Hey Billy is a platform documenting the reality of Billy's life in the U.S. as a young HMong Shaman and a movement to educate and preserve HMong culture and traditional practices. In this partnership, my role is to deconstruct ideas to gain clarity on critical topics, provide creative + digital insight, and create a brand that represents Billy's many intersecting identities. For this rebrand, we wanted to dive into Billy's personality more. Displaying a photo of Billy in the display photo instead of just using the logo to show that he is more than just a shaman, but also a person in their 20s who is just trying to live life. I wanted to capture the essence of Billy's character all in one: whimsy, young, bold, empathetic, and spiritual.
Rebranding
The name and the branding were created with the consideration of how communications with Billy are typically executed when asking for a favor: in this generation, it was usually through a text with a gentle gratitude. In the development of the identity, the goal was to develop a brand that was inviting and spoke out to folks, but also showcased credibility and seriousness. The first logo created for Hey Billy was created with heavy considerations of building trust, responsiveness, and credibility. However, after a few years, we gained a better understanding of the primary audience we initiated a rebrand. Below is a deconstruction of how the rebranding was thought out.
After taking a closer look at the logo I concluded that we needed to uplift the messaging of openness and move forward to a bolder and more contemporary look. Adding personality and spiritual connection to the identity using bold colors and choosing a futuristic-styled font to embody youth. The lightning bolt was incorporated in connection to spirituality and shamanism.
Digital Design
My goal is to design with social media in mind to help support engagement, understanding, relation, and education of Hey Billy content. To begin we started with creating the basics.
Display Photo
Using Billy's face to identify the person behind the keyboard, we wanted to also use colors of the brand and create a humanistic and fun approach to show that it's not as serious as it always seems, shamans have other hobbies too.
General Posts
Creating a gradient backdrop and basic layout structure for Billy to use to help with building a more cohesive brand without always having to rely on a designer. We also hope to tie the whimsy-spiritual theme back and to help folks identify that this is something related to Hey Billy.
Exclusive from general content for Hey Billy, I also help with project-based social media decks. Each deck created has its own unique style while still relating to the brand because each carousel is a campaign of its own.
House Spirits Series
This is 1 out of the 5 "Dab Vaj Dab Tsev series(house spirits)". Each deck showcases the spirit(s) of the house, its specialties, backstory, skill level, and location. Two versions were created to engage folks on different platforms: Instagram and Facebook.
Instagram
Features a closeup selfie of the character as a way to peak viewers' interest and to easily navigate when viewing on the profile grid. The deck provides a background of the spirit with each slide allowing folks to quickly scan and one full-text slide for folks to read to learn more. The map is strategically a different color to stop folks from taking a closer look.
Facebook
At first glance, it seems like a brief introduction to a character, but this graphic fills up your screen revealing more to viewers interested in learning more. This graphic is built with the intention to easily save to reference later.
HMong New Year Hu Plig
Using real objects used during a traditional HMong New Year Hu Plig, we hope to catch the attention of folks to stop and scroll through the deck to see and connect to the items. Designing this deck, we also wanted to hint at the change in direction for the new logo.
HMong Ghosts
Focuses on the idea of a researcher sketching what they have seen/experienced. In this first series, we hope to show some "found" research on mythical beings with the open design concept of being able to bring this deck back in the future to introduce more creatures found. Each page features a sketch and a brief introduction to each creature.
Calling Home
This is the kickoff illustration for Hey Billy and the New Year. The was created to connect and also introduce viewers to get an understanding of Hey Billy.
Follow Billy's journey and learn more via Facebook.