
Doodles by Littlefoot
Small, chunky marks for dense information. The rule: imagine you're Littlefoot, mischievously doodling on Greenplaces' materials.
Highlights and scribbles.
Doodles by Littlefoot.
In use
On the website and in the product
On the website and in the product, the illustrations do the warm work: markups under "Good for business. Good for the planet.", circled stats, and spot illustrations beside the copy.
Illustration in the web expression. Page design by the web designer on the team.
Headshot doodles.
Doodles framing a speaker.
Markups on the website. Page design by the web designer on the team.
The system in an ebook.
BEYOND ILLUSTRATION
Texture, shape, and motion
Beyond illustration, I created the brand's textures and shapes, the marks that tie layouts together, and its motion.
I also designed the Greenplaces presentation template and social and print layouts, and helped bring the illustration textures into the website.
The presentation template.
Ad concept.
Ad concept.
THE RESULT
Still going without me
The real test of a system is whether it works without you.
After we handed it over, the Greenplaces team kept using it on their own: Littlefoot thinking through a sustainability report on their homepage, a #TinyClimateActs social series ("Day 1: Bring your own grocery bag"), illustrated blog banners, and an ebook.
Made by the Greenplaces team with the system.
Made by the Greenplaces team with the system.
A blog banner, made by the Greenplaces team.
An ebook page, made by the Greenplaces team.
What I learned
A system is a set of decisions, not a pile of drawings
Clear rules for size, stroke, color, and frequency are what let a client keep going without you.
Imperfection needs rules too
“Hand-drawn” only stays consistent when you define how the hand misbehaves.
A mascot is a kit
Faces, hands, and poses turned Littlefoot from one drawing into a character the team could use for years.
