DeepL Bridges - Sistema de Marca da Comunidade

O DeepL Bridges é a plataforma de comunidade global da empresa. Ela precisava de um sistema de marca que pudesse expressar comunidade, colaboração e valores compartilhados em torno dos produtos do DeepL.

Meu papel

Designer de identidade visual, Ilustrador

Equipe

Ilustradora: Carolina Alárcon Gestor de comunidade: Tim Cadenbach Diretor de Arte: Wolf Strack, Ana Rodrigues

Link para o projeto ↗

A sub-brand, not a campaign

The brief asked for a branding system for the DeepL global community. Not a set of one-off assets, but a visual language that could express community, collaboration, and shared values across every part of the platform, and keep working as the community grew.

Stretching the system without stating the obvious

DeepL's isometric language was designed for product and marketing scenes. The community needed something more complex: multiple areas, each with its own character, all visibly connected. The core challenge was exploring that system and expanding its capabilities far enough to carry those scenes without breaking the brand.

The second challenge was legibility. Every community area needed to be recognisable at a glance, but the obvious route, a line of code for developers or a dictionary for culture, would have been literal and flat. Finding a visual shorthand that reads instantly while still feeling considered was the harder half of the work.

Not used concept, DeepL Hivee

A imagem mostra uma ilustração digital com edifícios futuristas, turbinas eólicas e cubos flutuantes sobre um fundo roxo com o texto "Hivee The Deep's community", ao lado de um encarte menor com duas imagens de perfil e ícones geométricos.

First ideas and experimentation

A imagem apresenta uma ilustração abstrata de um caminho elevado e futurista semelhante a pontes, conectando plataformas com formas geométricas e turbinas eólicas, em um fundo minimalista salpicado de nuvens em tons de azul e roxo.

The community reached 1,500 members by March 2026

Bridges won on meaning, not on style

We pitched three concepts. The strongest alternative was a hive: bees as a community that only thrives together. Bridges won because they are transitional structures: they connect separate points and enable passage between places that might otherwise never meet. For a company built on language and connection, the metaphor did more work.

Each illustration is built around interconnected pillars. Green marks community spaces, dark blue marks development areas. The connections between them are the point of the composition, so the system reads as one place rather than a set of separate rooms.

Meaning lives in the props

The culture section is not a dictionary or a flag. It is an L-shaped couch and a coffee table, an invitation to sit and talk. The meet and greet is not two figures waving. It is an espresso machine with two carts arriving. The detail carries the meaning, so the illustration stays open rather than instructional.

The system also deliberately avoids literal people and national flags. That keeps cultural bias out of the artwork and lets a global audience identify with the scenes rather than look for themselves in them.

Modular by construction

Built in Figma on a component-based structure, every element is reusable: cubes, pillars, platforms, bridges. New assets can be assembled from existing parts without drifting from the system. Proportions are intentionally non-realistic, with scale used expressively to keep the focus on relationships between elements rather than on the objects themselves.