In late 2019 and early 2020, Circle sunset, sold, or spun out every one of its consumer products, and dedicated itself to building B2B USDC services. Naturally, it was time for a rebrand! Though I had left the company months before, my friend and former colleague Kristine asked me to once again define the company’s illustrative brand—this time as a freelancer.

When I joined Circle as a product designer, I was hired, in part, for my background in illustration. But that “nice to have” soon became my central focus. I’ve spent years defining and evolving the Circle illustrative brand, cementing its place in our products, website, marketing campaigns, and more.

In 2018, CENTRE launched USD Coin, a stablecoin pegged to the value of the US Dollar. Less than a month later, Coinbase joined Circle to formally found the CENTRE consortium, and with that announcement came a whole new look for USDC. That’s right: even the most diehard crypto fan might not realize that for the first four weeks of its life, the world’s largest, fastest-growing stablecoin had a completely different visual identity. So who’s the poor sap who designed that first logo?

[cough cough]

Circle was founded on the belief that blockchain technology could usher in a more open and inclusive global economy. But such a future can’t be built within the walls of a private company. It requires open standards and partnerships. That’s why, in 2017, Circle announced CENTRE, a “foundation, open source project, protocol, and network aimed at breaking down the barriers which cost us money and time to connect to each other financially.”

When I joined Circle as its third product designer, Circle Pay was available on iOS, Android, and the web. With my arrival, each designer could focus on a single platform. In my case, that meant our oldest app, Circle Pay for web. As I tackled the design of new features, I also sought to untangle inconsistencies, improve our internal design and development workflows, and build a solid, scalable foundation for the app’s future.

With the limitations of a small design team, early versions of Circle Pay primarily relied upon off-the-shelf icon sets. But after I joined and began creating illustrations for product and brand, I soon set my sights on icons. I made a few as needed, but replacing the old set entirely wasn't worth the design and development commitment. But with Circle Invest, I was there from the beginning.

One evening, I stumbled upon a video of an elaborate cardboard LEGO minifig costume. As fantastic as it was, I recall thinking that “costume” was generous, as the person within couldn’t actually walk. I set out to design and build my own version, complete with fully-functioning legs. But I couldn’t make just *any* LEGO character… it was Halloween, after all. I decided to work in black (and sometimes, very dark gray). This is the story of the LEGO Batman of Boston.

As a financial tech startup, Circle’s apps have always needed to represent currency. Circle Pay got its start as a Bitcoin wallet, and within a couple years added US Dollars, British Pounds, and Euros. Custom icons were made for these four currencies, showing up throughout the app and its marketing.

But Circle Invest called for even more. The app offers _thirteen_ different crypto assets. Presenting these disparate crypto projects in a coherent and consistent way would advance Invest's mission to make crypto more approachable. I set out to create a unified set of crypto icons. Easier said than done…

In early 2019, Circle’s chief evangelist Anders Brownworth and I collaborated on an animated educational video. The project's goal was to demonstrate how USD Coin could facilitate fast, low-cost international transfers between exchanges.

Circle Invest isn’t just the best way to buy crypto, it’s the best way to learn about it. The "Explore" section of our app features approachable, informative content to help you develop your understanding of the world of blockchain. For each article, I’ve created a unique editorial illustration.

In addition to my usual product design and illustration duties at Circle, I have a fun little side project: creating custom wallpapers for my colleagues' phones. Each illustration features a few of our unofficial mascots, a crew of adorable crustaceans. What started as a monthly project has since become quarterly, as I kept getting more and more ambitious. So much for a "side project!"

In early 2017, I collaborated with my colleagues on Circle's brand team to create a short video about Circle Pay’s cross-border capabilities. Holly led on copy, Kristine art directed, and I created the visuals using Keynote as a motion graphics editor.

Circle's Boston team moved into a new office in the summer of 2017. I was excited to produce a mural for our cafe, bringing the spirit of Circle Pay to the central point of our office.

In 2013, a team within Intel’s R&D division called the “Perceptual Computing Group” approached Fresh Tilled Soil with a curious bit of technology: a depth-sensing camera that could recognize objects in 3D space. Paired with the right software, this would enable computers to understand human hand gestures. My colleagues and I designed and developed a fully-functioning prototype application that would demonstrate the technology’s extraordinary potential.

In 2015, Fresh Tilled Soil celebrated its tenth anniversary. To set the course for the next ten years, I proposed that we revisit the company’s branding and identity. With most of our energy focused on clients, our own marketing collateral and website updates were squeezed into the margins, and the identity lacked a cohesive visual system. Leadership agreed, and soon Fresh Tilled Soil itself became my sole client.

For more than 80 years, Titleist has made “the #1 ball in golf.” The storied company came to Fresh Tilled Soil with a website that had grown too cumbersome; it was inflexible, mobile unfriendly, and in need of a visual and UX overhaul. Our team set out to craft a modern, fully responsive site that captured the brand’s timeless classicism. I worked alongside some of Fresh Tilled Soil's most senior creative talent, and contributed to the project's visual design, conceptual development, wireframing, prototyping, icon design, and more.

From 2012–2015, I co-hosted and co-produced Fresh Tilled Soil's podcast alongside my colleagues Tim Wright and Steve Hickey. Over the course of 150+ episodes we interviewed extraordinary leaders from Pentagram, Twitter, NASA JPL, Adobe, Etsy, Mozilla, Basecamp, Shopify, and more. Our goal was to produce an engaging and timeless resource for product desigers, entrepreneurs, and developers, carefully balancing education and entertainment.

On October 1, 2013, Fresh Tilled Soil held its first annual UX Fest. The event brought together Boston's UX community to explore how every aspect of a business–from design and technology to marketing and strategy–contributes to the user experience. The event was a success, and a year later, we held an encore. I’m proud to have helped conceive of and organize these events, contributed to the creative collateral, and led sessions.

Since I joined Fresh Tilled Soil in 2012, the company has known four offices: two headquarters and two satellites. It's been my joy to illustrate them all for our website, to capture the architectural spirit of each environment. From brick-and-beam New England mills to downtown San Francisco, they presented unique challenges and opportunities.

When Fresh Tilled Soil made coded style guides a standard deliverable, they produced a simple framework to simplify the process of making them. When it came time to open source the project, it needed a name and a logo. Corkscrew was born, and along with it, a fun little duck.