Celsius Brand Expression
Financial empowerment in the palm of your hand.

Celsius was a crypto-based financial services platform which let members earn, borrow and send nearly every available cryptocurrency.

I partnered with Celsius to design and launch an updated brand identity so they could appeal to new customers and differentiate themselves from other cryptocurrency platforms.

Since our engagement, Celsius filed for bankruptcy protection, resulting in significant losses for many, including myself. The issues with Celsius were unknown during our engagement, and I stand by the quality of work based on the information available at the time.

Working closely with the Celsius team, we crafted a brand expression that prioritized transparency and ease-of-use. The design was simple, intuitive and dynamic, and it reflected the brand’s promise at the time of a more modern way for members to manage their finances.

An image depicting Celsius's logo brand mark in full color, which is a gradient of pink and blue

A colorful vision of the future of finance

Celsius invited my team to extend their brand’s vocabulary and strategy for digital touchpoints, so that every product and service would align with their mission and ambition. This work coincided with the initiatives I led for the Celsius Web and Mobile apps.

Content Strategy
Information Architecture
UX/UI Design
Art Direction
Visual Design
Creative Direction
Motion Design

Challenge: Rise above the rest

Celsius wanted their identity to welcome everyone, from crypto-natives to excited newcomers, and stand out from the unremarkable design of competing platforms and traditional financial institutions.

Be approachable and welcoming to all

My team and I captured the excitement and energy surrounding cryptocurrency and infused it directly into Celsius’s identity with a focus on what our research determined mattered most to their community: transparency.

Our information-centric strategy explained every activity in plain language, free from jargon, acronyms, and abbreviations, so that members feel confident and in control of their financial decisions.

Bold but human typography

Pangram Sans was selected for its approachable stylistic traits that marry legibility and strong numerals with a slight bit of quirk, aligning with Celsius’s slightly off-center personality.

An image depicting an advertisement for Celsius which incorporates large bold text with an image of friends lying down, cropped into a circle, with the call-to-action to sign up today
An image depicting an advertisement for Celsius promoting the mobile app
An image depicting key values for Celsius's holdings as a means of showing the brand identity's approach to typography and visual design, including scale, use of negative space, and the grid system

A lively color palette

Energetic colors intentionally opposed the lifeless palette of typical financial applications, and mixed bright blue for trust with electric pink for the love of one’s self.

An image collage of the colors in Celsius's color palette

A clear structure

Information hierarchy drove the design of Celsius’s products. We created a system that stripped the details down to their essentials, and made use of scale and negative space for efficient communication. Time is money afterall.

A close-up crop of Celsius's platform dashboard, intended to show the attention to detail regarding typography, color, layout, negative space, and the grid system
A close-up crop of Celsius's platform dashboard, intended to show the attention to detail regarding typography, color, layout, negative space, and the grid system
An image depicting a close-up of the design of a coin possession card on the Celsius platform, intended to communicate the attention to detail regarding typography and the grid system.

Icons

A family of icons were constructed from simple linework, evocative of financial charts and graphs. Commonly accepted elements aided comprehension, and created consistent interaction points across Celsius’s multiple platforms.

An animated gif displaying several icons which were custom designed for Celsius's identity
An image depicting a close-up of the design of a coin list on the Celsius platform, intended to communicate the attention to detail regarding typography and the grid system.
An image depicting a close-up of the design of a coin list on the Celsius platform, intended to communicate the attention to detail regarding typography and the grid system.
An image of a mobile device depicting Celsius's logo without its name, set in white on a color background, which is a gradient of pink and blue
An image of a mobile device depicting the detail screen for an individual cryptocurrency coin, in Celsius's regular white color palette, over top of a pink to blue gradient background
An image depicting a close-up of the design of a loan terms option on the Celsius platform, intended to communicate the attention to detail regarding typography and the grid system.
An image depicting a close-up of the design of a coin swap interaction on the Celsius platform, intended to communicate the attention to detail regarding typography and the grid system.
An image depicting a close-up of the design of a coin possession card on the Celsius platform, intended to communicate the attention to detail regarding typography and the grid system.
An image detailing the design of three buttons from Celsius's platform, laid over top of a blue background. The buttons are different colors, with the top having a pink to blue gradient background with white text, the middle being white with blue text, and the last being a white outline with white text
An image detailing the design of three buttons from Celsius's platform, laid over top of a light blue background. The buttons are different colors, with the top having a pink to blue gradient background with white text, the middle being blue with white text, and the last being a blue outline with blue text

Illustrations

Imaginative illustrations brought Celsius’s personality to life, and employed visual metaphors to be both evocative and instructive.

An illustration created for Celsius's 404 page depicting a post with directional signs pointing in all directions, and asking the user if they are lost
An image of a mobile device depicting the detail screen for potential interest earnings, in night mode, over top of a pink to blue gradient background
An image of a mobile device depicting the detail screen for an individual cryptocurrency coin, in night mode, over top of a light background color
An image depicting a close-up of the design of a coin value chart on the Celsius platform, intended to communicate the attention to detail regarding typography and the grid system.
An image depicting a close-up of the design of a transaction interaction on the Celsius platform, intended to communicate the attention to detail regarding typography and the grid system.
An image depicting an advertisement for Celsius which incorporates large bold text with an image of a father and his child, cropped into a circle, with the call-to-action to sign up today
An illustration created for Celsius depicting falling coins with an eyeball in front. Images like these were used for various communications on the platform
An image depicting the design of Celsius's credit card

A brand that encouraged imagination

We heard repeatedly from members that they saw themselves in Celsius, and are excited to be part of such a vibrant and friendly community.

My team and I helped Celsius create this welcoming ecosystem for its customers, driving engagement with an identity that fostered brand loyalty and promoted platform expansion.